Street Fighter 6: Everything we know

There’s a lot riding on Street Fighter 6. After a… lukewarm reception to Street Fighter 5 in 2016, fans eventually came around. An initial release with skeletal content, buggy netcode, and missing characters was slowly but surely stitched together. Bolstered by the release of the popular Champion Edition last year, the feeling in the FGC seems to be that Capcom’s OG franchise is hanging on, but just barely. 

With Tekken 8 and Riot’s Project L both potentially coming out next year, Capcom could really use a hit in Street Fighter 6. The good news for them is that early impressions seem to point toward exactly that. Stylish hip-hop inspired art, an 18-strong release roster, an ambitious-looking campaign mode, and rollback netcode have fans hyped. Here’s what we know. 

What is the Street Fighter 6 release date?

We don’t have a release date for Street Fighter 6 yet, with official communication from Capcom telling us to expect it for PS4/5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC sometime in 2023. However, with the next EVO Japan tournament happening on March 31 and a flurry of new trailers this summer, we could expect it in the spring of 2023. If not, it's likely to land before the bigger EVO event held in Las Vegas in late summer.

We’ll know more after the closed beta in October.

How to play the Street Fighter 6 closed beta test

Applications are currently open for the closed beta for Street Fighter 6, but you’ll have to move quickly: they close on September 30th. Hit the link to apply.

The Street Fighter 6 beta runs from October 7-10, and participants can check out these features: 

• Character creation
• Ranked, Casual, and Battle Hub Matches
• Open Tournaments
• Training Mode
• The Hub Goods Shop
• DJ Booth
• Photo Spot
• Extreme Battles, Game Center, and Challenges that update daily

You have to be 18+ to apply and it requires a Capcom ID. Unfortunately, despite the game being supported on PS4, the beta will only be on PC and newer consoles. The characters available in the beta will be Luke, Jamie, Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile, Kimberly, Juri, and Ken. 

Street Fighter 6 roster: All the confirmed and leaked characters

Street Fighter 6 feels like a homecoming in a number of ways, not the least of which is its initial release roster. It features 18 characters at launch, the first eight of which are the crew from Street Fighter 2: 

• Ryu
• Ken
• Chun-Li
• Dhalsim
• Blanka
• Zangief
• Guile
• E. Honda

Then we have two other longstanding mainstays:

• Cammy
• Dee Jay

Joining them are two younger returning fighters: 

• Luke, the MMA fighter / undercut hairstyle master who rounded out Street Fighter 5's cast and serves as Street Fighter 6's protagonist 
• Juri from Street Fighter 4, who's giving off goth Jinx vibes with her new design

Rounding out the roster are 6 new characters:

• Jamie
• JP
• Lily
• Manon
• Marisa
• Kimberly

We don’t have a ton to go off for most of these guys just yet, but Jamie is a drunken boxer and breakdancer, supposed to be a rival for fellow undercut enthusiast Luke. Kimberly embodies the new entry’s vibe head to toe. She has a neon '80s ninja style replete with a Walkman, Naruto dashes off the walls with her super, and she chucks spray paint cans like ninja stars (at least in the trailer!). I was waiting for her to bust out a smoke bomb in a Bubble Yum canister.

What about leaked characters?

Four more characters were featured in a leak back in June that was acknowledged by Capcom, but they don’t appear to be slated for the initial release. They are:

• Rashid
• Ed
• A.K.I.
• Akuma

We’ll probably see these characters in early DLC.

Street Fighter 6 has a new World tour mode, and more 

Street Fighter 6 revolves around three sections: Fighting Ground, World Tour, and the Battle Hub.

Fighting Ground contains your standard game modes for throwing down. Arcade, Online, Training, and Local Versus are all found here. This is your spot to get straight into the action whether you want to battle the computer, your buddy, someone online, or just train.

World Tour is a new game mode that features heavily in the latest marketing. An open world experience, you get to create your own custom avatar and roam around Metro City doing… stuff? There’s not a lot of detail just yet, but the highlight from the trailers so far is training with some of the series’ longstanding characters. Sifu Chun-Li teaching you the spinning bird kick, wildin’ out with Blanka, and meditating with Ryu all look like awesome Street Fighter moments. I mean, if you’re gonna try and get stronger, you gotta hang with Ryu. He’s been roaming the earth doing exactly that since 1991. You'd think he’d have figured it out by now, actually.

The Battle Hub is SF 6's social space. Here you can cruise around with your avatar, interact with other players, and launch Fighting Ground matches. Each Battle Hub can hold up to 100 players, and you can play some classic Capcom arcade games like Final Fight (or perhaps minigame versions of them) and complete with other players for high scores. The Battle hub will also let players set up tournaments and spectate on competitions.

Here are a bunch of Street Fighter 6 trailers

If you wanna catch the characters in action, there’s lots to choose from. Starting with a teaser back in February but really kicking off with the announcement trailer at PlayStation’s State of Play in June, Capcom’s been busy.

State of Play announcement trailer with game modes, Chun-Li, Ryu, Luke, and Jamie.

Guile gameplay trailer from Summer Game Fest.

Introducing Kimberly and Juri: this gameplay trailer from EVO 2022 introduces us to Kimberly and her retro ninja antics. It also has Juri vamping it up KDA style with a full-on Akira slide.

The trailer from this year’s Tokyo Game Show gives us a deeper look at the World Tour, including some sweet training montages from Chun-Li and Ryu. Gotta love a montage.

Street Fighter 6’s World Tour opening movie finally gives us a shot of all 18 starting characters together. The hype!

The Drive Gauge is Street Fighter 6's big new mechanic

Capcom has tossed out Street Fighter 5's V-Trigger and built a new meter system that combines bits and pieces from just about every Street Fighter before it. The beating heart of Street Fighter 6 is the Drive Gauge, a system that influences everything you do and pushes the action forward.

The Drive gauge has six bars (one for each Street Fighter, these guys thought of everything!). You spend the bars to do cool stuff, and lose it by blocking attacks or getting caught in a punish. If your gauge ever runs out, you enter Burnout mode and lose the ability to do Drive mechanics until it refills. In addition, you take chip damage from everything and get stunned if you get caught in a wall splat. Burnout is no bueno.

To keep from burning out, you have to stay on the offensive. Throwing attacks and having them blocked by your opponent refills your bar, as does catching them in a Punish Counter—a new term for landing perfectly timed hits. If your opponent has started an attack but yours lands first, or if you catch them in a whiff recovery, you get a Punish Counter for extra damage and more Drive.

Drive Mechanics

In addition to keeping you away from burning out, your Drive Gauge can be used for all sorts of cool stuff.

• Drive Parry: Perhaps one day you, too, will have a Daigo moment. Drive Parry lets you parry your opponent’s attacks by pressing both mediums. It costs half a bar up front, but if you successfully parry your bar replenishes. Use this for timing counters, but watch out—if you hold it too long it’ll drain your gauge, and can be punished by throws.
• Drive Rush: Use one bar to execute a Drive Rush, which is a dash that can be used out of a normal cancel and is the heart of most of Street Fighter 6’s sickest combos.
• Drive Reversal: Similar to a V-Reversal from 5, this counterattack can be used after a successful Drive Parry.
• Drive Impact: A powerful wind-up attack with a couple hits of armor, this one looks satisfying. With pushback against blocks and armor up front, this move that costs 1 bar is the ultimate turtle solution. If your opponent tries to catch with a normal and your armor absorbs it, you get a huge slow-mo knockdown and a splat if they’re in the corner. Thump.
• Overdrive: A replacement for EX, this two-bar move powers up your specials and other attacks.

Here are the PC system requirements

Street Fighter 6 has built-in commentators

In a move generally reserved for sports franchises, Street Fighter 6 will feature in-game commentators from the FGC. With confirmed appearances from the likes of Jeremy “Vicious” Lopez and Tasty Steve, they’ve confirmed six so far. Check ‘em out below.

Modern controls will hopefully make Street Fighter 6 more accessible to new players

Finally, the game includes a simplified controller setup for newer players that Capcom's calling “Modern.” Simplified from six buttons to three, it also gives the player input shortcuts for Drive Impact, Drive Parry, Throw, and Special. It also has a combo assist button. This feature seems like a great way to learn the basics, but will be limiting for more advanced players.

Oh, and you can punch a bull

Yep.