Insider Hints at Street Fighter 6 Release Date and Reveals Why We Haven't Seen It Yet

Today, Capcom surprised Street Fighter fans with the reveal of not one, not two, not three, not four, but five new DLC characters coming to the game starting later this year and all the way until fall 2021. While many fans of the fighting game series were happy to see not just five new fighters, but a few great additions, some also began to wonder where the heck Street Fighter VI is. Street Fighter V released all the way back in 2016, and yet there's still no word of a follow-up.

That said, according to a prominent industry insider and leaker, Dusk Golem, this is because the game has been internally delayed. According to the report, Capcom was originally planning to release the game in 2021, but following negative feedback based on early internal builds of the game, it's now been pushed out of 2021. It also sounds like a core mechanic of the game has either been removed or completely reworked.

"As Capcom is trending for Street Fighter stuff, though I'm not really a Street Fighter fan, I can mention I know the reason for the unexpected Street Fighter V season pass. The most basic gist of it is Street Fighter VI was supposed to release next year, but it was not received well internally or with testers, there's this team mechanic the game was too focused on, the director (who was Ono) got demoted again and someone else put in charge to 'fix' Street Fighter VI with an additional year in development, and the new season pass is to buy time for that."

Adding to this, the leaker notes they've heard that the extra time and new director is doing wonders for the game, which is apparently in a good state at the moment. As for the new director, Dusk Golem doesn't divulge a name, but notes they are pretty well-known within the fighting game community, and brought some fresh and neat ideas to the game to give it the revamp it apparently desperately needed.

Of course, everything here should be taken with a grain of salt. Nothing here is official, and even if it's all correct, everything is also subject to change. As you can see, the game has apparently already undergone serious changes.

At the moment of publishing, Capcom has not commented on this report, and it's unlikely it will.