Capcom has revealed they will hold an open beta for Street Fighter 6 weeks before its official release.
The open beta goes live on the weekend of May 19, 2023, starting at 3 AM EST, to May 21, 2023, at 2:59 EST. Please note that the open beta will not be available on PlayStation 4, but will be on all the other platforms. That includes PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows via Steam.
Here’s what will be available to play during the open beta, as reported by Gematsu:
Playable Characters
- Chun-Li
- Guile
- Jamie
- Juri
- Ken
- Kimberly
- Luke
- Ryu
Playable Stages
- Carrier Byron Taylor
- Genbu Temple
- Metro City Downtown
- The Macho Ring
- Tian Hong Yuan
- Training Room
Playable Content:
- Character Creation (one character only)
- Ranked Matches
- Casual Matches
- Battle Hub Matches
- Open Tournaments
- Training Mode
- Hub Goods Shop
- Extreme Battles (updates daily)
- Game Center (updates daily)
- Challenges (updates daily)
- DJ Booth
- Photo Spot
Playable Features:
- Cross-platform play
- Control types (Modern / Classic)
- Commentary
- Play-by-Play Commentators: Vicious / Tasty Steve / Aru / Kosuke Hiraiwa
- Color Commentators: James Chen / Demon Kakka
- CFN (Fighters List / Replays / Rankings),
- Online Match Fight Request function
- Battle tutorials
- Battle settings
- Photo mode
As you can see, Capcom has taken a slice out of pretty much every feature that is available on the game now. They also demonstrate that Street Fighter 6 is launching as a fully featured game.
All of these were obviously made necessary so that Capcom can demonstrate to fans who felt cheated by Street Fighter V that it isn’t going to happen all over again this time. We believe, on that end, Capcom has performed perfectly and players are going to be delighted.
As to how well this will go to Street Fighter 6’s broader success remains to be seen. Some players may forego the traditional fighting game modes it will offer and focus solely on Battle Hub. To be clear, that would be perfectly fine for Capcom, as they seem interested in making this not just a one off feature that will draw fans in immediately. Possibly, this could be a direction for the future of all fighting games, to cater to gamers that may not have the skills, or the interest to acquire said skills, but are willing to play something like a fighting game RPG.
Street Fighter 6 releases on June 2, 2023, on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows via Steam. You can watch the announcement trailer below.
