Street Fighter 6 Director Nakayama reveals how Capcom is choosing DLC characters, and it’s not based on past titles

Here in the age of post release video game development, we’re constantly trying to sniff out patterns to better predict the kind of content coming down the pike. Capcom has shown some method behind their madness in the past (Street Fighter 5’s initial roster was divided up by characters released across three specific games, for instance) and before the recent reveal of Street Fighter 6 Season 2, we had some suspicions that incoming characters might all hail from Street Fighter 4.

Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama sat down for an interview with Venture Beat during which he addressed Capcom’s compass for curating characters, and in short, they’re not doing it by game.

“We don’t really focus on exactly what title that characters came from when it comes to deciding who to introduce and who to add into the game,” responded Nakayama when Venture Beat asked why it took so long for SF6 to get a Street Fighter 3 original (Elena) in the works.

Indeed we’ve yet to see any representation from SF3, which boasts more original characters than any other series entry to date. It could be argued that Season 1 was Street Fighter 5-themed as two characters, Ed and Rashid, are straight from the game while A.K.I., who’s a clear evolution of the SF5 character F.A.N.G, was also included. Akuma is straight up from Street Fighter 2, though, so you kind of have to stand on one foot and squint your eyes to get the theory to work.

Still, with no direct representation from the aforementioned SF3, the Street Fighter Alpha series, and just one of Street Fighter 4’s newcomers on the SF6 roster thus far, Capcom was still set up for game-specific seasons should they so have chosen.

While game diversity is not a priority, Nakayama did explain that country of origin and fighting style is.

“We look at the characters individually, seeing what kind of fighting style they use, their countries of origin,” he continued. “Elena is an African character who uses capoeira, which is very unique and different from the rest of the lineup. It’s not really an intention of creating a balance and making sure there are characters from each individual title, but more the individuality of the characters. That helps us decide who’s appropriate.”

Street Fighter has from its earliest days always been concerned with representation of specific characters from specific parts of the world. The “World Warrior” concept, which the Street Fighter 2 cast is now often themed with, has been a conspicuous part of every franchise entry since Street Fighter 2, and even the premier game in the series took special care to note where each and every fighter was from.

While it’s Capcom’s prerogative to go about business this way, we do have to wonder how fans ultimately feel about this approach. With more than three and a half decades of production now behind us, there are tons of potential legacy characters and fighting styles Capcom could bring back, and fans surely have priorities outside of country of origin when it comes to who they’ll fork over additional cash to play as.

What’s more, the creators of Street Fighter chose to fill up half the Season 2 DLC roster with guests from SNK’s Fatal Fury (one American and one Japanese, for what it’s worth)

What do you think of this approach from Capcom and whom do you most want to see in the far-off Season 3? Perhaps we can tease out the most likely candidates based on where they’re from and how they fight.