It’s almost time for gamers to once again let their digital fists do the talking. Capcom’s Street Fighter 6 is almost here, and we think we have a pretty good idea about when you’ll actually be able to start playing it.
During The Game Awards 2022, Capcom released a new trailer for Street Fighter 6. This announcement teased several characters, and, more importantly, confirmed that Street Fighter 6 will be released on June 2, 2023. Capcom shows no sign of deviating from this plan, but it has yet to elaborate on the highly-anticipated fighter’s exact release schedule.
However, Capcom typically sticks to the release time schedule it utilized for titles such as Resident Evil 4 Remake. As such, Street Fighter 6 is expected to be released at midnight local time in every global region. In other words, Street Fighter 6 will launch at 12 am PST, 12 am CT, 12 am ET, 12 am BST, and so on and so forth. The game will be available for all supported platforms (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC) at that time. If that expected release schedule holds, then gamers can also expect to be able to use the New Zealand Time Zone Trick to start playing a few hours early.
As is usually the case, this expected release schedule only applies to digital copies of Street Fighter 6. If you pre-ordered a physical version, you will have to wait until stores open on June 2 or wait for the mail to arrive that day. And If you bought a copy through a delivery retailer such as Amazon, you will also need to pray to the gods of mail delivery that your game will arrive safe and sound, as well as on time.
Also, despite some rumors, Street Fighter 6 will not offer Early Access at launch. Those who purchase the game’s Deluxe and Ultimate Editions will receive various perks, but early access to the full game isn’t one of them. Outside of the possibility of the aforementioned New Zealand trick, you’re going to have to wait to play the game.
If you want to play your pre-ordered copy of Street Fighter 6 when the clocks strike midnight, you’ll probably want to install it ahead of time. Well, you can, but the timing of that pre-load period is a bit strange.
PlayStation 5 owners can install their copies of Street Fighter 6 starting on May 31, while PC players can start installing it on June 1. Meanwhile, Xbox Series X/S owners are essentially being treated like Dan Hibiki since Capcom has yet to confirm a pre-load time for the platform. For all we know, Xbox Series X/S players won’t be able to install Street Fighter 6 before launch, which might be a problem since the game will require 50-60 GB of space. Xbox owners expect to be able to eventually download the game either on May 31 or June 1, but that information hasn’t been confirmed at this time.
While you can’t start playing the full version of Street Fighter 6 for a few days, you can still try out the game’s demo. This version is a bite-sized sampling of the characters and modes players can expect. The demo only includes two playable characters, but it is less focused on letting players practice and more focused on the new avatar system. Not only can demo participants toy around with the character creation menu and craft the street fighter of their dreams (or nightmares), but players can also take their creations for a spin in the fighting arena. And yes, gamers can transfer custom avatars from the demo to the release version of Street Fighter 6 so long as they play on the same platform and don’t delete their save data.