Capcom producers Shuhei Matsumoto and Takayuki Nakayama say that Street Fighter was “on death’s door” before Street Fighter 6 revived the franchise for a new generation of players.
The two, who worked on Street Fighter 5 (2016) and now lead development of the series’ latest entry, told IGN that without a strategic turnaround, the classic fighting game brand could have been “dead and buried” by 2026.
“When the two of us were talking during Street Fighter 5, we realized that if we didn’t do something about Street Fighter, the Street Fighter IP would probably die in 10 years. It was critical. So, we had to make it a game where people would get to know it all over again and play it again,” Matsumoto said.
Shuhei Matsumoto, Street Fighter 6 producer
The concerns emerged after longtime Capcom veteran Yoshinori Ono left the company in 2020. As Matsumoto and Nakayama began work on a new entry, they aimed to appeal to both an existing player base that was aging and attract newcomers.
“At that time, the player base for Street Fighter 5 was roughly 35 to 45 years old. In 10 years, these people will be 60. It’s difficult to sustain the franchise if we only rely on that group,” Matsumoto said.
The producer noted that while Street Fighter remained recognizable as a brand, that recognition did not necessarily translate into active engagement with its games.
The shift came with Street Fighter 6, which the team approached “as if it were a brand-new fighting game.” By leaning away from reliance on the series’ legacy, introducing the Modern Control scheme to level the playing field, adding World Tour mode, and drawing more closely on the fighting game community during development, Street Fighter 6 launched in 2023 as a hit.
The game has gone on to become one of the most prominent fighting games of the current decade, retaining a healthy audience through post-launch content. Its modernized control schemes have drawn new players into the genre—one that Street Fighter 4 helped reinvigorate in the late 2000s after years of being overshadowed by newer intellectual property.
The success fits within a broader run for Capcom. Following the release of Resident Evil 7 nearly a decade ago, the company has produced a series of critically acclaimed titles—releasing four games this year alone:
Resident Evil: Requiem
Pragmata
Monster Hunter Stories 3
Onimusha: Way of the Sword
A new live-action Street Fighter movie is also set to arrive later this month, following Zach Cregger’s film adaptation, which has been among the most commercially successful in the franchise.
most commercially successful in the franchise
Street Fighter movie
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