Street Fighter 6 beta proves Capcom is onto something special
Last weekend, Capcom ran a closed Street Fighter 6 beta – and it already looks and feels brilliant. These events are often a means of testing netcode and servers pre-release, but, even at this early stage, the presentation of this game is incredible, the netcode among the best you’ll find, and the sheer wealth of training options that satisfy both hardcore and casual players – not to mention the superb 'Battle Hub' lobby and a character creator that lets people unleash some true monstrosities upon the world – made this one of the most fully featured beta tests we've seen in some time. So much so, it's not unreasonable to compare the amount of content the Street Fighter 6 beta brought with it, with the amount of content Street Fighter 5 contained at launch. Which, to be fair, probably says more about the latter than the former.
Capcom, it seems, is keen to avoid the same pitfalls this time around, and with Street Fighter 6 set to be split into three major portions – the open world single player World Tour, the more traditional Fighting Ground, and the online focused Battle Hub – it feels like there's plenty of scope for the developer to do so. The Battle Hub was a point of focus in this most recent beta, and while the feature may have looked like an attempt at some kind of Street Fighter metaverse to some – players create avatars who play at, and can be challenged at, virtual arcade cabinets – it's actually much closer to the fighting game genre's arcade roots.
For fans of the competitive scene, or those who have favorite content creators, being able to go into a lobby and see these players standing in front of virtual cabinets – and, if they’re feeling brave, challenging them to a game – adds a distinct layer of
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