Street Fighter V shows how Capcom wants to make fighting games — and players — better

Eight years ago, I sat in a hotel room with Seth Killian, then the community manager at Capcom, where he had invited me to get an early peek at the first build of Street Fighter IV. What I played that night was extremely different from what the Japanese publisher would release 12 months later in 2009, but it didn’t matter if that was for better or worse. The community, industry, and pop zeitgeist of our society desperately needed Street Fighter’s resurrection.

Seven years brings a lot of change. Street Fighter IV was an El Niño that drenched a dry fighting game genre that was begging to be filled. With that thirst, people were willing to turn a blind eye toward some not-so-great design ideas that existed in Street Fighter IV.