Road Fighter 6 producer Shuhei Matsumoto revealed how dire issues have been for Capcom’s flagship preventing recreation franchise in the course of the Road Fighter V period and defined how he and director Takayuki Nakayama labored collectively to avoid wasting the sequence from demise.
It’s no secret that Street Fighter V stumbled massively when it launched in February 2016. Many gamers felt that it was shipped out in an unfinished state, because it lacked primary components like an arcade mode or story mode, on prime of its extremely unstable netplay.
Shuhei Matsumoto — who stepped in as producer for Road Fighter V close to the tip of its lifetime following Yoshinori Ono’s exit from Capcom in 2020 — alongside director Takayuki Nakayama, acknowledged that the franchise as a complete was in peril, and believed that the Road Fighter IP may really fade into obscurity inside the subsequent decade in the event that they didn’t act quick.
“When the 2 of us have been speaking throughout Road Fighter V, we realized that if we did not do one thing about Road Fighter, the Road Fighter IP would most likely die in 10 years. It was vital. So, we needed to make it a recreation the place individuals would get to understand it another time and play it once more,” Matsumoto stated throughout an October 2026 interview with Karin Ohira.
Matsumoto defined that SFV’s ageing playerbase was one instance of this subject, saying Capcom wanted to focus on youthful gamers if it wished Road Fighter to reside.
“At the moment, the participant base for Road Fighter V was roughly 35 to 45 years previous. In 10 years, these individuals will likely be 60. It’s tough to maintain the franchise if we solely depend on that group,” he continued.
“…It had change into a distant presence. Individuals knew of the scene, however weren’t really taking part in the sport, which made us suppose, ‘That is dangerous.’ Ultimately, we’re a recreation firm, but individuals weren’t taking part in our recreation. Is not that probably the most deadly factor? In order that was the most important hazard. We did not know if these individuals would proceed with the identical stage of ardour, and naturally, there is a lifespan to issues, proper? That is once we talked about how, if we left it because it was, the IP would seemingly die in 10 years.”
So, how did they handle to show issues round so dramatically with Street Fighter 6? Matsumoto stated that the group prevented counting on its energy as a historic IP, and determined to begin with a clean slate, as if nobody within the present era knew about it, in any respect.
“Whereas individuals say Road Fighter has excessive identify recognition, we should not be overconfident. We determined to behave as if the present era would not know us. Now we have to correctly clarify issues to those that are simply beginning to play video games now — like who these characters are and how one can play — so we do not take that familiarity without any consideration.”
Matsumoto additionally stated that the event of SF6’s Fashionable management scheme was integral to reaching a brand new viewers, alongside different approachable options like World Tour Mode (which has since been paused for the forseeable future), the Battle Hub, and real-time commentary from neighborhood figures like Vicious and Tasty Steve.
Matsumoto and Nakayama’s plan paid off huge time; Road Fighter 6 is one in every of Capcom’s most profitable Road Fighter video games of all time, having bought greater than seven million lifetime models as of summer time 2026. It’s extraordinarily in style each in Japan and overseas, and boasts an enormous playerbase throughout each Steam and consoles.
It’s a giant 12 months for Road Fighter followers and Capcom typically; the developer has launched three critically-acclaimed titles in Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmata, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and is gearing up for the Street Fighter movie on October 16, which comes on the heels of the Resident Evil adaptation directed by horror savant Zach Cregger.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s Information Editor. With ten years of expertise reporting on video games and leisure, she’s bought a storied background within the preventing recreation neighborhood, influencer information, and viral on-line tendencies. Discover her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.