Following yesterday’s announcement of the Capcom Home Arcade system, Capcom Unity shared some more news for fans of Capcom’s fighting games to get excited for. Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition will be free to play on PlayStation 4 and Steam from April 23rd to May 5th, starting at 1PM, PT. PlayStation owners will need an active PS Plus Membership to demo Street Fighter V‘s online content, but offline modes will be available to everyone. PC players will need to download the Steam client to access the trial.
The trial will include four popular DLC characters: Akuma, Juri, Blanka, and Menat will be unlocked during the free week, joining the sixteen playable characters that make up the base roster. There’s bound to be an appealing character for every new and returning player to this series, as the game released with classic characters Ryu, Ken, M. Bison, and Chun-Li, as well as new challenges Rashid and Laura. DLC characters are playable in Casuals, Ranked, Battle Lounge, Training, and Challenges. For those who already purchased the basic edition of Street Fighter V or Arcade Edition but haven’t picked up the DLC characters featured in this trial, they will be unlocked during the free week and any character progress you make will be retained if you purchase that character after the trial period ends.
During the trial period, players will be able to check out Arcade mode, new with the Arcade Edition update. Local versus is available for playing with a friend or against the CPU. Challenges are also accessible, with Demonstrations and combo Trials unique to each playable character, as well as an updated Survival mode to measure your mettle in. The Training mode is fully-functional for each playable character as well.
Image Source: Capcom Unity
Capcom Unity also announced that from May 10th to June 7th, Street Fighter players can compete in a new Extra Battle mode. This time the reward is a Crossover Costume for Season 3’s Neo-Shadaloo Guardian Hawk, Falke. Based on Katt from 1994’s Breath of Fire II, Falke has taken inspiration from a fellow staff-wielding fighter and the outfit includes a modification to her weapon model. If Capcom continues its recent pattern, this costume will likely have an alternate “easter egg” version when you input the code on the loading screen. Players have the chance to win background music from Breath of Fire II as well while this Extra Battle is available.
Fashion-conscious fighters can also grab some garb they may have missed out on. M. Bison’s Classic costume will be obtainable through Fighting Chance from April 23 to June 15th. Costume Bundles will be purchasable for the perennial Ryu and Chun-Li, as well as all previous Capcom Pro Tour DLC packs at a discounted price. Capcom enthusiasts can also cop the Monster Hunter, Darkstalkers, and Devil May Cry and Ghosts ‘n Goblins Costume Bundles. These packs will be available with the launch of the trial on April 23rd in North America.
Many people were a bit let down to find out that the “New Challenger” trailer for the Capcom Home Arcade wasn’t building up to a new character reveal for Street Fighter V‘s Season 4. Capcom hasn’t released any major news for Season 4’s roster since debuting Kage in December of 2018, but the announcement of a trial period with great characters, a new Extra Battle reward, and a ton of great DLC costumes means that Capcom is still actively invested with drumming up enthusiasm and showing support for Street Fighter V‘s player base, and there’s sure to be more announcements soon considering Combo Breaker and EVO are right around the corner. Stay tuned!