This piece was co-written with Brian Dawkins AKA @ThatManBdawk
ThatManBdawk here! At the beginning of the year, 2023 was already set to be one of the greatest gaming years of all time. Now halfway through, it could also be the beginning of another glorious time in the world of gaming. The beginning of a fighting game Renaissance.
It has been 4 years since the release of Mortal Kombat 11, 7 since the release of Tekken 7, and 8 since the release of Street Fighter V. We already have confirmation that Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 will release this year. Bandai Namco has also shown a lot of gameplay and character reveals for Tekken 8.
The Big Three
The big three are back ladies and gentlemen! Bringing with it a ton of eyes and attention that over the last couple of years felt like had faded away in the fighting game community. The big three releasing this close together might just be the driving force to get the FGC the mainstream attention it deserves.
As someone who enjoys fighting games, but very casually, this is huge. Also being paired alongside the news of Budokai Tenkaichi 4 after nearly 17 years since its last game has brought a great shift in energy for fighting games. We all need to keep focus. The beginning of something special could be building right before our eyes.
As I mentioned previously, I am a casual. No sugar coating or offense taken on my part about it. You must be honest with yourself about some things haha. However, at Mook World, we are lucky enough to have our own FGC expert to weigh in with a knowledgeable perspective.
ThatPuttyTat (Sylvester Quezada) and I welcome you to our first collab piece as I just shared my perspective from the outside looking in and he will share his from someone who has the boots on the ground and truly “does this”.
Just as ThatManBdawk said, there’s an immense amount of attention on fighting games this year due to new staple releases for the big three.
Now why is that?
Fighting games have almost always been a niche genre due to a barrier to entry. No one wants to buy a game to get bodied for days/weeks until they finally feel confident in their play and turn their losing streak around.
Even so, new releases still bring in newcomers and veterans alike. What makes this year special is a few things, mainly the prize pool and the game’s mechanics.
Street Fighter 6 has an exorbitant prize pool of $2,000,000 with the winner of Capcom Cup taking home half that. Tekken 8 and Mortal Kombat 1 will have to follow suit and increase their prize pools in response, attracting competitive players from all genres.
. On top of all this, developers have made it a point that their games will be more accessible to newcomers with easier control options, better tutorials, and “simpler” mechanics.
Now let’s talk about how the player base will be comprised. There are Veterans/returning players such as myself who will always play the new staple in their favorite franchise. Daigo for Street Fighter, Knee for Tekken, Sonicfox for Mortal Kombat.
Then there are the casual/newcomers. These are the players who may have gotten into the past fighting game generation too late to actually compete. Or maybe they decided to give fighting games a go on a new release when everyone is at the same starting line.
Another big group of players are the ones who branch out and play games out of their favorite franchise, such as Leffen playing Dragonball Fighterz and then Guilty Gear Strive.
My fingers are crossed on one last group of players, however. The ones who quit their main game for another, or just straight up left the FGC. Life and burnout are major factors as to why these things happen.
Burnout usually happens when grinding a game with mechanics you detest until it’s unbearable, so you give up, even when it’s your favorite franchise. That being said, many players in this group come back to test the waters of a new release.
This last generation of fighting games lasted a long time as Bdawk mentioned earlier, and so the FGC hasn’t seen some familiar faces in a while.
With all this being said, I am beyond excited, and you should be too! The FGC is going to blow up, and I would put money on seeing a major streamer(s) or pro player(s) from a different scene pop out to a major tournament.
The thought of someone like Mike Ross, co-creator of Excellent Adventures and co-host of Capcom Pro Talk, returning to Street Fighter just to end up interacting or even playing someone like Pokimane, who attended EVO 2022, has me giddy. The future of fighting games are bright, almost blinding, and like many others, most of us here at Mook World cannot wait to see what unfolds.
