Back when it first launched four years ago, Street Fighter 5 was off to a very rocky start, launching in a rather unfinished state that left nearly the whole fanbase dissatisfied. Since then, however, the game has managed to pull itself together for the most part and remain a fixture in the current fighting game community, and now Capcom is giving newcomers a chance to try it out at zero cost with a free trial.
Starting this Wednesday, August 5, a free-to-play version of Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition will be available for fans to download and play for a full two weeks. This news was made during the Japan Fighting Game Publisher Roundtable, a video gathering of key developers from a number of the genre’s most popular series, where announcements were made for other games like Soulcaliber 6 and Tekken 7 as well.
Best of all, this version won’t be a limited demo, but the entire game, complete with all 40 of the characters available in the Champion Edition. As such, players will really have an opportunity to introduce themselves to the current state of Street Fighter 5 and get an idea of which characters will be their favorites before they decide on purchasing.
August 5 will also see the airing of the Street Fighter 5 Summer Update, a livestream that will reveal what's likely to be the last of Street Fighter 5’s DLC characters, in addition to esports news and special guest appearances. The stream will air on the Capcom Fighters Twitch channel at 10:00 AM PST/ 1:00 PM EST.
Street Fighter 5 is available for PC and PS4.