'Major' Season 2 balance update for Street Fighter 6 finally gets a release date

Street Fighter 6 is just about to hit its eleventh month on the scene, and the game is apparently going to look quite a bit different in the near future.

Alongside the full unveiling of Akuma for Street Fighter 6, Capcom also finally opened up a bit more about the game's Season 2 balance update.

The game did already receive a smaller patch with the arrival of Ed back in February that touched up just a handful of characters, which saw JP get hit with some nerfs and Jamie a few buffs / quality of life improvements, though most things remained the same.

They promised at the time that a larger one would be coming, and it'll be here in less than a month.

Through the PlayStation Blog and the Akuma trailer description, Capcom confirmed the battle update will be dropping at the same time as the demon on Wednesday, May 22.

It's specifically stated this is a "major balance patch" that will make changes to all characters in the game though they don't go into much more detail there.

Interestingly, there's no mention made of system / mechanic changes or something like new moves or features, so we still don't really know if any of those will be included as SF6 transitions into its second season.

What is mentioned, however, is they state they'll have "more to share" about the update as we approach the release date, so players will likely get at least a taste of what's coming before the full patch notes arrive.

With Akuma being playable at a special preview event this week in Japan, those attending will presumably be playing on that new balance update and may witness some of the changes there.

Although players probably won't be allowed to record footage, there's still a good chance some will be posting online about what they've seen.

The timing of the update is also going to be a bit awkward with it being scheduled to drop just two days before Combo Breaker 2024.

Gonna enjoy the night instead of thinking about Akuma and a major balance patch dropping 2 short days before CB2024.

— Rick (@TheHadou) April 29, 2024

We typically see majors require at least a week or more time before patches and new characters are considered tournament legal, which would require making sure none of their console setups download the update before the event.

Or do they just throw caution to the wind and be the first SF6 Season 2 major with Akuma where everyone has two days to practice. I guess we'll find out soon.

Consistent top tiers like Luke and Ken are probably in the most danger of getting hit with nerfs while there's certainly some underperformers like Jamie and Lily who are in need of better tools

This may be the first major balance patch of Street Fighter 6's life so far, but we can look back at how things were handled in the past.

Looking back to Street Fighter 5's big yearly updates, Capcom usually did not shy away from changing up the game pretty drastically a lot of the time.

At least some top tier threats would get hit really hard to the point they were essentially taken out of meta contention like we saw with Akuma and Urien, who consistently topped tournaments since Season 2 until the last year when they all but disappeared.

They'd also put a focus on giving most / all characters at least some new tools (even the ones they nerf) to make sure there's different combo routes, special interactions and more to try keeping the game feeling a bit refreshed.

That's on top of making universal system changes and additions in SF5 with second V-Triggers and V-Skills as well as V-Shift at the end though we may very well need to wait another year or so to see that become a reality in Street Fighter 6 too.

One thing is for certain is the developers are going to adjust the game / characters that no one really expects, so it won't be clear what state SF6 is going to be in until after the update is in players' hands and some time has passed.

There's also no way that everyone is going to walk away from the rebalancing happy, but that's just part of the surprise / fun that is patch season.

Change is coming, and it'll be here before you know it.

Although maybe not soon enough for some of you.