As many had anticipated, the Spy x Family and Street Fighter 6 amounted to some avatar cosmetics and a few stickers to be used in the Battle Hub, disappointing fans who were hoping for more substantial content.
Crossovers in fighting games can be extremely interesting, with guest characters often raising the interest of even people who've never tried their hand at the genre. Just recently, Nier's 2B was announced for Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, sending that game's community into a frenzy.
Street Fighter 6 has had some interesting collaborations already, sadly for fans, it seems the prospect of guest characters or even outfits for the main characters doesn't seem to be in the cards for Capcom.
Prior to the Spy x Family collab, Baki and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles joined the game, mostly with cosmetics for avatars and stickers to be used in the Battle Hub's chat, Street Fighter 6's version of an open social hub.
The Spy x Family crossover felt bigger, with a strong marketing push behind that included an incredible animation created by legendary animation studio Wit Studio, of Attack on Titan, and of course, Spy x Family fame.
In it, Yor Forger was seen going toe-to-toe with Street Fighter's Chun-Li, exciting fans at the prospect of, at the very least, having a Yor costume for one of the main fighters. Some even dreamt of the Thorn Princess becoming a guest character to be released after Akuma and Ed.
Sadly, none of that was meant to be, with the only items available being some very lousy avatar costumes and a few stickers for the Battle Hub's chat. Fans were understandably disappointed at yet another big crossover opportunity being wasted on items tailored almost exclusively for the extremely casual audience Street Fighter 6 is clearly trying to appeal towards.
Several users expressed their discomfort via social media. FGC community member Rev stated:
Making this an avatar costume instead of an normal character costume has to be the biggest fumble in history. The Chun-Yor costume would have made enough money to fund 10 more seasons of this game
While 10 seasons might seem hyperbolic, having an actual costume for one of the main characters would have resulted in the collaboration garnering more interest and possibly, becoming more profitable for Capcom.
Another user compared the change in philosophy from Street Fighter V to SF6.
If this collab happened in Street Fighter V this would've been a real Yor costume for chun plus the worst looking Loid costume you've ever seen on Ken
SFV had hundreds of costumes, becoming the main way Capcom monetised the title, Chun-Li alone ended up having 20 costumes for instance. In comparison, Street Fighter 6 has only received a single batch of costumes since it was released on June 2. That's almost eight months with just the Outfit 3 DLC, which added a single costume for all base roster characters (sorry Rashid and A.K.I mains).
The silver lining is that the Yor and Loid Forger avatar costumes don't actually cost money, with players able to purchase them with 500 Drive Tickets. The stickers are also free (and very cute) plus some titles to collect.
Here's hoping that the film being promoted with this collaboration, Spy x Family: Code White, isn't as disappointing as this crossover. For more content, check out our Street Fighter 6 beginner tips.