14 Years Ago, Capcom Released One Of Its Most Controversial Games Ever

By virtually all metrics, Capcom has been on top of the gaming world in 2026. From the recent critically-acclaimed release of Resident Evil Requiem to two major releases later this year with Pragmata, a new IP, and the revival of the Onimusha series. However, Capcom hasn't always been the envy of a lot of the video game industry.

Today, March 6, marks the 14th anniversary of the North American release of Street Fighter X Tekken, a crossover fighting game that would go down in infamy, but not for its gameplay or mechanics.

Street Fighter X Tekken saw a tag-team mash-up of the Street Fighter and Tekken fighting game series. Boasting an impressive 38 characters at launch (19 from Street Fighter and 19 from Tekken), the game saw players form teams of two with all the popular characters from two of the biggest fighting game franchises in history.

The game saw praise for its gameplay mechanics, roster, and visuals, but it saw a lot of criticism for one particular reason--its DLC characters. According to Metacritic, the game still sits at an impressive 84 metascore, but the user score stands at a divided 5.7/10.

The issue some players had with the game was that the 12 DLC characters were already "on the disc" and being sold as DLC, even though some players were able to access them on the PC version of the game, noting that the characters appeared to be fully finished.

Capcom stated the reason for not including the DLC characters at launch was to save hard drive space. The response was harshly criticized, even appearing on some media outlet's "biggest Capcom mistakes" lists (archived over on GameFAQs).

Capcom would turn things around after the initial release of Street Fighter V in 2016, but it would take years for it reclaim its trust with its fanbase.

Now, Capcom has left its skeletons in the past, and it seems like Capcom is often the envy of the entire industry.