Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition getting free balance patch this fall/winter

EVO, the world’s largest fighting game tournament, is going on right now in Las Vegas, and during a Street Fighter panel producer Yoshinori Ono announced that Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition will be receiving a free balance patch before year’s end. This news comes despite numerous statements that Arcade Edition would be the final version of SFIV.

The news was well received by the enthusiast crowd, who cheered when Ono announced it. It’s a commonly held belief among high level SFIV players that AE’s new characters and gameplay changes negatively affected the game’s balance. The addition of Yun, and changes to Fei Long have been the most criticized, complaints that were somewhat justified by the fact that Yun and Fei Long represented 21 of the top 32 players in this year’s SSF4:AE EVO tournament.

Capcom has been notoriously tight lipped about releasing patch notes in the past, preferring to let the players find the changes for themselves. Given the degree of community complaint about Yun though, we’ll be amazed if he makes it through this unscathed.

Check out the EVO 2011 Grand Finalsstreaming livelater today.

Jul 31, 2011