This morning when I woke up, I did a quick check of the r/linux_gaming feed, and something kind of unusual made it to the top. Capcom announcing SteamOS/Linux support for Street Fighter V. For a few minutes I thought this was a complete joke, but… actually not! I am very,VERY impressed that such a big title makes it to SteamOS, but if there was one publisher that was likely to make to turn on the switch one day, it could only have been Capcom. This is from the official announcement:

Hey everyone. I’m excited to announce that Street Fighter V will be officially supporting Steam OS! We are working closely with Valve on this endeavor, and will have more details to announce in the near future, so stay tuned for updates. Street Fighter V will also support the Steam controller, and you’ll be able to try that out right away during the upcoming beta test that takes place from December 18~20.

For years Capcom has been very proactive in developing PC (==Windows) versions of their mainstream titles (BioHazard, Street Fighter 4, Lost Planet, etc…), so they have not taken the ridiculous stance of most Japanese publishers to “stay on console only”, the only console supported usually being a Sony one. I am not sure what was the trigger to consider Linux/SteamOS as a potential platform for Street Fighter V, but as others have pointed out, the fact that it’s running on Unreal Engine 4 probably does not hurt to make the port a real possibility.

The other exciting part of today’s news is that there will be official support for the Steam Controller - maybe Capcom will try something a little innovative when it comes to controls.

All in all, this is certainly great news as this will fill another hole that we had in our Linux library: the lack of fighting games - don’t get me wrong, Skullgirls is a great game, but Street Fighter is another caliber altogether. This game will be apparently running only on PS4, Windows and SteamOS, with cross-platform play (YAY!!) - No Mac version announced, which is great to see Linux is getting some recognition on its own. It is due on February 2016 - hopefully SteamOS will be supported from Day 1.

This is one of the best news of the year !