Street Fighter 5's big March update dated, DLC characters temporarily free
In-game shop going live, though Zenny yet to be implemented.
Capcom has dated its big March update for Street Fighter 5, with a patch arriving on March 28th that will introduce features such as Challenge Mode, 8 player lobbies and an online rematch option.
Shortly afterwards, on March 30th, another update lands that will introduce Street Fighter 5's in-game shop as well as Alex, the first DLC character - and in a pleasant twist, Alex will be free.
Capcom's made the decision as it won't have launched the Zenny shop - Street Fighter 5's currency that can be bought for real cash - in time for the new update, so has managed a generous workaround. Alex will only be free up until the point the Zenny shop launches - and there's no word on quite when that will be.
As a further bonus, Ryu and Chun-Li's story mode costumes are being made available for free to all players, 'as a way of saying thanks for everyone's patience and understanding throughout the beta phases and game launch', in Capcom's words.
Street Fighter 5 has endured a troubled launch, releasing with a slim amount of options and beset by problems such as an inability to punish rage-quitters. There's no explicit mention of a fix for that particular issue just yet, though Capcom does say something's in the works.
