Capcom reveals new render for Akuma in Street Fighter 6 in anticipation for his release in 2024

Capcom has released something very interesting on Twitter. In celebration of the upcoming New Year, Capcom has unveiled a new render for Akuma in Street Fighter 6.

From previous teases of Akuma in Street Fighter 6, we already knew that he would have gray or white hair instead of his usual red hair. Like all the other veterans of the series, it seems that Akuma has aged quite a bit in Street Fighter 6.

However, this latest render of Akuma portrays him in a way that’s darker than ever before. He has a real menacing look this time around.

Akuma’s always had this backstory that he’s willing to throw away his humanity if it means becoming stronger. This new image of Akuma shows him appearing in a particularly demonic or undead state.

With this image, Capcom is highlighting the fact that Akuma will be “raging into 2024.” Indeed, Akuma is currently slated for a spring 2024 release window.

However, what’s interesting is that Ed is actually slated to be the next DLC combatant released for Street Fighter 6. He’s expected to become available sometime in winter 2024 (January or February most likely).

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Happy New Year! 🎆

Thank you for all the support you’ve shown Street Fighter 6 this year.

Here’s to more fights, gatherings, and content coming in 2024! pic.twitter.com/knMjAcuOXA

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) December 31, 2023

With this, Capcom is acknowledging that Akuma ranks particularly high as a fan favorite character. Needless to say, there’s plenty to be hyped about in regards to Akuma releasing in Street Fighter 6 considering the character’s history.

Akuma made his debut appearance in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, where he can sometimes replace M. Bison as the final boss. Of course, it was also possible to play as Akuma with a certain method of the character select screen.

However, Akuma would ultimately be banned from competitive play in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo due to being far better than the rest of the roster. In particular, the other characters just weren’t equipped to deal with Akuma’s air fireballs, alongside other imbalances.

Of course, it should be noted that Akuma would be the first Street Fighter or Capcom character to fight with one of Marvel’s X-Men characters as Capcom had slipped Akuma in as a secret character in X-Men: Children of the Atom. This decision would later pave the way for X-Men vs. Street Fighter and the Marvel vs. Capcom series.

Finally, Akuma has been one of the most popular combatants throughout Street Fighter 5’s lifespan based on what we saw from that game’s online character usage stats. When Akuma eventually comes to Street Fighter 6, we should expect a lot of players to use him then as well.