Why they went for Rashid and Ed?

[Nuka-Cola Zero]

Out of the plethora of awesome SF characters available they've chosen to add these two clowns to the roster in season 1?

Why not Dudley instead of Ed? Yun instead of Rashid? Where is Fei Long, Sagat, Makoto, Q, Rose or C. Viper? Or literally anybody else but these two.

[Castyles]

More than likely because Rashid was one of the main characters of V (he should've been on the initial roster by default instead of DLC, though) and Ed with that major anti Bison arc buildup of his (only for Bison to make a comeback and foil everything, anyways) plus that new (NEW 2.0) generation thing they're aiming for.

I just know it wasn't because of easy cash. The "shut up and take my money" approach was for Akuma, Bison, Terry and Mai.

[Danny DeVito with a Gun]

Ed’s a significantly cooler character in SF6 than he was in 5 so I say the risk paid off

[76561199806755007]

rashid is one of the most fun characters in the game so I don't understand the complaint. give it time, we'll get more classic characters.

[X]

Rashid is very popular. Then again, mfr's going on a damn decade of top tier-dom.

[Grampire]

Most of the season 1 characters felt like unique archetypes that could have been launch characters, with perhaps the exception of Akuma. Ed and A.K.I especially would have been at home on the launch roster.

[Valy]

Ed improved vastly visually from V to 6, he was a good choice. Rashid was a bit random tho

[Peddie]

Ed has been pretty consistently within the top 10 pickrates so plenty of people seem to be liking him. And at the end of the day Rashid is also more popular than Honda and Blanka so hey, maybe this is more of an argument to not have all eight World Warriors back as base roster in the next game (or at all).

[Captain Joystick]

I mean, for a couple of reasons, but chiefly among them is Ed has had a running storyline since 4 that was brought into the spotlight in 5 so they want that to factor in with what they're doing with the 'Shadoloo will Rise Again oooooo' story they're going for in 6 he needs to show up sooner rather than later, and Rashid is an obvious pick because he's one of 5's few well received originals.

Furthermore, Dudley is a 'funny' character, which 4 and 5 leaned super hard into at the determent to the long term viability of its newcomers, and I think Capcom is going to try to avoid him and other characters in that category, and focus on either picking the cool standouts like C. Viper or Makoto, or try to rehabilitate the jokey characters from the recently preceding games like how they're trying to fix F.A.N.G.

[Grampire]

Originally posted by Peddie:

Ed has been pretty consistently within the top 10 pickrates so plenty of people seem to be liking him. And at the end of the day Rashid is also more popular than Honda and Blanka so hey, maybe this is more of an argument to not have all eight World Warriors back as base roster in the next game (or at all).

100% I like Ed in Street Fighter much more than either of these guys.

If Honda were not in the base roster, would anyone notice?

[The Main Character]

Ed is the real next generation and he is extremely cool. Rashid is Arab which deserves representation especially since Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is pushing video games industry to next level, and we have them specifically to thank for Garou 2 and VF6.

[Unmotivated]

Originally posted by Grampire:

Originally posted by Peddie:

Ed has been pretty consistently within the top 10 pickrates so plenty of people seem to be liking him. And at the end of the day Rashid is also more popular than Honda and Blanka so hey, maybe this is more of an argument to not have all eight World Warriors back as base roster in the next game (or at all).

100% I like Ed in Street Fighter much more than either of these guys.

If Honda were not in the base roster, would anyone notice?

considering there still hasn't been a sumo rep to replace him, i can't really see him not being a star in the base roster.

the issue with Honda is that he doesn't accurately represent Sumo at all, so either his kit needs an overhaul, or he straight up needs to be overshadowed by somebody else in the same style. the only other issue is how iconic his design is for Sumo as a style. he's more of "Sumo as a super power" rather than "sumo as a martial art" and frankly, i think that's a big waste, because as goofy as he is, his design is honestly perfect.

[Unmotivated]

Originally posted by Peddie:

Ed has been pretty consistently within the top 10 pickrates so plenty of people seem to be liking him. And at the end of the day Rashid is also more popular than Honda and Blanka so hey, maybe this is more of an argument to not have all eight World Warriors back as base roster in the next game (or at all).

i'll never understand this idea of removing the core characters that crafted the founding identity of a franchise with less iconic alternatives.

that would be like killing everybody in Guilty gear Strive for the fifth game and then getting an entirely new cast that simply play alike to the old one. none of the old style, personality, or identity. i frankly would have rather we get a brand new franchise if they're just going to take away the core fighters like that.

the world warriors, like it or not, ARE Street Fighter. there can be additions that are popular, but they'll never hold the identity that Street Fighter has generated with the old roster.

[Peddie]

I mean let's be real, as early as Street Fighter Alpha, and cementing it in Street Fighter III that idea was thrown out the window, SFIII famously only had Ryu and Ken return, and Alpha had Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Sagat and Bibson. And heck, if you really want to be semantic, Ryu and Ken were the only surviving Street Fighter I characters as nobody else returned in II.

The concept of what is Street Fighter is an ever evolving one, and apparently so is its character roster.

In a kinder world Capcom (and a lot of other fighting game devs) would've followed AM2's lead of only adding one or two new characters per Virtua Fighter so that they can safely afford to bring the whole roster back every game (barring Taka-Arashi due to engine limitations) so that nobody ever would lose their main. But at this point we live in a world where anyone that isn't a Ryu or Ken main has seen a game where their main from SFII wasn't around to be played.

But since we also are in a world where no character besides those two is guaranteed to return we also need to consider practicalities, most months the bottom 5 in the pickrates contain Blanka, Honda, and Dhalsim. With Dhalsim sometimes struggling to even reach 1% pickrate. So I think we should really dare question whether it's worth investing what is most likely well over a million dollars of development budget on a character that you're only going to see less than once every 100 matches. At this point there's almost four times as many Jamie mains than Honda mains, so why should Jamie be the one to get axed when the time comes to decide SF7's roster over Honda when Jamie is much more likely to make more players happy?