The annual fighting game tournament, the Evolution Championship Series (Evo) has rolled back for another year, featuring high-level tournaments in contemporary games and all-time favourites. But aside from the exciting competition, Evo also traditionally plays host to a burst of fighting game news from publishers and developers, and a chance for attendees to get hands-on with upcoming titles.
The Evo 2023 featured tournaments for Mortal Kombat 11, Tekken 7, Guilty Gear: Strive, King of Fighter XV, Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Dragonball FighterZ, Melty Blood, and for the first time, Street Fighter 6.
Here’s a list of all the major fighting games announcements made during the event.
This article will be continually updated as Evo 2023 unfolds over the course of the weekend.
Evo 2023: All the Fighting Game News Announced
Street Fighter 6 Upcoming Character Costumes Teased
Capcom got things started off nice and early during Evo by sharing concept art for a few upcoming costumes for Street Fighter 6. The game has been for two months at the time of the tournament, most of the post-launch cosmetic content has been focussed on the battle pass, which hosts cosmetic items for World Tour / Battle Hub custom avatars.
Among the costumes shown was a very cozy-looking onesie for Juri, the antithesis of the game’s several form-fitting outfits for female fighters, and a striking wedding dress for the towering brawler Marisa. Guile’s upcoming costume option features a rugged, Western-inspired look that features his signature hair in a much more relaxed style (not unlike Paul Phoenix in Tekken 8), and a very shiny, flashy suit for Dee-Jay.
No release date for these costumes was shared as part of the reveal.
Killer Instinct 10th Anniversary Update announced
Killer Instinct, the Xbox Exclusive revival of the fighting game originally developed by Rare (Sea of Thieves), will have a free update to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Handled by developer Iron Galaxy, it will feature numerous character balance updates, improved online matchmaking, and 4K resolution support for Xbox Series X/S consoles.
The game had previously seen no new updates since 2018.
The King of Fighters XV introduces Duo Lon and newcomer Najd
A brief trailer for The King of Fighters XV introduced the next characters to come to the game as post-launch content. New character Najd will arrive on 8 August 2023, and returning character Duo Lon, who first made his appearence in The King of Fighters 2003, will arrive in Autumn 2023 (Northern Hemisphere).
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves formally announced
A new Fatal Fury game(known as Garou Densetsu in Japan) game was announced at Evo 2022, with a simple teaser trailer featuring contemporary series protagonist Rock Howard, and confirming the game’s development. At Evo 2023, the game was revealed as Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, and SNK revealed a slightly longer trailer that featured a brief look at the in-game version of Rock Howard, as well as traditional series icon Terry Bogard.
The trailer starts off by focussing on several areas around the series’ setting of South Town. It’s unknown what kind of roles these locations might play in the game above and beyond being just stages, but the name of the game suggests it might be a bit more significant.
The Fatal Fury series is of course one of SNK’s original fighting game franchises that fed into the crossover series The King of Fighters, which has been SNK’s primary fighting game series for a number of decades. The last standalone Fatal Fury game, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, was released in 1999 and was incredibly well-regarded.
The King of Fighters 13 Global Match coming 16 November 2023
A new version of The King of Fighters 13, a beloved entry in the series which first released in 2010, is getting a new version that features rollback netcode and ‘overhauled online functionality’. It’s notable for being the last King of Fighters game to use a 2D sprite-based art style (which has been sorely missed, if you ask me).
The King of Fighters 13 Global Match arrives on PS4 and
Tekken 8 introduces Raven and newcomer Azucena
Bandai Namco took the event to introduce two new characters coming to the upcoming Tekken 8: The Wesley Snipes-inspired ninja Raven, as well as brand new Peruvian fighter, Azucena.
First introduced in Tekken 5, Raven was eventually replaced in Tekken 7 by his teacher, Master Raven. Both are ninjas working for, hilariously, the United Nations. Now that he’s back, he brings a few new flashy tricks, including the ability to summon illusions of himself to deal damage. A couple of new, ethereal stages were also shown off in his reveal trailer.
Azucena is a brand new fighter to Tekken who hails from Peru, and loves coffee, which I can definitely get behind. She appears to have a very flamboyant personality feeding into her fighting style, which involves lots of feints, dance moves, and taunts. A lovely new Peruvian stage was also revealed in her trailer, which hides hidden Incan treasure once you break through certain walls.
Mortal Kombat 1 finally introduces Reptile, plus Havik and Ashrash
NetherRealm Studios also took the spotlight at Evo 2023 to reveal three returning characters for the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1.
Fan favourite ninja Reptile finally makes his return to the series, this time as a shapeshifting fighter. Havik and Ashrash return from the PS2/Xbox era games.
Mortal Kombat 1 is slated for release on 14 September 2023
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Guilty Gear Strive introduces Johnny
Arc System Works took the stage during the finals of the Guilty Gear Strive tournament to announce the first character coming to the game as part of the Season 3 character pass: the fan-favourite card-slinging gambler, Johnny.
He’ll be available on 24 August 2023.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gear is coming to Street Fighter 6
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming to Street Fighter 6. In a surprise announcement, Capcom confirmed that new gear, emotes, titles, stamps, in-game wallpapers and camera frames inspired by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise will be coming to the World Tour and Battle Hub modes of Street Fighter 6 shortly.
Players will be able to style their avatars with this gear from 8 August 2023.
A.K.I. is coming to Street Fighter 6 in Autumn 2023
A.K.I. – a brand new DLC character for Street Fighter 6 – also made an appearance at Evo 2023. She’s the 20th playable character for the game, and will land in the single-player World Tour mode in Autumn 2023 [Northern Hemisphere].
A brief teaser for A.K.I. revealed her cameo in World Tour mode, and gave a glimpse at her terrifying fighting style – which includes snake-like movements, bent limbs, and claw attacks. She appears to be inspired by Asian horror fiction, with plenty of jumpscares and unsettling tension in her reveal trailer.
