Physical Nintendo Switch 2 Release Of ‘Street Fighter 6’ Puts Two-Year Expiration Date On DLC Download Codes
Another day, another baffling anti-consumer decision related to the Nintendo Switch 2, this time as it has been confirmed that while every physical copy of the console’s Street Fighter 6 port will include a unique download code with which players can grab the Capcom fighter’s thus-far-released DLC, said codes will also come with a hard expiration date.
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Its full title, in typical Street Fighter style, reading Street Fighter 6 Years 1-2 Fighters Edition, this Switch 2-exclusive release of the franchise’s latest entry will provide players with not only the base game itself, but also its Year 1 and Year 2 character passes.
Usually priced at $30 each – on top of the base game’s $40 price-tag – these passes collectively add eight new characters – Year 1 brings Rashid, A.K.I., Ed, and Akuma, while Year 2 taps M.Bison (Dictator), Elena, and King of Fighters series guest stars Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui – as well as additional color palette for each of their default costumes to the Street Fighter 6 character select screen.
Further, the Fighters Edition will also grant players access to a portion of the additional content provided in the Ultimate editions of passes (as priced at $50 each) – While Switch 2 players won’t get the included additional color palettes for the DLC fighters’ alternate costumes, they will get everything else, including four new stages – Ruined Lab, Enma’s Hollow, Reniala Remains, as well as Pao Pao Cafe 6) and new color ‘default costume color palettes’ for the game’s base roster.
As noted above, due to the limited space available on Switch 2 cartridges – maxing out at 64GBs, one cart can only barely contain SF6‘s base 60GB file size – players who opens up a physical copy of the Fighters Edition will find a unique digital download code which they can then redeem on the Nintendo eShop for the extra content.
That is, only if they do so in an acceptable time frame, as unlike most games whose physical releases require some form of post-purchase content download, the codes included in the Nintendo Switch 2 release of Street Fighter 6 will outright expire.
As pointed out by Twitter user @DoesItPlay1 based on their inspection of a photo provided by Japanese video game news reporter @Gennki_JPN, the back cover of the Fighters Edition physical release’s box explicitly states that the codes will only work if they are redeemed between “June 5th, 2025 and June 5th, 2027”.
In other words, if for whatever reason – maybe they’re saving it as a special celebration, or as a back-up copy, or on sale from a store who pre-purchased inventory, just to name a few examples – a player does not punch in their provided DLC codes sometime within the two-year period following the game’s initial release, they will lose their included access to the relevant content and will be forced to buy it independently if they ever eventually wish to do so.
While the idea of an expiring digital download code is already a pretty egregious concept on its own, what makes their use with not just Street Fighter 6, but Nintendo Switch 2 games in general even more aggravating is the fact that thanks to the console’s new ‘game-key cards’ technology is little more than a physical DRM verification system that still requires a given game to be download from eShop before it can be played.
As such, the DRM for the Year 1-2 Fighters Edition content could have just been included on the same physical game-key card as the DRM for the base game, in doing so mitigating this entire ‘use it or lose it’ idea and ensuring that those who buy the game second-hand will be guaranteed access to the DLC.
(But if they do that, well, then they can’t milk those second-hand players for an additional character pass sale!)
At current, it is unknown whether Nintendo or Capcom were behind the decision to use expiring DLC codes instead of including the content’s verification markers on the game-key cart.
Further, it has not yet been confirmed whether Capcom intends to make new codes available to customers who fail to redeem their codes by the June 2027 deadline.
Per above, Street Fighter 6 Years 1-2 Fighters Edition is set to debut as a Nintendo Switch 2 launch title on June 5th, 2025.
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