As first reported by Kongbakpao, Street Fighter: Duel – a new Street Fighter-themed mobile game from Tencent – is now available for pre-registration in China ahead of an upcoming closed beta. This is going to be a no-wipe beta as ư well, which means any progress from players will be kept for the final version of the game.
This is the latest addition to the constantly-expanding roster of officially licensed IPs that Tencent is bringing to the mobile platform. Capcom’s Street Fighter is no doubt a very well-known franchise among the gaming community, so this acquisition is certainly going to be a beneficial one for Tencent.
That's shown in the number of participants that Tencent is expecting this pre-registration campaign to attract. As is commonly seen in mobile games, those who join the beta will receive various in-game rewards when the game officially launches, with the exact amount depending on different milestones.
From what the game’s official website revealed, three hundred thousand players have already signed up, and that is only the first milestone. So it’s clear that Tencent is banking on the reputation of Street Fighter to draw players in. Moreover, there’s also a system that offers players even more incentives if they can recommend more people to take part in the beta.
Not a lot of information on the actual gameplay of Street Fighter: Duel is available at the moment, but by the look of things, it’s not going to be the 1v1 fighting experience that we've come to expect from the Street Fighter franchise. Instead, it seems you’ll be assembling a team of multiple familiar characters and performing their signature moves.
There's also no confirmation of a Western release at the moment, though Tencent is known for testing its games in Asian markets first before launching globally, so we can expect Street Fighter: Duel to come to other regions outside of China in the future.