Street Fighter V Goes Offline as Capcom Suspends Sales Over Security Issue

Street Fighter V is offline and off the shelves. Capcom says it has shut down the game’s online features on PlayStation 4 and Steam and is suspending sales on both storefronts while it carries out emergency security maintenance, and it hasn’t said when either will come back.

In a notice posted to the official Street Fighter account on October 27, Capcom tied the shutdown to the PHP programming language used in those two versions of the game:

To further strengthen security related to the PHP programming language used in the PlayStation 4 and Steam versions of Street Fighter V, content requiring online functionality is currently unavailable.

Capcom, via the official Street Fighter account

The same notice says emergency maintenance is underway and that sales on the PlayStation Store and Steam will be suspended in stages until the fix is finished. The Steam store page already lists the game as no longer available.

What still works, and what doesn’t

• Offline content: still playable, per Capcom.
• Anything that needs a connection: unavailable, which means online matches and the game’s other network features.
• Buying the game: suspended on PlayStation Store and Steam while the work continues.
• A return date: none announced.

This has been building for days

Today’s notice is the second step, not the first. Capcom posted an emergency maintenance notice on Street Fighter V’s Steam page on October 23 saying online content was down for security enhancements related to PHP. The new notice confirms the game is still offline and adds the sales suspension. The timing lines up with the PHP security vulnerabilities disclosed last week, though Capcom hasn’t said whether anyone actually exploited the flaw against its servers. It has only said it is strengthening security.

Capcom’s notice names only the PS4 and Steam versions of Street Fighter V. It says nothing about Street Fighter 6, the current game in the series, which added Arjun earlier this month.

Why fans are nervous

Street Fighter V launched in February 2016 and stopped getting new fighters years ago, so a lengthy fix isn’t guaranteed to be a priority. Capcom has called delistings “temporary” before: Delisted Games points out that Street Fighter X Tekken has been unavailable for years. None of that means SFV won’t come back, but until Capcom gives a date, offline is the only way to play it.

We’ll update this story when Capcom announces a restoration date.