Street Fighter V goes temporarily free again for second Capcom Fighters Network beta

The Capcom Fighters Network will undergo a second public beta later this month, which means free access to Street Fighter V online play for everyone—even if you don't own the game. The beta will feature improvements including the new Rage Quit System, which will now match "frequent disconnectors" with opponents of similar temperaments, improved loading times for Ranked and Casual matches, and cross-play between the PC and PS4 versions of the game.

"We’re continuing to optimize the new and improved Capcom Fighters Network – but we want to ensure things are just right before unleashing it onto the world. To that end, we’re planning to run an additional online Beta Test this month, with the intent of making the official launch of the new CFN as smooth as possible," Capcom wrote. "If that wasn’t enough to get you excited the next DLC character for Season 2 will be available for all beta players during the May 11-14 window."

Matchmaking has been improved, so it shouldn't take as long to find opponents as it did last time, and you can now opt to avoid being matched up against the same players repeatedly (although that will presumably slow things down a bit). More detailed stat tracking is in place, country flags should now properly appear in Battle Lounges, leaderboards can be filtered by country or league, and you can now add friends, or blacklist jerks, in the friend management system.

Of course, everything you earn and do will be wiped once the beta ends, but it's hard to go too wrong with unrestricted free play for the better part of a week. The Capcom Fighters Network second beta is set to run May 11-14; detailed timing hasn't been announced, but more information is up at capcom-unity.com.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.