Zenless Zone Zero Producer Zhenyu Li, Street Fighter 6 Producer Shuhei Matsumoto, and Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama recently participated in a creator's roundtable. ZZZ's official X (formerly known as Twitter) page recently uploaded a teaser video of the roundtable episode soon to air on June 29, 2024. This had fans buzzing as rumors of both games collaborating soon are stirring up on social media.

While rumors aren't always a sure thing, the idea of Zenless Zone Zero and Street Fighter 6 collaborating isn't farfetched. The fact the Producers and Director of both games are specifically sitting down in a creator's roundtable episode could be a sign. It's also worth noting that since the release of SF6, they've collaborated with several games and animes such as Monster Hunter and SPY x FAMILY.

Another thing worth mentioning is that Capcom never gatekept their characters. We've seen some Street Fighter characters like Akuma make an appearance in Tekken 7. Then there's Ryu and Chun-Li who both guested in The King of Fighters All Star. Whatever the case may be, the teaser of both gaming companies sitting down together is possibly a setup for something big.

Zenless Zone Zero Takes Inspiration from Street Fighter 6

One aspect players noticed with Zenless Zone Zero's map is that it resembles Street Fighter 6's Metro City. They don't look exactly the same, but it's clear that miHoYo took inspiration from Capcom's fighting game. Apparently, this is no coincidence as ZZZ Producer Zhenyu Li put in a lot of hours in SF6.

Li recently revealed that SF6's combat helped shape their upcoming RPG. Having thousands of hours of gameplay, it isn't at all surprising if ZZZ's combat might end up feeling like Capcom's fighting game. The Producer explained that while he was playing SF6, he studied how the combat system worked and tried applying it during the development of their game.

On top of learning and applying the fighting game's combat system, Li also pointed out how ZZZ will be beginner-friendly. He's aware that many gamers aren't particularly excellent in action-fighting games, especially in franchises like Street Fighter and Tekken. However, both franchises' latest installments resolved that issue by making inputs easier to learn making the gameplay experience less daunting. With that in mind, miHoYo's producer wants their game to cater to a broader audience as well.

Having all that said, given how Li openly admitted that he took inspiration from SF6, this makes the collaboration between the two games more likely to happen soon.

Collaboration Predictions

With the collaboration between Zenless Zone Zero and Street Fighter 6 likely happening, one can't help but wonder how exactly both developers plan on doing so. We have a few predictions on how they could do it.

For starters, a special ZZZ event featuring some fighters from SF6 could happen. Given how miHoyo is known for making gacha games, this will most likely create a lot of buzz and will attract more players to try and draw for the iconic Street Fighter characters.

Another possible way the two can collaborate is by bringing in some ZZZ agents as DLC fighters in SF6. This move would do both games a favor as ZZZ fans could try hopping on SF6 and vice versa. However, it's also possible that Capcom will only offer DLC costumes instead which isn't so bad either way.

Whatever the case may be, we are all excited to see how their potential collaboration turns out.

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