Street Fighter V hype has been at a fever pitch for the last couple months: characters thought long-gone have returned, betas have taken place, and speculation has been running wild. Amidst all this chaos, a number of people have found character name abbreviations within the PC beta’s files, two of the more popular being hosted on Neogaf and Reddit.
Evidently, within the asset registry, several FBX files (3D model export files) have been found using the three-letter abbreviation system that was also present in Street Fighter IV. That being said, though one can glean the intended meaning of these abbreviations, ones for supposedly returning characters (GUL for Guile, DSM for Dhalsim, BSN for Bison [Balrog’s name in Japan], JRI for Juri, and IBK for Ibuki) all use the same initials used for them in Street Fighter IV, so refuting who these could actually be is more or less pointless; though there is some question as to who FAN, TUT (in the neogaf datamine) and NDK could be. Current guesses are that NDK is short for Nadeshiko, R. Mika’s tag-team partner; and that FAN is either an old or non-abbreviated name (like how SFIV’s Rufus’s three-letter name was CHB) for previously leaked character Zen.
Now, it’s too early to say whether or not these characters are confirmed in any way; there is always the possibility that these characters were abandoned in development. Or, since Matt Dahlgren told hiphop gamer that they were taking Story mode in a new direction, it is also possible that these characters will just be present in cinematic story elements, much like a number of Characters in Mortal Kombat X. Either way, this news gives hope to those hoping for certain characters to rear their heads again.
*Further credit to Reddit User animosf5 for providing the snapshot of new characters’ files
