We’re still about a year away but they’re already dropping teases.
The biggest fighting game tournament in the world is heading to Europe next year and recently revealed its Evo France 2025 mainstage lineup of games. The tournament is set to take place on October 10-12 in Nice, France, and is the second overseas Evo event.
For one thing, it’s interesting that they already have their lineup set even before the other Evo’s in the year. A lot can happen between the 11 months between then and now but this list has certainly gotten people talking.
Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and Guilt Gear Strive being part of the Evo France 2025 lineup is a no-brainer. The big three of the current generation of fighting games have held strong in terms of entrants in Evo events. They also have substantial content updates waiting for them down the line, guaranteeing that they’ll remain fresh and exciting even after a year from now.
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising also had a respectable turnout in this year’s Evo. The revamped fighter has maintained steady popularity among fighting game fans and has earned another spot on the main stage.
Accompanying them is Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, the latest entry from developers SNK. While the game itself launches on April 24, 2025, the hype for it has been through the roof, practically making it a shoo-in for Evo.
Kombat is Klosed
However, the big bomb in this list is the fact that Mortal Kombat 1 is not in Evo France 2025. Instead, taking its spot is Dragon Ball FighterZ, a game that didn’t even make it to this year’s Evo mainstage.
People speculated that this may have to do with some kind of EU censorship issue due to the MK series’ overt use of blood and gore. But the more likely answer is that the game was dropped due to its lack of popularity. MK1 had the second-lowest number of players in this year’s Evo. Last year, its previous entry, Mortal Kombat 11, was at the bottom with fewer players than even the niche anime fighting game Melty Blood: Type Lumina.
This seems to be the result of the compounding dissatisfaction that fighting game fans have had with the MK series. While their games do well commercially, fighting game fans generally turn their nose at MK for being clunky and boring. It’s unfortunate, especially since recent updates to MK1 seem to be steadily addressing those long-standing problems.
Still More to Come
“The games that have been selected here are largely to show a wide spread of types of fighting game competition,” said Richard “The Hadou” Thiher, Evo General Manager, during the announcement of the Evo France 2025 lineup.
He also hinted that these six games may not be the only games being showcased during the event. Evo always has numerous side tournaments, demos, and exhibitions on display and it’s likely no different here. “This is only the starting point for Evo in France,” said Richard. “We’re not definitively done [with the lineup], we’re just getting started.”
Banner photo by Chris Okamura / Evo.