Mods are an intrinsic part of PC gaming these days — and while Skyrim and Fallout 4 mods may dominate the scene, there are plenty of other games that receive their fair share of fan-made content.
Just look at Street Fighter. Ever since 2009's Street Fighter IV, fans have been tweaking and reworking the game's character models to create the crossovers that would otherwise never happen. Granted, these aren't entirely new fighters, but custom-made character skins. For the most part, these fan-made mods simply replace an existing character's outfit, rather than create an entirely new fighter from scratch.
Even so, the results are usually impressive: watching Spider-Gwen take on the Flash is always fun, and most of the mods are ridiculously detailed.
Considering Blizzard's popularity, it was only a matter of time before one of the publisher's characters made the jump to Street Fighter V — and with Overwatch currently taking over most of the PC gaming scene, it makes sense that one of Blizzard's newest characters would join the fight.
It's easy to see why modder TheJamk chose Tracer to join Street Fighter V: not only is Cammy a perfect base model for Overwatch's time-manipulating hero, but Tracer feels like the perfect choice for such an impossible crossover:
So, what are the odds of Tracer officially joining the ranks of Street Fighter, as opposed to being a simple costume change? Well — it's not really that simple.
Balance is a huge design hurdle in fighting games: making sure that all of a game's different characters are on equal footing can take months upon months of work. Also, even with so much attention given to character balance, many fighting games tweak their respective systems post-launch.
On top of all that, Tracer would also need a full set of new moves and animations, including both Special Attacks and Critical Arts. Giving Cammy a new costume is relatively easy once the model has been created (which Blizzard already did), but creating an completely new fighter is something else entirely.
That being said, at least Overwatch and Street Fighter fans can both take solace in the fact that new characters are on the way for their respective games — but the chances of any sort of official crossover are pretty slim.
Overwatch's first new hero (whose identity has yet to be revealed) should be out sometime later this year, while Street Fighter V's new fighters will make their debut as part of the game's June update.
