SNK’s Mai, Kula Diamond Return in Dead or Alive 6 PS5, But You’ll Need to Buy Them Again
SNK characters Mai Shiranui and Kula Diamond will be featured in the PlayStation 5 remaster of Dead or Alive 6: Last Round, reversing an earlier announcement that they would be excluded from the re-release.
Initially, publisher Koei Tecmo had stated that the SNK crossover characters would not appear in the PS5 version of the game. However, the company has since confirmed their inclusion, marking a reversal from that previous position. While this news will please fans of both franchises, there’s a significant caveat: both characters will be available exclusively as separate purchases outside the Standard Edition package.
Adding to the complexity is the fact that existing players who already own Mai and Kula Diamond in the base PlayStation 4 version of Dead or Alive 6 will not have their content automatically carry over. Instead, they will need to purchase the characters again separately if they wish to use them in the PS5 remaster. This decision to require existing owners to double-dip reflects the licensing complications inherent in featuring third-party characters from SNK’s The King of Fighters franchise.
The announcement also included a visual enhancement to the game’s Lost Paradise stage, which has been relit and redesignated as Oboro. The inclusion of SNK characters represents a reversal for players disappointed by the initial exclusion, but the monetization approach demonstrates ongoing challenges publishers face when managing licensing agreements across platform generations.