A possible inconvenience for the future.

This news will not be an issue for most players, but a select few could get burned. Based on the Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition Japanese webpage, the physical edition of the game will include codes to redeem for the Season 1 & 2 character DLC, rather than having it included on the disc.

Presuming this remains true when the game arrives in 2018, it’s not a real surprise: it makes some sense under a modern production/distribution standpoint to just pack in a “vanilla” copy of the game, and let the Arcade Edition upgrades get patched in when you launch it, and tying that content to a single CFN user. This has no bearing on new players picking up a digital copy in January, but it is something to watch out for if you’re a gamer that likes to pick up used games, as a resold copy of SFVAE would be no different than the basic original release of Street Fighter V, leaving a newcomer with a lot of DLC to catch up on. A potentially greater inconvenience: it will also prevent tournament organizers from swapping around up-to-date SFVAE discs, making it trickier to ensure each station has the full roster available at a given event.

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition hits stores and arrives as a free upgrade to existing users on January 18, 2018.

Thanks to NightmareSteam for the tip.

Sources: Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition (Japan); NeoGAF