Street Fighter 4 is several months away from release

Will there be Downloadable Characters for the console version of Street Fighter 4?

Sven: At the moment, DLC characters are not the plan. Beyond that, we're a bit early to be talking about DLC for a game that's still several months from release. :)

TAS: I don't know the specific release date, but for the time being I believe the release will be close to the Gamestop date (February 3, 2009).

Also note that "this winter" lasts through 2009, it's basically the same as "this fiscal year" although many believe that both mean "by December" but that isn't the case.

The good thing is that at least we'll know soon (Tokyo Game Show) about what's going on with the release date.