Capcom today announced that Street Fighter X Tekken’s 12 DLC characters will be coming sooner than most expected, and that those who purchase the PS Vita version of the game will get a bonus if they own the PS3 version as well.

In case you’ve forgotten (or just never heard), here are the twelve new characters that are being added to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of SFxT:

Street Fighter: Blanka, Cody, Dudley, Elena, Guy, Sakura
Tekken: Alisa Bosconovitch, Bryan Fury, Christie Monteiro, Jack-X, Lars Alexandersson, Lei Wulong

The pack of 12 DLC characters will hit on July 31st—much sooner than I was expecting—for $19.99 on the PlayStation Store, or 1600 MS Points on the Xbox Marketplace. As Capcom notes, this is far sooner than the originally planned date, which was to be sometime after the Vita version launches this fall.

Ah, but there’s a catch! If you wait and pick up that Vita version of SFxT, all first run retail copies will come with two free download codes which can be used on the PS3. The first code will get you those 12 characters, and the second will net you free alternate costumes for the main roster of 38 characters (which, from my understanding, will be usable on both the PS3 and PS Vita versions of the game).

So, if you already own the PS3 version of Street Fighter X Tekken, but are also planning on getting the game on the Vita, you might want to hold off on buying any of that DLC.

As well, the game will be getting a balancing patch along with this DLC on July 31st—so, that’s good to hear.