We usually see female characters censored in Japanese video games but I don't think that's all the censorship had or would ever do. This kind of things snowball quickly once it sticks, eventually encompassing all.

In all my years in the culture war since 2008, I have not seen any criticism of nor attacks on "hot/fanservice male" characters; nor have I seen any mainstream games articles, advocation, campaigns, activism, education or talks to censor and/or desexualize male characters.

This is over a period of around 15 years. We could go another 15 years and no censorship nor de-sexualization would happen to male characters in entertainment media.

The SJW/Feminist agenda, at the root, has always been about hating men and the things they like. That's why they choose to only target, attack and censor female characters.

For example, SJWs/Feminists have a hatred for Anime and Manga (because guys like the medium) and always complaining and attacking the fanservice female characters, claiming that they are objectified and sexualized for the male gaze. Funny how they completely ignore the Yaoi/BL genre isn't it?

So do spare me the 'oh but censorship encompasses all' excuse.

That said, you could be right and it could just be re-design.

I think it is just a re-design, based on the fact that the SJW agenda does not advocate for the censor of male characters.

The likes of Ryu, Ken, etc. all look different now so it's logical that Zangief would get a change of design.

The wonderful thing about censorship is that it's purposefully made vague and done without warning so people would have hard time identifying it , let alone calling it out.

To be honest, unless there is an "original", "early" or "previous" version of it to compare to, censorship is always hard to identify.

That's why you have to see what the trend and politics are. And the current trend and politics now is s**ting on attractive/hot women and female characters.