Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown was perhaps Sega’s worst-kept secret. The game was leaked last month when official art appeared on the Japanese PlayStation storefront, and then earlier today the game was announced early thanks to PlayStation Plus.
So it seems that Sega has finally decided the cat’s out of the bag enough that it warrants an official announcement, hosted by IGN.
Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown is yet another iteration of Sega’s most recent fighting game, but this time it will be a full remake. It’s being co-developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Sega AM2 for the Dragon Engine, the same one that powers Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. This means better graphics, including new lighting and shaders, but RGG and AM2 are taking things even further with new stage music, a new UI, and a new opening cinematic.
There’s also going to be built-in esports functionality in Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown. An online tournament mode will allow players to create round-robin tournaments, while a spectator mode will let people watch matches in real-time. Support will be for up to 16 players and include “new communications tools like stamps.”
Virtua Fighter 5 was initially launched as an arcade game back in 2006 before making its way to the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2007. It was remastered in 2011-2012 with new character costumes and animations as Virtual Fighter 5 Final Showdown, but one should never use the word “final” in a video game these days. Unless it’s Final Fantasy, of course.
If you can’t wait to play some Virtua Fighter 5, you can always find the in-game arcade boxes in Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like A Dragon. That said, you won’t have to wait long for Ultimate Showdown to arrive.
Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown launches as a PS4 exclusive download on June 1.
