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Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown announced for June as a PS4 exclusive

Ryu Ga Gotoku has joined the Sega AM2 devs in recrafting Virtua Fighter 5 for launch on the PlayStation 4 in June.

TJ Denzer

May 25, 2021 2:00 PM

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Virtua Fighter 5 has widely been considered to be one of the best, deepest, and most rewarding 3D fighting games in the genre, but it’s been quite a while since we got anything new out of the VF franchise. That’s about to change and the change is coming quite fast. Following up on previous teases, Sega has finally and formally revealed Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown, and it’s coming exclusively to PS4 at the start of June.

Sega revealed Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown alongside developer Ryu Ga Gotoku in an IGN exclusive and trailer on May 25, 2021. Notable details of the announcement is that this version of Virtua Fighter 5 was reworked in co-development between Sega’s AM2 arcade team and Yakuza developer Ryu Ga Gotoku. Indeed, the game was adapted to Yakuza 6 and Yakuza Kiwami’s Dragon Engine. It also includes updated visuals, new background music, a new UI, and online features such as spectator mode, lobby and tournament systems, and more. The game is slated to hit PlayStation 4 exclusively on June 1, 2021. There’s also rumor that it could be part of June 2021’s PS Plus offerings.

All in all, Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown features more than little bit of polish on the original game. It goes beyond the norm of usual high-definition spruce ups to make it a uniquely recrafted game. The Dragon Engine alone could have interesting effects on the overall fighting and procession of matches, but Sega has said from the very first teases of this title that it wants it to be a competitive masterpiece. Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown was originally teased an “esports-focused” title in Japan. It’s great to see it stateside, but it will be even more interesting to see how it plays when it launches on June 1.

With the game’s release right around the corner next week, stay tuned for further coverage and details regarding Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.