Artwork for Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown has appeared on the Asian PlayStation Network, leading credence to an official announcement soon.
As previously reported, Sega teased “Virtua Fighter x eSports” in late September 2020; to celebrate their 60th anniversary. Later, the Korean rating board revealed Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown. The description also included the Virtua Fighter x eSports moniker, while Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown (the most recent version Virtua Fighter game) was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012.
Now, PlayStation Network Asia has added an image for Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown to their servers. This was discovered by PSN Releases; a bot that monitors uploads to PlayStation Network and PlayStation Stores, and uploads them to Twitter. Other than the ID of CUSA27067, details are scant at this time. VGC also reported on art featuring a Virtua Fighter eSports logo.
Based on the name, Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown is likely to be based on Vitura Fighter 5; but with all DLC and content from later versions. The game is also likely to be re-balanced in order to make new step into the competitive fighting game scene.
In other recent news, Sony Interactive Entertainment and RTS announced they acquired the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) fighting game tournaments, and will premiere August 2021.
EVO 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, and was altered to EVO Online to take place Summer 2020. On July 2nd, 2020 EVO Online was then cancelled, due to multiple allegations of sexual harassment and abuse made against co-founder and then CEO Joey “MrWizard” Cuellar and other prominent members of the fighting game community.
As the allegations came to light, multiple publishers and developers pulled support for the event, meaning EVO would have had very few game tournaments even if it had run. It is likely we would have seen announcements regarding updates, DLC, and new games during the event. The “Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable” has seemingly taken its place for announcements.
As the tournament features Tekken 7, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, and Guilty Gear -Strive-; it is likely we will at least get more information on Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown during the event; if not an official announcement sooner. The game is also likely to be coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
