Things are certainly getting interesting for the Virtua Fighter series. Roughly half a year after announcing a new eSports initiative and just weeks after a Korean listing for Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown was spotted, the Japanese PSN store may have accidentally leaked the announcement of a new Virtua Fighter game. As noted by tracking bot PSN Releases on Twitter, a database listing for "Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown for PS4" was recently added to Sony's digital storefront alongside some new artwork.
It's not much to go on, but it seems that Sega really is updating Virtua Fighter 5 one last time for a new series of eSports tournaments. As a matter of fact, the game is seemingly titled "Virtua Fighter eSports" in Japan if the artwork is any indication. While not exactly a new installment in the series like fans have wanted, it would be great to have a version of Virtua Fighter 5 on modern platforms that isn't locked behind a Yakuza game.
Taking a glance at the artwork, there doesn't seem to be any new characters coming to this latest iteration of Virtua Fighter 5. The entire cast is present and accounted for, which means this version will likely be limited to a roster rebalance and possibly some new netcode. With the last official release of Virtua Fighter 5 happening in 2012, it's definitely been quite some time since the cast has been touched up.
Whatever this is, it's certainly exciting. Fighting games had a resurgence during the Xbox 360 era and a ton of classic brands made a comeback with new iterations and re-releases. Virtua Fighter has been gone for too long, so I'll take a new version of an old classic while waiting for the next installment.
Source: Twitter, Video Games Chronicle