The third-party results of Sony selling so many PlayStation 4 consoles are starting to take shape one year later. Capcom has announced that Street Fighter 5 will be console exclusive to the PS4, though it will also appear on Windows PC.
Adding insult to injury for Xbox One owners, the PS4 and PC versions will support cross-platform online multiplayer.
Capcom first showed off Street Fighter 5 at PSX (PlayStation Experience) in December, and the exclusivity news got the PlayStation-loving crowds frothing. To a certain extent the excitement was justified, especially considering the cross-platform elements with the PC version.
Still, Street Fighter is an old franchise, and while still relatively popular, it’s not like Street Fighter 5 being exclusive to PS4 is an Earth-shattering development.
What it means, however, is that we’re starting to see the long lead times of game development finally catch up with the PlayStation 4’s sales success compared to Xbox One. Capcom isn’t one to grant exclusivity lightly, and seeing the next game in its seminal fighting franchise appear only on a Sony console is notable.
The full Street Fighter 5 characters list isn’t yet known, though Capcom has said the game is built on Unreal Engine 4, which means all the Street Fighter 5 characters will look great. Unreal Engine 4 is Epic Games’ next-gen game engine.
“I have been a very loyal fan of this historic franchise since the debut of the first Street Fighter in 1987. This opportunity to help the development team using Unreal Engine 4 for the new title is a great honor for Epic, and I couldn’t be more proud,” said Taka Kawasaki, Territory Manager of Epic Games Japan.
Street Fighter 5 joins a long line of games that have been announced recently and shown to be powered by Unreal Engine 4. Crackdown, EVE: Valkyrie, Fable Legends and many others round out the rapidly growing list of games using the engine.
