Street Fighter 5 Beta Will Return This Month

Capcom is going to give players another opportunity to try out Street Fighter 5 before launch. An advertisement says that the beta test will go back online later in December.

The news comes from a NeoGAF user who snapped a picture of a PlayStation Network ad for SF5. The ad tells gamers to pre-order so they can access a beta test running from December 17th to the 20th:

Shoryuken reports that the PS4 and PC versions of the beta client received a mysterious update on Tuesday. The patch seems like a strong indication that Capcom is preparing for another phase of testing.

The 2015 Capcom Cup will be held at PlayStation Experience 2015 this weekend. During the event, 32 of the top Street Fighter players will be competing for a $250,000 prize pool and the title of World Champion. Capcom often saves big announcements for events like this so maybe they plan to officially confirm the beta test's return during the Capcom Cup. I guess PSN just ran the advertisement a bit earlier than planned.

We don't know the content of the beta just yet. However, we've got a good idea of what characters we'll see based on the previous tests. The summer test allowed us to play Ryu, Chun-Li, Cammy, Birdie, Nash and M. Bison. The beta from the early fall featured Ken, Necalli, Vega, R. Mika, Rashid and Karin. That leaves us with four characters from the launch roster we haven't tried yet: Zangief, Laura, Dhalsim and the final yet-to-be-announced in the game. It seems likely that we'll get to play as these four characters in the December beta.

It's possible that Capcom will also announce the last character for Street Fighter 5's roster at PlayStation Experience 2015. Like the December beta, though, that surprise seems to have been spoiled by leaks as well. Sound files discovered in the beta client reveal that there's going to be a character named Fan. He's an arrogant minion of M. Bison. You can listen to the early clips of his voice here.

Street Fighter 5 will launch on PS4 and PC on February 16th. If you're hoping for an Xbox One version, producer Yoshinori Ono has some bad news for you.