Sega has announced today that the PS3 version for Virtua Fighter 5 has gone gold and will release on February 20th as previously scheduled with a “T” for Teen rating and an MSRP of $59.95. Sega has also announced a partnership with Gamestop that will provide those who pre-order a $5 discount off the retail price, for a limited time of course. So get out there early and pre-order this sure-fire hit.
Word has also come out that the recently disclosed Xbox 360 version now won’t be ready until sometime this fall, which pushes back the originally announced summer release target just a bit. So it looks like the PS3 version will get a few more months of exclusivity under its belt. Many Xbox 360 fanboys are already proclaiming that the long wait for the 360 version to come out is because online play will be added to stick it to the PS3 version, but anyone who knows the Virtua Fighter series and AM2’s stance on online play in the series knows that scenario is highly unlikely. It’ll be interesting to see what ultimately happens though, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the 360 version get some sort of bonus content.