One of the most divisive brawlers finally reached its peak after a hard road of development. Street Fighter 5 turns six years old today as fans look forward to the future of the series, and wonder when exactly Capcom will announce a new installment to their lucrative fighting game franchise.

Announced during the PlayStation Experience event way back in December 2014, Street Fighter 5 was the latest sequel in a series that made a revolutionary comeback after nearly a decade of dormancy. With the success of Street Fighter 4, and how that game helped bring the fighting game genre back to prominence, Capcom wasted no time developing a true follow-up to take advantage of their renewed success. Partnering with Sony Computer Entertainment, the game was developed to be an exclusive to the PlayStation platforms and PC, and was built using Unreal Engine 4.

Following several beta and stress testing phases, SF5 was eventually released on February 16, 2016 for PS4 and PC, and featured cross-platform play between the two systems. However the game was met with mixed reviews, with players citing that the game lacked content at launch, and several technical issues nagged players during gameplay, including input lag for the PS4 version of the game. Capcom slowly addressed fans concerns by releasing patches that aimed to correct several bugs and glitches, and as part of their post-launch strategy, they were releasing new characters for the game as DLC. This would run for a total of five seasons during the game’s life cycle, with players able to purchase these new fighters and other downloadable content through real world currency or fight money that could be earned by completing challenges in the game or winning online matches.

Through the course of its five seasons, Street Fighter 5 would be repackaged and rereleased as Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition and then Street Fighter V: Champion Edition to reflect the new content and characters that accompanied each new revision the game had. Story-wise, the game takes place chronologically before the events of Street Fighter 3 and the game’s narrative would be fleshed out in the free DLC story mode called “A Shadow Falls.” Fan-favorite characters such as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Zangief would make a return as part of the game’s initial launch, while also introducing new fighters such as Necalli, Rashid, and Laura into the series for the first time. The roster count would expand from the base 16 to a whopping total of 46, with other fan-favorites like Guile, Sakura, Alex, Blanka, E. Honda, and even Dan making a comeback and also introducing new combatants such as Zeku, Kolin, G, and Luke.

Continuing the tradition of its predecessors, SF5 introduced new fighting game mechanics such as V-Skill and V-Trigger, giving each character unique abilities and moves to use in the game.  In later seasons, Capcom would add another set of V-Skills and V-Triggers for each character, as well as a new mechanic called V-Shift that allow players to dodge an attack and counter it at the expense of one bar in the V-Gauge.

Despite its rocky start and lack of content at launch, Capcom stuck with Street Fighter 5 and helped build it into a relatively solid fighting game experience that continues to be played and enjoyed in the fighting game community. The game is the flagship title of the Capcom Pro Tour, and is featured as a main title in fighting game tournaments held across the world such as the Evolution Championship Series and other eSports-sponsored events. After supporting the game’s content for five years, Capcom announced that the game’s post-launch was complete with the release of Luke as the final DLC character for Season 5. The developers even hinted that work towards the next chapter of Street Fighter has already begun, so it’s just a matter of time until Capcom officially announces what the future of the franchise will be.

Speaking of Capcom, the company has launched a countdown for a mystery reveal that will happen in a couple of days. Could it be Street Fighter 6? Here’s to hoping we hear of the next entry in the franchise soon.