Ultra Street Fighter 4's new character is not a returning fighter

The mysterious fifth character joining the roster in Ultra Street Fighter 4 has never been in a fighting game before.

"This character [has] never been featured in a Street Fighter game up until now," Capcom senior product manager Matt Dahlgren told the Jace Hall Show.

In fact, Ultra Street Fighter 4 "will be the first time he (or she) makes their fighting game debut".

That not only rules out Capcom characters which have appeared in various fighting games like Mega Man; it also rules out a crossover character from Tekken or another similarly friendly rival franchise.

Although there's a good chance the character will be an existing Capcom face, it's entirely possible we'll see an all-new Street Fighter cast member.

Ultra Street Fighter 4 will release in two forms - as a $15 DLC upgrade and as an all-new physical release, on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. As DLC it works out fairly cheaply at $3 per character, but it also adds six new stages and the latest round of balancing tweaks.

Dahlgren noted that Capcom's intent is not to enrf the most popular characters but to bring others in-line with them; Capcom's changes are based on feedback gathered from around the world.

"We received over 18,000 responses from North America and Europe, and over 12,000 responses from Japan," he said.

The update is due in early 2014.

Thanks, Shoryuken.