As a sequel in one of gaming's most iconic series, it's unsurprising that plenty of information about Street Fighter 5 has been leaked, with data-mining recently revealing new information about the game's character roster. However, info dumps only get fans so far and today during Sony's Paris Games Week press conference, Street Fighter's executive producer Yoshinori Ono encouraged people to "forget anything [they've] heard" as he was about to make some official announcements.

The announcement that fans will have been most excited for is the reveal of the Street Fighter 5 release date. Previously confirmed for 'early 2016' some fans feared that the issues surrounding the game's beta testing may have led to a delay.

Thankfully, that's not the case as Ono said that Street Fighter 5 will be released on PlayStation 4 in North America and Europe on February 16, 2016. Although PC wasn't mentioned at the event, it seems likely that the PC version will hit on the same day so players can take advantage of the PS4/PC cross-play features in the game.

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Another big Street Fighter 5 reveal made during the press conference is that Indian yogi and pacifist Dhalsim will be in the game. Although Dhalsim was one character confirmed by the data-mining, this was fans' first chance at seeing him in action on the current-gen console.

In the trailer above, fans can see Dhalsim putting his incredibly bendy limbs to good use, twisting and contorting as poor Zangief gets the snot pummeled out of him. Dhalsim also has some rather handy 'zen-like' moves as he meditates in the air and suddenly jumps from one place to another. His flame abilities (which includes inflating his stomach to create a massive fireball) look pretty lethal too.

However, Dhalsim, who is also joined by newcomer Rashid and tag-team wrestler Rainbow Mika, wasn't the only Street Fighter 5 character revealed by Yoshinori Ono. In the first year after Street Fighter 5's release, six new characters will be added to the game for 'free', though players will purchase them with Fight Money, the in-game currency that can be earned just by playing the game. While fans may be slightly concerned about new characters breaking the game, the most recent Street Fighter 5 beta was designed to test Capcom's character deployment, so things will hopefully run smooth when the time comes.

Are you excited for Street Fighter 5? Are you happy that Dhalsim is a returning character? Leave a comment and let us know.

Street Fighter 5 releases February 16, 2016 for PS4.