The genre did not revive really, it had a small boost recently with SF4 that helped, but if you look at it, it did not generate new games, mainly sequels of well known series. And often, budget/low risk sequels. This is why it is difficult for the genre to live again : it is mainly represented by sequels targeting the same hardcore audience as before.
Too many games try to cater to this hardcore audience that has to invest their entire life in playing, getting better and buying stuff.
Where are the more casual, fun games ? I had a blast with ARMS, I thought "finally some developer out there that tries to push a bit the boundaries and provides something new".
Who wants to buy another budget sequel like Tekken, Soul Calibur, Marvel vs Capcom or Dead or Alive ? We were playing the exact same games 20 years ago. Things need to be shook up a bit. I perfectly understand why Sega did not make Virtua Fighter 6. If it is to iterate on the same formula again, VF5 is already perfect.
That was exactly the problem with SF5.
Despite the warning signs of censorship, quality and content, I DID buy the game when it came out!... And it was a painful experience!
I thought, like many others, that despite being built as a DLC starter pack, I would at least enjoy an few online matches enough to get me the new characters that come out. After finishing the bare bones story, I jumped online with my main (the game REALLY wants you to chose a main, as you can chose a character upon matchmaking) and promptly got my ass handed to me in nearly every match.
The game asked for 100.000 "fight money" to give a new character.
The ridiculously easy and 1 hour short story mode, with the temporary available DLC characters, gave 180.000 fm, enough to buy a new character when the temporary shuted down system opens, and just 20.000 fm short of getting a second (like any sleazy Freemium would). After 4 hours of online loosing I've had gathered 400 fm. The online mode simply had no casual games playing. There was no other mode that would give FM (or just play in general besides survival), and casual gamers ether simply didn't buy the game, or had long given up on playing online.
The whole experience above meant that the pro players, the reviewers and the youtubers won't find any issue with it, but us casual gamers will ether have to train them selfs to the game to become better, or pay the real money.
I don't want to train!
I don't want to be among those guys that study frames in animations, and discussing whether Ryu's medium jab matches well with his light backward kick!
I just want to play with friends on a similar skill level!
Why is it so hard?!