The return of one of Sega’s flagship franchises is official. A newVirtua Fightertitle is currently being developed.
But the announcement wasn’t made with a ton of fanfare, or a red carpet parade. In fact, there isn’t even a trailer for the new game yet. Instead, Sega’s global head of transmedia, Justin Scarpone casually made the reveal during an interview withVGC:
So we have a suite of titles in development right now that fall into that legacy bucket, which we announced last year at The Game Awards;Crazy Taxi,Jet Set Radio,Streets of Rage,Shinobi, and we have anotherVirtua Fighterbeing developed.
It’s incredibly surprising that a reveal of this magnitude was done in such a relaxed manner. AlthoughVirtua Fighterisn’t as culturally relevant as it was in the past, it’s still a hefty intellectual property and was the first 3D fighter ever. Still, the fighting game community is already abuzz with rumors and speculation on what to expect from Sega.
The biggest question is whether or not the title in development is the long-awaitedVirtua Fighter 6, or yet another update of an older game in the series. And this is a fair inquiry, considering for nearly 20 years the franchise received only updates toVirtua Fighter 5.
Most recently, Sega releasedVirtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, a 2021 PlayStation 4 exclusive, which leads us to the next big question concerning the new game: Will Sega release the newVirtua Fighteron more than Sony consoles? This topic wasn’t addressed in Scarpone’s interview, and gamers likely won’t know how little information was made public for a while.
Further down the line, features like rollback netcode, crossplay, online training mode, and replay takeover will be hot topics for discourse concerning the new installment, and hopefully more details become known sooner rather than later.
Until then, fighting game enthusiasts can rest easy knowingVirtua Fighteris back.
