Although there seemed to be signs suggesting otherwise, Sega basically announced everything but a new Virtua Fighter at The Game Awards 2023 this past week.
The Washington Post recently interviewed Sega co-COO and Sega of America CEO Shuji Utsumi about the “new era” for the developer as well as what they’re looking at for the future of Virtua Fighter.
With the reveals of new entries for Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio, Shinobi and Streets of Rage, Utsumi says these are part of the “treasure trove” of dormant IP he wanted to see revived and is now finally coming to fruition.
Moreover, he says Sega wants to show their “edginess and rebellious mind-set” that the company was known for in its console days of the ’90s, which was pretty apparent in the TGA trailer.
So what does that mean for Virtua Fighter?
Well, Sega is apparently aware of the demand, but they don’t sound sure of what direction to really take it next yet.
“We are evaluating right now,” said Utsumi. “Virtua Fighter doesn’t use so many tricks, special moves like in Street Fighter, it’s very realistic. How can we make it more dramatic? It’s something we’re working on.”
Interestingly, this is a similar answer that VF Producer Seiji Aoki gave all the way back in 2021, so it doesn’t sound like much concrete progress on a brand new title has been made over the past two years.
In potential opposition to Utsumi’s idea, however, Aoki noted that the core would need to make sure that old Virtua Fighter fans who’ve supported the series for upwards of 30 years would also enjoy a new entry that would live up to their expectations.
So it sounds like Sega may need to walk a bit of a tight rope to try and keep their core VF community pleased as well as make something that can appeal to modern fighting game fans who are less familiar with its intricacies.
Sega did just announce a new version of Virtua Fighter 3tb as the first new release for it in over 20 years, and they of course released Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown in 2021.
It seems pretty clear that Sega hasn’t given up on Virtua Fighter by any stretch, but it’s also likely going to be multiple more years before we see anything substantial and new from them one way or the other.