It’s been nearly 18 years since Virtua Fighter received a brand new entry in the franchise, but there’s rumblings that could very well be changing in the near-ish future.
After revealing its alleged existence last month, a prominent Atlus and Sega leaker has popped back up with quite a few new details about this Virtua Fighter reboot.
According to Midori, who’s had a fairly strong track record in the past, the concept for the new VF has changed up many times since 2021 with a focus on online play, eSports and streaming / spectating.
There are said to be new characters with a “modern art style and character artists” with a main and side stories featuring these new fighters though no mention is made of the classic cast.
• Streaming and spectating implementation is an important part of this title and Super Game concept.
• It is a reboot of the Virtua Fighter series in development by current Virtua Fighter staff.
• It is a title releasing on all major platforms with crossplay and rollback.— みどり (@MbKKssTBhz5) March 4, 2024
They also allege Sega is developing Virtua Fighter as a modern competitor to Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 with concepts and mechanics similar to other recent fighting games although Midori doesn’t say what — but something like Modern controls would be an easy guess.
And yes, it is reported that this VF title will feature both crossplay and rollback netcode as well as releasing on all modern major systems after Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown was a PlayStation 4 exclusive.
As Midori previously alleged in their initial leak, this Virtua Fighter reboot is not being worked on by the Like a Dragon team but is instead comprised of current and past VF developers.
And there is all new main story and side stories with brand new characters.
— みどり (@MbKKssTBhz5) March 4, 2024
Although none of this has been officially confirmed, it would generally make sense with the Ultimate Showdown devs sharing their interest in making a new entry in the series — while previously expressing the difficulties in doing so.
There was hope that Sega would be revealing a new Virtua Fighter in the works at The Game Awards 2023 where they did announce new Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio and more from their treasure trove of IP with no specific mention of VF.
And there is an evolution of ranked matches that is similar to modern fighting games. This is a title that is focusing on scaling with the player and their play styles when they play online.
— みどり (@MbKKssTBhz5) March 4, 2024
Since these are just rumors, take this all with a grain of salt, especially after Midori also claimed a new Persona fighting game was in the works last year, and we’ve yet to see anything about that.
If there is a new Virtua Fighter in the works, it likely won’t be releasing until 2026 at the earliest, but probably closer to at least 2027 or 2028 — so it’s going to be a while.