It’s been over three years since Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown was released for the PlayStation 4 on June 1, 2021. However, this was actually just a enhanced remaster of Virtua Fighter 5 which originally appeared in the arcades back in 2006. So in actuality, it’s been nearly 20 years since a new mainline entry in the Virtua Fighter series was released.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Sega declared in an interview with Video Games Chronicle that a new Virtua Fighter is in fact in development. Sega had recently left fans with a cryptic tease about this, but this is the first time that they’ve outright confirmed what people have been speculating about.
“Sega is currently planning to bring back some really historic franchises across games, television, and film, like Eternal Champions, Shinobi, Comix Zone, Space Channel 5 and Crazy Taxi. Some of these IPs are nearly 30 years old, so how challenging is it to be sure that they’ll still resonate with a modern audience?” asked Video Games Chronicle.
“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 another Virtua Fighter being developed.” — Justin Scarpone
A number of games that we already knew about was addressed here. Therefore, it was actually surprising to see Sega acknowledging a series that wasn’t even mentioned in the question.
“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 another Virtua Fighter being developed,” said Justin Scarpone, Sega’s new global head of transmedia. “And so all that’s very exciting.”
Unfortunately, this is the only point in which Scarpone mentions Virtua Fighter in the interview. He ends up going on to talk about how Sega is currently working on both a new game and film for Shinobi, a series initially started in 1987 that hasn’t had a game since 2011.
Evidently, Sega is apparently putting a great deal of emphasis on some of their older IPs now. It’s actually quite ambitious for them to also be developing a new Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, and Streets of Rage alongside a new Shinobi and Virtua Fighter, not to mention a third Sonic movie and an upcoming Shinobi film.
Based on the aforementioned cryptic tease, Sega is likely working on “Virtua Fighter 6.” In an image, they posted a 6×9 table spelling out “SEGA” 54 times, except it was spelled as “SE6A” in one instance.
SEGAじゃないのはどれだ？
Can you spot the odd one out? pic.twitter.com/Cca6XrC8OS
— セガ公式アカウント (@SEGA_OFFICIAL) October 5, 2024
Leading up to this hint, there were many rumors circulating about a new Virtua Fighter being in development. Back in December 2023, the company even acknowledged fan interest in Virtua Fighter despite there being no announcement at the Game Awards 2023 as many had expected.
“We are evaluating right now,” said Sega back then. “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.”
With this in mind, it seems that Sega is trying to figure out how to make Virtua Fighter as flashy, similar to the Street Fighter or Tekken series while also somehow maintaining that feeling of realism.