Key Takeaways
- It’s been 17 years since the last mainline Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter 5, released.
- Fans have wondered where the series has gone, and it seems the long wait is finally about to be over.
- Sega’s global head of transmedia recently revealed that a new Virtua Fighter game is in development.
Sega has officially confirmed that it’s developing a brand-new Virtua Fighter game, 17 whole years after the original release of Virtua Fighter 5 in 2007.
Although Sega is mostly known these days for Sonic the Hedgehog, Like a Dragon, and Persona (two of which they just publish instead of develop), they’ve got an absolutely humongous back catalogue of games. Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, and even bloody Ristar, are just a few of the classics that we’ve seen barely anything of over the past few decades.
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While Sega seems to have been happy just focusing on its big three for most of the current generation, it recently confirmed that it’s got plans to bring back all of the above and more for reboots and remakes. One series I didn’t mention above but absolutely fits the category of forgotten Sega classics is Virtua Fighter, which has finally been confirmed to be getting a new game.
Sega Is Finally Making “Another” Virtua Fighter
While attending Gamescom Asia, VGC recently had the chance to chat with Sega’s global head of transmedia, Justin Scarpone, who opened up about some of the plans that the company has to revive some of its classics. During that interview, Scarpone lists some of the “legacy” titles that are being remade or rebooted, which apparently includes “another Virtua Fighter”.
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. And so all that’s very exciting. – Justin Scarpone
Scarpone doesn’t reveal much more about the upcoming Virtua Fighter game, but it is the first confirmation from Sega that something new is being made for the series. As fans are painfully aware of by now, there hasn’t been a brand-new Virtua Fighter since the fifth mainline entry in 2007, which has received a few updated versions in recent years but never been expanded on.
In fact, the most attention that Virtua Fighter has been getting in recent years comes from the Like a Dragon series, as each of the games usually has a cabinet that lets players try out the old games. All of that training is about to pay off with a new game, though, and we’ve all got our fingers crossed that Kiryu or Ichiban end up on the roster.
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