It’s been nearly two decades since Virtua Fighter fans saw a new installment in Sega’s fighting game series. While a new game is not in development, Sega did reveal that it is “evaluating” how to revive the franchise for modern audiences.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Sega Co-Chief Operating Officer and Sega of America CEO Shuji Utsumi noted that the company pledges to revive more of its legacy properties. One franchise in particular that fans wish would return is Virtua Fighter.
“We are evaluating right now. Virtua Fighter doesn’t use so many tricks, special moves like in Street Fighter, it’s very realistic,” Utsumi said. “How can we make it more dramatic? It’s something we’re working on.”
Sega came out swinging at the 2023 Game Awards last week, where the studio announced it was developing not one but five games from its legacy properties, including Jet Set Radio. Ahead of the reveal, Sega was teasing a “new era” by sending out letters to several creators and influencers, many of whom were huge in the fighting game community, leading to speculation that a new Virtua Fighter game would be announced.
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This is not the first time in recent years Sega has acknowledged the Virtua Fighter franchise. During a 2021 financial presentation, the company revealed that it was looking at a list of IPs to revive, with Virtua Fighter among the list.
The last main entry in the series, Virtua Fighter 5, was released in 2006, originally in Arcades and the PlayStation 3. However, that installment would see ports to other platforms, and a remaster titled Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown was released in 2021.
Virtua Fighter debuted in 1993 as an arcade game before getting ported to consoles and Windows, and it’s credited as the first true 3D fighting game. Not to mention, the franchise was key in creating the Sega franchise Shenmue. As Yu Suzuki explained in a classic games post-mortem during GDC 2014, Shenmue was originally going to be an RPG set in the Virtua Fighter universe.
In our review of Virtua Fighter 5, we said, “Virtua Fighter 5 kicks a whole lot of MMA ass. It offers one of the most intuitive and robust fighting systems ever assembled, and the customization options and quest mode are great fun,” despite the subpar AI and lack of online support at the time.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.