Virtua Fighter is a name that holds a lot of weight in the history of fighting games, and yet the series hasn’t received a major new installment in well over a decade. It appears that that’s going to change, however, because Sega has announced that Virtua Fighter is coming back in a bigger way than just Figma’s mini Sega console replicas.
At this year’s Tokyo Game Show, the publisher unveiled a new Virtua Fighter project with an emphasis on esports. It did this with a new trailer and a Twitter post that (according to a translation shared by Nibellion) reads: “The gold standard of gaming is finally back in eSports! Announcing the Virtua Fighter X eSports project! Virtua Fighter, the world's first 3D fighting game in 1993, will be rebooted first in Japan to celebrate Sega's 60th anniversary. Stay tuned for more news on this one!”
The trailer itself, meanwhile, merely features different clips of players competing at tournaments, followed by a brief glimpse of a new render of series mascot Akira Yuki. One can assume that this is teasing a brand new Virtua Fighter game, maybe even the long-awaited Virtua Fighter 6, but right now Sega is keeping things rather vague, so it remains to be seen how exactly this esports project will be rebooting Virtua Fighter.
At any rate, any new Virtua Fighter will be welcomed by the fans who, like Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon, want to see Virtua Fighter rebooted. Being that it’s been eight years since the last version of Virtua Fighter 5 came out, it’s safe to say they’ve waited long enough.
A new Virtua Fighter project is in development.