Virtua Fighter may soon attract public attention again. Justin Scarpone, global head of transmedia at Sega, accidentally mentioned a new game in the franchise during an interview with VGC. “We have a number of games in development right now that fall under the legacy that we announced last year at The Game Awards,” he said. “Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, and we’re developing another Virtua Fighter. It’s all very exciting.”
Very exciting indeed. Most of these games were indeed presented at The Game Awards as part of a new era for Sega, but Scarpone’s mention of Virtua Fighter was a new revelation. The last installment of the series was Virtua Fighter 5, released back in 2006. This doesn’t mean that the fighting game franchise hasn’t been on the move since then; there have been riffs and reworkings, such as Virtual Fighter 5: Final Showdown in 2015 and Virtua Fighter Ultimate Showdown in 2021. But it’s been almost 20 years since fans got a brand new game.
Other than this cursory confirmation that Sega is working on a sequel, we know nothing about what a possible Virtua Fighter 6 might hold. It’s likely that Akira Yuki and other familiar faces will return, but anything is possible with the characters and mechanics.
