Sega Says a New Virtua Fighter Is in Development — Could Virtua Fighter 6 Finally Be on the Horizon?

A new Virtua fighter game appears to be in the works after apparent confirmation from Sega itself.

In an interview with VGC, Justin Scarpone, Sega’s new global head of transmedia, dropped the potentially explosive news as part of a discussion about the various legacy titles the company is bringing back with new versions.

Here’s the quote:

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. And then in certain instances, we’re also doing animation series, or live-action films to augment that and be part of those roadmaps.

That innocuous mention of a new Virtua Fighter has already set tongues wagging within the fighting game community. Virtua Fighter hasn’t seen a mainline release in years, leaving mini-game appearances in Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Yakuza games and the 2021 release of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown to tide fans over. IGN has asked Sega for comment.

Virtua Fighter, which includes characters such as Akira Yuki, Pai Chan, and Wolf Hawkfield, is on the hardcore end of the fighting game spectrum, with slower-paced gameplay that challenges players to master its mechanics in order to enjoy success. Virtua Fighter 5, which first released in 2006, is considered one of the greatest fighting games of all time. Could Sega now be ready to release Virtua Fighter 6, nearly 20 years later?

During The Game Awards 2023, Sega announced new games in the Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, and Crazy Taxi franchises alongside the teaser trailer, below. The video shows brief clips of each of the games set to return.

Sega has said its Crazy Taxi reboot, for example, is an open-world, massively multiplayer AAA game. There is no release date yet for the Crazy Taxi reboot or any of the other new games announced at last year’s Game Awards. Perhaps we’ll find out more in December.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].