We knew it, the exit of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown last June on PS4 and in PlayStation Plus / PlayStation Now subscriptions served as a popularity test to gauge the interest of the current public, especially from a competitive point of view, the title having even been baptized Virtua Fighter eSports in Japan (just as Puyo Puyo Champions is called Puyo Puyo eSports in the archipelago). Six months later, with download and active player numbers in line with or even better than Sega’s expectations, the test looks conclusive. If we are still far from the formal announcement of a Virtua Fighter 6, Seiji Aoki acknowledges that “the release of this game confirmed that the potential is there“and that Sega can credibly think of shaping a future for the first 3D fighting game in history.
“It takes several years to release a game if you want it to be done well, so it’s important to anticipate trends and what will be popular in the fighting game scene when it’s released. In addition, it will now be essential to understand the tastes and habits of each country, not only in Japan but also abroad, in order to create something that will be popular all over the world. The list of things we need to think about is endless and complex, so it will be a thorny road anyway. Nevertheless, we are seriously considering making our next game.“, explains Seiji Aoki.
“As you know, Virtua Fighter has been dormant for a long time. So there were a lot of people who didn’t know the title, or who had never played it before. When we discussed it with SIE, they told us that we could include it in the PlayStation Plus program, so we decided to make it free. To be honest, we hadn’t really thought about how much money we could make with this game. It was more of a tool to restart Virtua Fighter.“, also confirms the producer.
Sega can catch up on additional content sales, however, and even launched a second Yakuza-themed pack on December 8th. “We only have preliminary numbers for this DLC, but the first reactions regarding the number of downloads and active players for the main game are in line with our expectations.“, notes Seiki Aoki.
Regarding the release of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown on other platforms and in particular Steam, Seiji Aoki confirms that the thing would be technically feasible, but that Sega does not want to scatter its community on different platforms and must therefore first create an environment capable of supporting cross-play and to offer a fair online experience on all platforms. Which apparently is not easy in the case of this remaster.
- To read also | Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown review by Virgil