Sega announces Virtua Fighter revival with a new focus on online competition

Sega announced something Virtua Fighter-related at Tokyo Game Show Online, and esports is a major focus. It's not 100% clear that it's a new game, but Sega said in a Google Translated tweet that Virtua Fighter "will be restarted as an esports title to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Sega's establishment." The project is officially dubbed Virtua Fighter x esports, and was announced alongside a cryptic teaser trailer.

The teaser unveiled during TGS 2020 really drives home the competitive angle, showing scenes from a packed esports competition - one that definitely won't be happening until at least next year - until Akira appears and we see some obscured fighting scenes. Given that the last mainline Virtua Fighter game is from 2006, it definitely appears to be a new engine. Whether that's a remake of the first game, a new titled sequel ala Virtua Fighter 6, or something else entirely is unclear. 

The original 1993 Virtua Fighter is a pioneer of the 3D fighting genre and the brainchild of Yu Suzuki, who you might associate with any number of games, including the Shenmue series. He's also a hardware engineer who helped develop arcade systems as well as the Sega Dreamcast. Two Virtua Fighter mobile games from 2011 and 2014 were developed by Suzuki, but it's not known whether he's involved with the series today. The developer suggested in an 2019 interview with VGC that discussions were already underway regarding his return to the series, so it's very possible.

Virtua Fighter 5 made it onto our list of the best fighting games to play right now.