World tournament for new game possible if player response is good
The new Virtua Fighter team is hoping that strong players of the game become popular streamers, and they also discuss if there will be a world tournament in the future.
But first up, one of the new Virtual Fighter’s developers was asked why they included R.E.V.O. as part of the announcement for the new game.
“The new Virtua Fighter is aimed at a wide audience, but until it’s released we want our core Virtua Fighter fans to keep the temperature up with the Legacy Virtua Fighter Project. This is something that Seiji Aoki (Chief Producer of Virtua Fighter Sports and Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown) is heading up,” Riichirou Yamada said, who’s the Virtua Fighter project producer on the new game.
“It’s been 3 years since we launched the Virtua Fighter Esports initiative, and I think there’s lots more to do including tournaments,” Yamada added.
Yamada was then asked by Famitsu if a recent patch was in preparation for that.
“Yes. Also this is my personal feeling, but I think that Virtua Fighter was built upon ‘strong players’. It’s a title that shone because of these star players. We’d like to see those star players become popular streamers,” Yamada said.
“So for that reason, we want to prepare a place where the spotlight can be shone on these star players again. There’s actually never been an official Virtua Fighter world tournament,” he added.
“That’s why at this time when Virtua Fighter is being revived, we here at Sega wanted to enact the Virtua Fighter Open Championship to decide who’s actually the best in the world at Virtua Fighter. Developing Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. was also for that purpose. This release will be on Steam, and the reason for that is because it’s the most solid environment for competition and also corresponds well with rollback netcode,” Yamada stated.
“There’s a chance we’ll see people from a country that seemed unthinkable winning it, or we might see some old-timer star players taking it home. As a fan myself, I’m also very excited,” Yamada noted.
He was then asked if Sega is planning on a world tournament for the new Virtua Fighter when it’s released.
“That’s all up to the player response. If we’re able to make a game where the battles are fun and people get excited about it, then putting on a world tournament for it is very probable,” he said.
“However, if we do end up doing that, we wouldn’t just follow up from the old one but instead let the Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. tournament be its own thing and the new Virtua Fighter tournament be its own thing… that’s how we’d probably do it,” concluded Yamada.
Interview quotes from Famitsu, translated by our own Nicholas “MajinTenshinhan” Taylor.