After reappearing in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Virtua Fighter may be getting a reboot – report

If you're someone with a taste for Virtua Fighter, but are kind of sick about having to boot up Yakuza or Like a Dragon to play modern ports of the series, some good news may be in the pipeline. According to a leaker who has made some accurate predictions in the past, a Virtua Fighter reboot may be in the works.

Now, as with all news surrounding leaks, this should be taken with a grain of salt. However if this Virtua Fighter leak courtesy of MbKKssTBhz5 on Twitter is accurate, then it could mean a fresh lease on life for one of the fighting game genre's oldest franchises. One seperate from the hip of excellent games like Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

The leaker elaborates on their claims in a follow-up tweet: "This is a reboot that is not in development by RGG Studio. It is being developed by staff from latest Virtua Fighter games. There are single player and multiplayer elements that are targeting casual and core players including competitive players."

The game has had a rocky and peculiar past. With the fist entry released back in 1993, the aim of the game was to replicate some authentic, unexaggerated martial arts action in a digital ring. It was quite the hit back in the arcade and early console days, but kind of fell off the wagon back in 2010 with Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown. A new version of Virtua Fighter 5 was released a whopping 10 years later, but it didn't make massive waves.

Bizzarely enough, in the modern era of video games Virtua Figther may have been best represnted as in-game arcade games in the Yakuza and Like a Dragon series. For years now, folks playing the action (and now turn-based) RPG series could walk into an arcade and sit down at a lovingly recreated Virtua Fighter cab. Was it as good as a new Virtua Fighter game? No obviously not. But it was nice to see, especially for the 30+ year old Virtua Fighter fans who still held out hope.

The last time Virtua Fighter fans had even an inkling of real hope was with the 2020 release of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown, but as that game sadly suffered from online issues during the height of the COVID pandemic it found itself somewhat of a limp release. As such, a new reboot of Virtua Fighter - one with good online infrastructure at a time when fighting games are striving as a whole.

Or, maybe this will mark yet another kick to the guts of Virtua Fighter fans, either by not existing or being another flopper. Who can say, one can only hope. Oh, and just in case you had your hopes truly astronomical, it's a bit of a long shot to hope that this is SEGA's planned "super game" coming in 2026.

Let us know what you think. Does Virtua Fighter have a road to success in the modern age? Or is it one for the history books? Let us know below.