Sega Teases “Virtua Fighter x eSports” Project

While there hasn’t been a new Virtua Fighter game in quite some time, Sega teased a “Virtua Fighter x eSports” project as part of its 60th anniversary.

First, here’s a look at the teaser trailer for Sega’s Virtua Fighter x eSports Project:

The video shows past Virtua Fighter tournaments and then talks about bringing back the heat and passion to the showdown. It ends with a shot featuring the series mascot and Bajiquan fighter Akira Yuki.

Check out the announcement tweet from Sega below:

格ゲーの金字塔が、ついにeスポーツで復活！

「バーチャファイター×esportsプロジェクト」発表！

1993年に世界初の3D格闘ゲームとして誕生した「バーチャファイター」が、セガ設立60周年を記念し、まずは国内で再始動します。今後の続報にご期待ください！#VF #セガTGS2020 #SEGA60th pic.twitter.com/qdDXEQSDsy

— セガ公式アカウント🦔 (@SEGA_OFFICIAL) September 25, 2020

“The monumental fighter finally returns, through eSports!

‘Virtual Fighter x eSports Project announced!

Virtua Fighter, which was created as the world’s first 3D fighting game, will be restarted to commemorate Sega’s 60th anniversary, starting in Japan. Please look forward to more news!”

Sega didn’t share any further information other than what we have in the above tweet. However, “eSports” has been growing quite a bit in Japan in recent years and we’ve seen the term attached to all kinds of projects. For example, we saw a game come from it with Puyo Puyo eSports, which went on to release outside of Japan as Puyo Puyo Champions. We’ve also seen Japan’s first senior citizen eSports facility open its doors last July.

The last main-numbered entry from the series was Virtua Fighter 5, which first released for Japanese arcades in July 2006, then worldwide for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2007.