Virtua Fighter has slowly been making its way back onto the world stage over the last several years, with SEGA reviving Virtua Fighter 5 for modern systems and announcing a brand-new project for the first time in over a decade. This “full reboot,” as some of the developers are calling it, has already begun, just in time for new fans to get into the franchise with another major VF5 update.
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam, and, at a later date, Nintendo Switch 2. This is the ultimate version of VF5 Final Showdown, bringing all of the magic from the last full entry in the franchise and every update from the revised Ultimate Showdown forward with added single-player content, cross-play, rollback support, and more.
For players who already own Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O on Steam, the update to World Stage is free. And, for anyone on PlayStation who previously purchased VF5 Ultimate Showdown, R.E.V.O. World Stage is going to be offered at a discount on PS5, though it does not look like the same offer is available to Xbox owners.
Bringing Virtua Fighter Back to the World Stage
R.E.V.O. World Stage goes beyond just being an updated port, as SEGA and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio are using this as an audition of sorts to put the franchise out there that might attract new players.
“In order to reignite the Virtua Fighter franchise, we placed great importance on creating a product that would allow new players around the world to discover the appeal of VF and actually pick it up and play,” legacy Virtua Fighter Project producer Seiji Aoki said to BoosterBlogs. “To achieve this, rather than simply porting VF5US, we implemented the first game balance update in 13 years to introduce new playstyles and gameplay elements, and released it on the accessible Steam platform.”
As part of that “reignition,” R.E.V.O. World Stage brings series antagonist Dural to the game as a playable DLC fighter to pair with those game balance updates and the new single-player World Stage Mode, which the team developed using inspiration from VF4 Evolution’s Quest Mode.
New additions, such as support for rollback netcode, multi-platform cross-play, an expanded training mode, and additional languages, were also key parts of modernizing World Stage in a way that can attract new fans and appeal to the series’ core audience.
RGG is also putting renewed focus on the competitive scenes for Virtua Fighter, which is part of why so much effort was put into modernizing features that the team deemed “essential in today’s fighting games” for World Stage.
“Virtua Fighter was born over 30 years ago as the world’s first 3D fighting game, and we believe that its constant drive for innovation has been its competitive edge within the fighting game genre,” Aoki said. “Because of this, we feel a responsibility to lead the esports scene and the fighting game community, and we are now in a position to achieve that—something we aim to accomplish through the Virtua Fighter franchise.”
Note: The official Virtua Fighter YouTube channel also has an entire set of Beginner’s Guide videos featuring fighting game legend Ryan Hart to help players learn some of VF5 R.E.V.O.’s core mechanics!
Part of that growth is done through modernizing these features and adding support for languages like Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, which will bring the game to even more players. Aoki also mentioned that RGG and SEGA are actively gathering feedback online and at events that will be taken into consideration for future development.
“As a development team, our goal is to further expand the Virtua Fighter franchise on a global scale. We want people from various countries and regions to experience the appeal of VF, share that excitement within their local communities, and in doing so, help those communities grow,” Aoki said. “As part of these efforts, we are hosting the official global VF tournament, the Virtua Fighter Open Championship. By speaking with many participants at each qualifying event, we have been able to deepen our understanding of each community and feed that insight back into development. We intend to continue these initiatives as we work to further evolve the Virtua Fighter franchise.”
What Comes Next for Virtua Fighter?
Using World Stage as a return to the limelight and continuing the Virtua Fighter legacy within the fighting game community is a good start, but SEGA and RGG have big plans for what comes next.
“The New Virtua Fighter Project carries big ambitions. It’s not just about releasing a game—it has to be a bold challenge that leads to major success. Every activity related to the franchise is being carried out in pursuit of that ambition.”
We have seen bits and pieces of the still untitled “New Virtua Fighter Project” that was initially revealed at The Game Awards 2024 and trailers spread out at events like Evo 2026. But it is still a ways out from being shown off in full because there is so much going into the game.
As producer Riichiro Yamada told me, it is still far too early to give away all the answers fans might be asking, and the gradual flow of information is the best way to share updates that “sparks people’s imagination.”
“The New Virtua Fighter is a highly ambitious project. There are still elements we haven’t announced yet, and I believe there are quite a few surprises in store,” Yamada said. “We’re taking on many challenges as we move forward, so I’d be grateful for your continued support.”
Yamada even admitted that, when they were initially talking about revealing the new Virtua Fighter project, he was feeling more pressure than excitement, largely because he had no idea how the FGC would respond to the news. Thankfully, he says he was immediately relieved once he was on the stage since the “response wasn’t bad.”
The team, and Yamada specifically, also want to hammer home the fact that this new project is not a remake or a simple reimagining. The entire team is working to bring Virtua Fighter back in a way that holds true to the franchise’s past, while also trying exciting new things. And yes, that does sound a bit vague considering how many developers have said that, but RGG has a history of keeping the spirit of older games and characters alive across eras of development.
“The New Virtua Fighter Project carries big ambitions. It’s not just about releasing a game—it has to be a bold challenge that leads to major success. Every activity related to the franchise is being carried out in pursuit of that ambition,” Yamada said. “This isn’t just a simple remake—we’ve been approaching this project with the goal of creating a game that carries the kind of bold, ambitious spirit SEGA is known for, and that fans can genuinely get excited about. I’ve continued our efforts with that in mind. If even a little of that excitement has come through to you, I’m truly grateful.”
This article has been a long time coming, and I’m glad I was able to make something work for the official release of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage. This was originally bound for Esports on SI, but like a lot of my other features, it was scrapped, and I couldn’t find a new home for it—so I did it myself, as usual.
A big thank you to Seiji Aoki-san and Riichiro Yamada-san for answering my questions about the Virtua Fighter series. I will reiterate Aoki-san’s closing statements to me by telling you all to #PlayMoreVF if you are interested in giving World Stage a go.
If you want more Virtua Fighter content, go give my buddy Mitchell Saltzman’s Evo interview with Yamada-san over on IGN.
As always, if you want to support my work here, the best way to do so is to subscribe to the blog and give the article a share on socials, or just let me know your thoughts! You can also follow me on other platforms and tune into the Timesphere podcast, where my buddy Scott and I just recorded our longest episode ever, discussing games media, AI, and the future of Halo.
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