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In a recent episode of Harada's bar "Come, Virtua! I've waited 11 years!", Tekken director and producer Katsuhiro Harada shares his thoughts on the recent announcement and release of Virtua Fighter x esports (Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown in the West). This episode includes English subtitles and provides some deep insights into his views on the Virtua Fighter series, the tremendous respect for the long standing rivalry with the Tekken series, and ultimately what you can do to change the future for the 3D Fighting Game genre -- play VF!

Less than two hours ago, Sega live-streamed an announcement and in depth look at the upcoming Virtua Fighter x esports (Or Ultimate Showdown, as it's known outside Japan). The full stream lasted just over an hour and we have an in-depth breakdown of the main points covered.

The VF official twitter account revealed that an announcement on the Virtua Fighter x esports project will be made on Thursday, 27 May 2021 at approximately 8 PM (JST). The official virtuafighter.jp website features a countdown to this announcement overlayed on a video loop of Akira's back, along with some useful links. Are you ready for the Showdown?

The Salty Runback, a term familiar and oft-used within the FGC, describes a rematch request by the loser in a hotly-contested set. The winner usually accepts on good faith terms, indulging the loser's chance for redemption with a quiet confidence that it's all in vain. In the Japanese #VirtuaFighter scene, a similar concept exists by the name of the Sendai Rule.

Legendary Virtua Fighter Player, @Homestay Akira, took to the hot seat to answer fan questions about, well, anything and everything! Questions were solicited by his wife, @Tetsuko_Yamada, via Twitter and included questions such as how they first met, what his favourite subjects were in school as well as a slather of VF-related questions such as the difference between PSN and XBL for online play, thoughts on the esports announcement, all-time favourite version of VF, what would he change in VF5FS, and much more!

Famitsu published an interview with Daichi Katagiri that looks back at his illustrious, soon-to-be-30 year career at SEGA which has been recently translated into English by Brian Clark (thanks Brian!) Katagiri-san reflects on his youthful days spent in the arcades, obsessing (and rage quitting!) over OutRun high scores, the importance of music in games, riding in Yu Suzuki's ferarri for "research purposes" and exclusive behind-the-scenes developer tales of the Virtua Fighter franchise dating back to the original. This is a fascinating interview, celebration and reflection on Katagiri-san's amazing journey at SEGA, which he believes "set my life on a great path."

Virtua Fighter x eSports has been mentioned specifically as an initiative in Sega Sammy's latest business report. While details of the project are still scarce, the report mentions some information.

On November 4, 2020 SEGA Sammy Holdings Inc. announced their withdrawal from the arcade operations business in Japan via sale to Tokyo-based arcade rental company Genda. The departure is largely due to the decline in the arcade industry, likely accelerated by the pandemic, and this transition is be completed by the end of calendar year. What does this mean for the future of Virtua Fighter?

Announced at TGS2020 as part of SEGA's 60th Anniversary is a new project titled "Virtua Fighter x esports". Little is known at this stage, but details on the project will be revealed in a future update. What do you think it could be?

On this day in 2010, SEGA released Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown for Japanese arcades, followed by a international console release two years later for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. To celebrate this occasion, I compiled a blog on Destructoid looking back at the journey with VF5FS and how it still holds to this day compared to other modern-day fighting games. Happy 10th Anniversary, VF5FS!