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In the second episode of RedBull's Playing Fields documentary series, the focus switches to the Japanese Arcade Culture. As many of you will know, Virtua Fighter has its history deeply rooted in the Arcade scene so it's with no real surprise that this episode shares an anecdotal, and somewhat troubling(!!!), story relating to Virtua Fighter. Additionally, there are interviews with arcade managers, pro gamers and industry reps on their thoughts of the current state of the arcade scene in Japan. Highly recommended!

Sega is gearing up to celebrate their 60th anniversary this year, having already launched a website and new mascot in Sega Shiro. Now, they are asking fans to contact them and share what they love about Sega, and share their thoughts!

As fans of Sega's Virtua Fighter franchise, let's tell Sega how much we love the series and how much we'd love to see the games on more platforms and more from the franchise in the future!

Read on to find out how!

If you've watched any tournament streams from Japan, then chances are you've enjoyed the services provided by Game Newton -- a popular arcade in Tokyo, Japan which is the home of many strong Fighting Game communities including 3rd Strike, and of course our beloved Virtua Fighter. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent isolation and shutdown laws in Japan, Game Newton's future is looking bleak! But there's something you can do to help...

Sega is once again doing a marathon charity stream, this time to raise money for Special Effect!

Sega will be playing Virtua Fighter at 4PM GMT Saturday.
That's 8PM Friday PST, and 11PM Friday ET.

Tune in and help raise money for a good cause at Sega's Twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/sega/

Ed Boon, the co-creator of Mortal Kombat & Injustice and creative director at NetherRealm Studios, recently echoed what the entire VF and perhaps the greater Fighting Game community have been wanting, needing, requesting and even demdaning: "Someone needs to reboot VIRTUA FIGHTER".

On 25th January 2020, Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown was held as a Side Tournament at Evo Japan 2020. This community event was organised by @Tetsuko_Yamada and saw entries capped at 64 players, comprised of Japanese locals and a few international competitors as well. Read on for full results, brackets and videos.

On Sunday, 12th January 2020, the 2020 Pre Beat-Tribe Cup took place at Game Newton Ooyama. This 5-on-5 character-specific tournament saw a total of 57 teams (275 players!), and was streamed live via the Game Newton Ooyama channels on various platforms simultaneously. The original 12 hour archive has been timestamped in this post, along with some interesting stats and a highlights package for your enjoyment.

Virtua Fighter's Pai Chan has been added to Sega's all-star crossover mobile game Sega Heroes! Read on for more details and pictures of Pai's new style.

Yuzumo Design's next project is a fan book called "SEGA60" to celebrate SEGA's 60th Anniversary. You may remember Pin from Yuzumo Design when he reached out to the international VF community during the production of Virtua Fighter Heatwave - a fan book celebrating VF's 25th Anniversary - which included interviews from a number of VFDC members. This time around, Pin is now reaching out to any and all fans of SEGA to help with this next project with stories, photos, cosplay, fan art, and more!

Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown has been confirmed as a side tournament for Evo Japan 2020! Confirmed by @Tetsuko_Yamada in the tweet below. As advised, please stay tuned for more details!