Kamaage: VF5R for console effort

Traveled to california and colorado for this game. Got about 9 people into this game in my own fight game community. when SF 4 came out I found out that there were a few other people that bought the game maybe about 5 new faces. Having VF5R released would be a smart business descision do about 200,000 per system and you'll do good.

Wallace Wimmer Washington Terrace Utah

 

Is it too late to submit a thingy? Anyway, thanks for doing this kamaage. It's unfortunate the decisions Sega have made in the past several years.

Message to Sega:

Virtua Fighter is a game that means a lot to myself and others in the US fighting game community. VF4 was the first fighting game I got really serious about, and I was enable to enjoy it fully with a local dedicated scene to the game. I remember driving 10 hours to NYC on multiple occasions, through Manhattan in rush hour traffic even, just to play this game with others that were like-minded. Through that game I met a lot of players that became good friends. Even though I play all different fighting games, I can't imagine traveling as far, putting in as much effort, or being as dedicated to any of them like I was to VF.

VF5 was not as well-received as VF4. Maybe players expected a bigger change, maybe the genre was just declining in general. The local players I played VF with, most of us still play other games to this day together. This past weekend there was some VF5 interest from some new players that primarily play another game, so we decided to play some matches. Even though I do not like VF5 as much as VF4Evo, I have to say...VF5 is still better than any fighting game out there. It's better than Tekken, it's better than Street Fighter 4, it's better than Guilty Gear or BlazBlue. Nothing can really ever match it.

It is unfortunate that VF5 was not as well-received as VF4. The fighting game genre in the West had steadily declined over the years, although always existing to the hardcore, so that had a lot to do with it. I did greatly appreciate the inclusion of online play on the Xbox 360 version, even though Sega-AM2 did not seem interested in including it. Strong online play is one of the most important things for a fighting game to thrive in the USA.

That said, things have changed a bit. With the release of Street Fighter 4, the fighting game genre is seeing a huge boom in the USA. Not only that, but many new players are actually sticking with it and not giving up like many old players would have expected. The time is right to produce a console port of VF5R. Before SF4, I could agree that maybe it was not a good idea, but not anymore. In fact I think it would be a bad business decision to not produce it. I know that VF5R, if released this year or early next year for consoles, would see good profits, at least much better than the original VF5 port saw.

There was a strange event last year, I'm not sure if you're aware of it. On Sega's official Facebook account, many users posted messages asking about a VF5R console port. There were so many requests that the administrator had to ask users to stop posting, and then eventually started to delete posts because there were so many. We are ready and demanding to buy this game.

For a lot of us here, VF is very special to us and nothing can ever replace it; a lot of other games just seem to have alternatives but VF has none. I hope you strongly consider producing a console port for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

- Jason Coffmon, USA

 

Thanks to Kamaage, Myke and others for their efforts.

Kamaage: I might be able to help translate to English for you. I'm a bit rusty, but I was previously a Japanese teacher here in Australia. Just let me know when you need me.

Here's my long story:

Dear folks at Sega, thank you for the great games your company has given us over the years. We are a group of long-time fans of the Virtua Fighter series in particular, and would like to make a humble request for a console version of Virtua Fighter 5 R.

Myself, I was already a fan of Sega since my brothers and I got a Megadrive while I was still in primary school. I first played the first Virtua Fighter game at the arcades in Singapore back in 1994. It was a fresh approach to fighting games which got my attention. At the time, I was playing many other fighting games and thought of Virtua Fighter as one which was interesting and unique.

When Virtua Fighter 2 was released, me and others at the arcade could hardly believe our eyes. This game was so far ahead of its time it left every other game in the dust. I practically stopped playing other games and focused on VF. I even stopped playing Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Daytona USA, which were the biggest games in arcades at the time. My brothers and I played VF almost exclusively for a few years until switching to Virtua Fighter 3, which again left all the other arcade games in the dust. During our time playing VF, we started talking to other gamers for the first time. One of my brothers befriended the arcade owner, also a VF player, after he was caught crashing the arcade machine using the Dural reversal bug. Although not one of the top players, my 15 minutes of fame was being the first player in Singapore to complete single player mode in under 3 minutes.

Eventually, one of my brothers lost interest in gaming, and after Sega stopped making sequels for VF after VF3TB, my other brother and I moved on to the Virtual-On series, also by Sega. Not having the money to get a Saturn and later a Dreamcast, we thought our days of VF were over, especially after we both moved to Australia to study.

Then for some reason one day, we started talking about the "good old days" of VF again, and how great a sequel would be. By some kind of miracle, within a few weeks of these thoughts going through our heads, we found out about VF4 being in production. We bought into the hype, looked up pictures online, and speculated about how awesome our favourite characters were going to be. Around this time we also discovered Virtuafighter.com, and started reading the site even though I never registered on the forums for years.

A few months after the game was released in Japan, my brother and I were on the way to the arcade in the city, joking about how we'd never get to play it in Melbourne. When we arrived at the arcade on Russel Street, we saw the owner installing some new cabinets. Again we joked about how those could not possibly be VF4 ones, and sat down to play some of the other games. Lo and behold, after a few games, we came back over to look at the new cabinets and our jaws dropped, because again, by some crazy apparent miracle, it was the game we thought we'd never see. The arcade owner immediately saw that we were fans of the series and asked us to test the machines. Best day of my gaming life, hands down.

I had a chance to homestay for a few months in Japan at the end of 2001, and of course took every oppurtunity to visit the little arcade at the local train station. I even found directions to the nearest Club Sega, a few stations away, to take part in Otenami Haiken, even though I lost first round. While in Japan, I managed to get Pai and Jeffrey up to 2nd Dan, which is still higher than the grade I have for the martial art I currently do in real life. My brother had since moved back to Singapore and was playing at the big arcade at Bugis. Even my other brother who hardly played games anymore got back into it.

At the end of my stay, I visited Tokyo with my brothers. It was by another strange coincidence that we were staying at Shinjuku, and on our first day had already stumbled across the famed Nishi Shinjuku Sportsland, later to become Nishi Shinjuku Club Sega. We were bowled over by the fact any random guy walking in to the arcade could wipe the floor with us, and it encouraged us to step up our game and improve our skills. It was only months later that we would find out about the high level of the players at that arcade. I visited Nishi Shinjuku Club Sega several more times over the last decade, once with my brother again, and more recently with my wife and mother-in-law. My wife was owning up the UFO catcher machines while I was in the basement with VF5.

Over the next few years, my brothers would buy a Playstation 2, then both a pirated and legitimate copy of VF4, and later import both the Japanese and American versions of VF4 Evo. They said it was cheaper than playing at the arcades, but then even when they had the game at home, they'd go down to the arcades to challenge other players anyway. I eventually bought a PS3, VF5 and arcade sticks, and so did my brothers in Singapore.

VF4 disappeared from most arcades here in Melbourne some time ago now, and we never got VF5 at the arcades. Other things in life have gotten in the way, and I don't game as much as I used to anymore. Currently, I have gotten back into VF since Couch Warriors, a monthly console event in Melbourne started running VF5 sessions. However, with the knowledge that there is a refined version of the game in VF5R which is out of the reach of so many of us who love VF, we can't help but feel we are missing something when we're playing an older version of the game.

If we had VF5R at the arcades here, I would be playing it instead of Sreet Fighter 4 and BlazBlue. However, since we do not have access to the machines in my country, I would love to be able to have the game on a console. Sega has performed miracles for me in the past, and given me many fond memories. It feels a bit strange to make a demand on a company that has already given me so much, but please consider porting VF5R for a console release.

Sega already have something huge in that World Cyber Games used Virtua Fighter 5 as their fighting game of choice in 2009. However, the world moves on, and we fear that unless we have a newer version of VF to offer, WCG and other gamers will move on to whatever new fighting game comes out.






And here's a draft proposal for Sega. I figured I'd just write one since no one else has yet, and then someone who actually knows how to do this stuff can just fix it up. I'll need things like website stats and dates to be added.

Proposal for console port of Virtua Fighter 5 R
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The purpose of this document is to propose the production of a console port for the arcade video game Virtua Fighter 5 R.



Propositioning members
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The leader of this proposal is Myke Abdow. Myke is the webmaster of the web domain Virtuafighter.com and is based in Sydney, Australia. He has been playing games in the Virtua Fighter series at a competitive level since XXXX. In addition to having a deep knowledge about the game and its history, he has close ties to other Virtua Fighter players around the world, including Japan.

Virtuafighter.com was founded in XXXX, and besides being a database for information on games in the Virtua Fighter series, is also a forum for Virtua Fighter players around the world to organise meets and share information. The site covers Virtua Fighter related news and tournament announcements from various countries and has in-depth information about Virtua Fighter 5 including annotated movelists, gameplay strategy and combo guides. Members on the site have held Virtua Fighter tournaments and gatherings in various countries, with some countries having yearly events which have been running since Virtua Fighter 4 was released in 2001.

There are currently 11983 registered members on the site, and the forum boasts 264677 posts in 14489 topics. Many members on the forum are leaders of Virtua Fighter player communities in different countries, including The United States of America, Great Britain, China, Germany, Spain, Australia, Italy, Canada, Finland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Thailand, Philippines, Brazil and Singapore. The site receives an average XXXX page views daily.



Reasoning for a console port of Virtua Fighter 5 R
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As Sega is aware, video game arcades outside Japan are on the decline, and there is a surge in the home consumer market for video games. Having already spent the money for development of a successful arcade game in Virtua Fighter 5 R, it is logical that such a game would be less of a risk to make a home console port of than to produce a new console game altogether.

Virtua Fighter 5 R has already received a hefty amount of free promotion on video sharing websites such as Nicovideo and Youtube, both in the Japanese speaking online community and overseas, due to players uploading their match videos to these services. It would be cost effective to take advantage of this, as many potential customers are already aware of the game and interested.

Virtua Fighter 5 was featured at the World Cyber Games in 2009 as its fighting game of choice. This made the game known to gamers who did not traditionally play fighting games. Unfortunately, if a sequel to the game is not released on console, World Cyber Games, due to their focus on home consumer games, will likely switch to a newer fighting game made by Sega's competitors, and Sega will fail to capitalise on the hype generated by the event.

Fighting games have made a return to the industry lately. There has been renewed interest in the genre after the release of Street Fighter 4, BlazBlue, King of Fighters XII and Tekken 6 on consoles, and a new generation of fighting gamers is emerging. Virtua Fighter 5 R would do well to appeal to this new gaming crowd.

In addition to new gamers, there are many dedicated fans of the Virtua Fighter series who have been waiting for a sequel to Virtua Fighter 5, and will buy Virtua Fighter 5 R when it is released. Some of these players would play the arcade version if it was available in their country, but since it is not, a console version would be their only option.

Virtua Fighter 5 R's performance at arcades in Japan would not see much detriment from the release of a console version, because the players who buy it on console usually still go to the arcades to challenge other players. In fact, at this point in time, a console version with proper promotion would renew interest in the arcade scene, giving it some much needed stimulation.



Virtua Fighter 5 R would also perform better than Virtua Fighter 5 did on home consoles for various reasons.

Firstly, the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 have seen price reductions over the past few years, and their installed user bases are significantly larger than at the time Virtua Fighter 5 was released. The small user base at the time of Virtua Fighter 5 was a large factor which hurt sales, but which now has been remedied.

Secondly, Virtua Fighter 5 R, compared to Virtua Fighter 5, has a darker, grittier look to it, as well as heavier sounding music, which is more popular among fighting game fans in overseas markets. Virtua Fighter 5 R would appeal to more gamers than its predecessor did.

Thirdly, there are some gamers who have not bought Virtua Fighter 5 on PS3 or XBox360, only because they already know about Virtua Fighter 5 R and are waiting to buy that instead.



List of players around the world who would buy Virtua Fighter 5 R for console
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Messages to Sega from players
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We would like to present to Sega a list of comments from players eager to have Virtua Fighter 5 R on console

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Message to SEGA:

I started playing fighters with VF2 on PC. Even though I had access to ROMs of Capcom & SNK's entire arcade output, there was just something about your fighter that captured my heart like no other game before. I also tried some Tekken 3, but the game always felt a bit "off".

Of course, being a naive kid in Ireland, I didn't even realise I'd missed VF3. But when we got some VF4 cabs in, I couldn't wait for Saturdays to go to town & pump coins into them!
When VF4:Evolution finally hit on PS2, I bought it, and an arcade stick, straight away. This game was magic - an easy-to-play, hard-to-master game with tons of gameplay nuances & tricks to master, a roster of beautifully realised characters, and most importantly -- THE BEST Training mode in any fighter, ever! The game kept me going for a good, long time.

I also bought VF5 (PS3) soon after release, but was disappointed at the lack of online play, and the removal of the in-depth training mode.
This double-disappointment stopped me from playing fighters seriously, and only with SFIV have I started again.

But really, all I want is either a VF5:R release -- or an indication that VF6 is incoming in 2010. For consoles. Please?

Ciaran Plunkett, Dublin, Ireland.

 

I'd like to write a message to Sega too, but I don't have nearly as much of a history with VF as most of the guys here. I do have a lot of history with Sega though, so I'd like to start there.

My first Sega console was the Sega Genesis. I practically begged my parents to buy me one after having a chance to play it at a friends house. The game I was interested in the most was of course, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I still remember the Christmas I got my Sega Genesis with a copy of Sonic 2 as one of the happiest days of my life. It goes without saying I was a die-hard Sega fan from that day forward. Even today, Sonic 2 is still one of my all time favorite games (16 years after first playing it). Every once in a while I still get the urge to pop in the cartridge and go for a spin. I wish I could say my experiences with Sega were always so happy.

I never ended up getting a Sega CD (I'm assuming due to the expense, even though I certainly recall wanting one at the time). Even though the Sega CD wasn't Sega's most successful venture, I still felt like I was missing out by not having one. So when I first saw commercials for the 32x, I knew I couldn't settle for anything less. When Sega dropped support for the platform less than a year later, and I could no longer find any games for it, I felt more than a little betrayed. It wouldn't be the last time.

You can imagine after convincing my parents to spend a lot of money on a 32x, getting them to buy me a Sega Saturn at over two times the price and less than a year later was out of the question. I don't exactly remember when I finally did get one, but it was around the time Sega was offering the 3 free game with every Saturn sold deal. One of those games happened to be Virtua Fighter 2.

This wasn't actually my first real exposure to Virtua Fighter. I had played Virtua fighter in the arcade in the past, but I could never get anywhere with it. I mean, I was less than ten years old at the time, so I guess that's to be expected. But I was still fascinated by it. After all, Virtua Fighter 2 was one of the first 3D games I'd ever laid my eyes on. Nevertheless, it was an intimidating game, and I could never make my way past even the second stage, no matter how many quarters I spent. So despite being fascinated with it, I never spent much time playing it.

When I had it on the Sega Saturn though, I played it a lot. I never really understood the game very well, but I at least had fun playing it. Even these days when I have become serious about competing in VF, I never forget how much fun the game was back then. Even when I had no idea what I was doing, it was still fun. That is a critical aspect for VF's success, because if the game wasn't appealing to beginners, who would keep playing it long enough to become good at it?

As much fun as I had playing VF2, I did lose interest within a few months after I first played it. The main problem was, being the only one I knew who liked the game, I had no one else to play with. I'd like to say I had an easy time convincing my friends to enjoy playing VF, but I didn't. No one liked playing a game they couldn't beat me at, and no one wanted to try to get better at it. This is the point where VF stumbles the hardest. It is discouraging to beginners who can't see a path to victory.

When I think about it, I really don't think it is an issue that VF is too hard for western gamers. Or that it is too bland and generic, as I have heard some complain. I think it is really an issue of accessibility. If there was a way to quickly allow beginners to see why they are losing, I think this would be the greatest thing Sega could do for increasing VF's popularity in the west. Western gamers can get frustrated too easily when the path to success is outside of their feild of vision. Allow them to see the path more easily, and encourage them to follow it at every turn. Make it as rewarding of a path to follow as you possibly can. If you do this, maybe more western gamers will finally learn to understand VF enough for it to be fun.

VF2 would be the last VF game I'd play for a while. Like the 32x, the Saturn's lifespan was tragically short. At least here in America it was, although I am aware Sega continued to support it in Japan well after they killed it in America. Supporting the Japanese market in favor of the American market is something most Japanese game companies have done at one point or another, but it was hard not to be a little resentful. For western gamers, this was yet another betrayal by Sega.

That being said, I don't regret owning the Sega Saturn. In fact, when the support for the Saturn in the west was killed, it became the first console I imported games for. Thanks to that, I was exposed to many types of games I had never played. I especially liked the JRPGs like Grandia and Madou Monogatari. They were a little hard to play without understanding Japanese, but they were still very enjoyable. Playing those games was a major factor in getting me interesting in anime and the Japanese language. Since then, I've watched countless animes and leaned a great deal of Japanese (although I'm still far from fluent).

Despite the Sega Saturn being my first choice for a new console, I did later get an N64. And I enjoyed it. At times, much more than I enjoyed the Sega Saturn. Although games like Nights were visually immersive and fun to play, games like Super Mario 64 were more like what I had expected from a next generation game. One console I didn't buy though, was a Playstation. I always held a grudge against the Playstation for being so successful where the Saturn failed, and taking what I felt was Sega's rightful place in the game industry. That was because, despite all the times Sega disappointed me, there was also a certain magic Sega had that no other company seemed to. There was just an indescribable feeling you got from a Sega game, that no other games could offer.

The next video game console I owned was the Sega Dreamcast. I can say, without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, that the Sega Dreamcast was the greatest game console of all time. More good games were released on the Dreamcast in it's short life than on any other game console that I know of in the same amount of time. To me, the Dreamcast was truly the zenith of the entire history of video games. It was more then enough reason to forgive Sega for all it's past mistakes. If only others had been more willing to forgive...

The Dreamcast was among other things, the first console to bring online gaming to the masses. Although I'd played online games for the PC, nothing compared to what the Dreamcast had to offer. Phantasy Star Online, ChuChu Rocket, and Daytona USA were the main games I played. They changed my perspective about what gaming was about. Games were no longer isolating me, but instead bringing me together with other people. From that moment on, if a game didn't have an online feature, it was automatically inferior. I never played VF on the Dreamcast, but this was an important factor in brining me back to VF later.

In a very real way, my childhood ended the day I heard Sega was discontinuing the Dreamcast. I didn't realize it at the time, but the world of gaming lost something of indescribable importance that day. Maybe it is unreasonable to think everything would be different today if Sega was still making consoles. But I have a tough time believing that this generation of game systems would have so thoroughly failed to capture my imagination if Sega had anything to do about it.

When the Dreamcast died, it seemed as though Sega's spirit died with it. Sega did continue to operate, and to make games as they had done before, but only as a shadow of their former selves. At first there were still many well designed and fun games being released by Sega, but they never seemed to sell very well. If the world was a fair place, games like Jet Set Radio Future and Panzer Dragoon Orta would easily sell a million copies. But without Sega's console to act as a beacon to people who knew and understood the value of those games, they quickly faded into obscurity.

Without the motivation of making games to sell hardware, Sega soon stated to lose it's way as a developer. Sega started to use profitability as an excuse to cut back on the quality of their games. The earliest casualty was Sonic the Hedgehog, whose games became rushed and disjointed. But soon it seemed as though Sega's internal development staff had lost all direction, and had no idea what a good game was anymore. Sega also started to muddy their name by publishing poor quality games that they didn't even develop. To me, these are Sega games in name only. What is the point of Sega even existing if they are going to be just another publisher?

In the time following the death of the Dreamcast I became much more interested in fighting games, and started to play the Dead or Alive game series at a more or less competitive level. As I mentioned earlier, online was one of the most critical aspects of the Dreamcast to me. My first exposure to the Dead or Alive series was DOA2 on the Dreamcast, but I never played it much then because without an online mode I had no one to play with. It wasn't until Tecmo brought out DOA2U with it's excellent online mode made possible by Xbox Live that I really got interested in the series. DOA2U was in my opinion, the first online fighting game to be worth playing. It actually managed to achieve a level of match quality which was reasonably close to having your opponent sitting next to you in the room. This was unheard of at the time, and is still pretty hard to achieve today.

As much as I enjoyed DOA2U, I was soon met with disappointment. The next game in the DOA series to have online gameplay was DOA4. Despite the notably quality of DOA2U, DOA4 was a huge step in the wrong direction. It was unbalanced, had poor online play, and was generally just not very fun. I played it because I wanted to move on with the rest of the DOA community, but I didn't have much fun doing it.

It was around this time I heard about VF5 coming out on consoles. At first I was very exited. It had been a long time since I'd played a VF game, and I really had no idea what direction the game series had moved, but almost everything I was hearing about it was positive. There was a problem though. It seemed as though the games developers were insisting they couldn't make the game work online. As far as I was concerned, a VF without online is the same as no VF at all. I really wanted to have a VF with online play though, so around that time I make my first post on virtuafighter.com, advocating the merits of online play to a very skeptical audience. I guess what I said at the time probably didn't make a difference, but nevertheless, when Sega released VF5 on the Xbox 360 it had online play. It wasn't long before I dumped DOA4 and started to really get to know VF for the first time.

Playing VF5 after all that time away from the series was almost like meeting a childhood friend for the first time in ten years, and getting along like the last time you met was only yesterday. It wasn't just that it was a VF game, it was the first Sega game I'd played in this entire console generation that felt like a Sega game. It was like getting back something that I thought had been lost forever. Since I started playing VF5, other fighting games have come and gone. But despite the fact overall interest in VF5 has heavily declined as the game has aged (and to my dismay it never sold that well in the first place), I haven't found any other fighting game I'd rather play. Not to mention any other community of players I'd rather play with. To put it simply, VF is the best. It is the most fun, most balanced, most immersive fighting game there is. But most importantly of all, it is the last game to be released that still contains the magic all Sega games used to have.

I don't know if anyone in Sega will ever read this, but if they do, I want them to know this. We here at VFDC still believe in what Sega can do. We all know what Sega once was, and we desperately want that Sega back. I know I don't speak only for myself when I say Sega and it's games have changed my life in ways I'd never thought games could. I know if Sega had never existed, I would not be the same person I am today.

PLEASE, if there is anyone left at Sega who understands what I am talking about, fight for us and our cause. Not just to get VF5R released on consoles so the the whole world can enjoy it. But also, to make it a financial success, so it can build confidence within the company for making more of the kind of games that once made Sega great. Try to work towards a future where a console like the Dreamcast would be a great success. Try to work toward a future where Sega's arcade business could regain it's lost footing outside of Japan. Try to work toward a future where a great Sega game could never fail to sell a million copies. Try, because if you don't, Sega is doomed to be the meaningless name of a meaningless company that makes meaningless games. I know it's a lot to ask, but it's something that I believe only Sega has the power to do.

Remember, we still believe in you.

 

I've been interested in VF since the beginning of the series and it eventually became my favourite fighting game. Since VF is not currently being supported outside Japan I've been playing many other fighters recently and so far I don't like any of them as much. I really wanna carry on playing new VF games and not substitutes.

VF5R could do well considering how much more popular fighting games have become recently especially if it had all the great ideas and content from the latest arcade version in addition to what was in VF4:Evo and Xbox 360 VF5.

 

Hope this isnt already too late.

Sorry in advance for my bad english, if anyone here wants to edit my post, please do so.

My message:
I started VF around 1-2 years ago with VF5. Before that, I wasnt really interessted in Fighting games at all, but now, I hardly play anything else that VF.
In my opinion, Virtua Fighter has just the best balanced Offensive and Defensive gameplay in existance and thats why I´ll keep playing it as long as possible.
But many the people stop playing the game because they feel abandoned from SEGA, and rightly so.
Please show the community outside Japan that they arent fans of second class, they still hold on on Virtua fighter since many years.

My history with Virtua Fighter isnt big yet, but I hope it will be sometime, so please give us VF5R and let us enjoy our passion for VF.
And if you port it on consoles, please do it not Half-hearted, do it right.


Christian Hartmann, Germany

 

VF4 on PS2 was the first fighting game I ever truly learned in depth. I'd had played other fighting games for years but was totally blown away by how much better designed from the ground up VF was. VF4 Evolution came out with the best tutorial any game has ever had. Suddenly any player could learn the depth of the game and how it to use it to play better and enjoy the game more. American players were excited about Final Tuned but never got to play the game. The scene of extremely loyal and dedicated players shrunk when it was clear we would not be able to play the new version of the game. Fighting games have had a high point with games like SF4 and Tekken 6 but I always tell people, "These games are fun but are no where near as good as VF." It is an ideal time for a new release with fighting games being the most popular they have been in a long time and many players who are aware of how technical and complex VF is. They just don't have the new game it would take to start up the scene.

VF5R is that game. Please release it on console so those who don't have the privilege of living near a great arcade scene have the opportunity to play the newest version of the best fighting game series ever.

Abraham Herbst
Columbus, OH

 

Virtua Fighter is my favorite 3d fighting series, but unfortunatly here in the United States we barely have any arcades, much less ones with Virtua Fighter, and even LESS any with Virtua Fighter 5 Revolution. Ive been making due with standard VF5 ever since it came out on Xbox 360, it's a fantastic game but seeing matches for VF5R online just makes me upset that Im completely unable to play the most up to date version.

While Im sure I cant speak for everybody, besides myself I know a few others who would be willing to pay 60 dollars all over again for an Xbox 360 version of VF5R. Also, Street Fighter 4 brought about a small revival of the fighting genre, and Im sure there are plenty of people who havent played fighters in years who would pick this one up after being pulled back into fighting.

For what It's worth, the announcement of VF5 for Xbox 360 is the reason I bought one. I went out and grabbed one a couple days after the announcement.

 

Sega i Would Gladly Pay 200 Dollars for this game and Buy special Sega made Hori sticks if i'd have to. In fact i would Sword Flash Cancel My mother leaving me at great advantage to Own a Vf5R copy of your game. Im thirstin that bad to play this version its a shame. Sega you don't know the moster you've created by showing this community a glimpse of the future of the greatest fighting game ever made. Please Sega we supported you over the years through at the highs and the lows atleast support us by releasing VF5R for all regions.

Matter Fact it would be a great way to pay US back for abandoning the Dreamcast after we brought VF3 during launch.


Da-Shaun Pettway. Brooklyn New York.

 

I keep reading too much silly stuff like this Sega didn't abandon the Dreamcast, they supported it to the point of bankruptcy.

Just realised I haven't posted here yet, it's kind of hard to say anything that hasn't been said. Anyway, here's my message...

SEGA, like many others in Europe and US i've been a long time fan of Virtua Fighter, it's really sad when we can't play the current version of our favourite game.

Fighting games have recently seen a revival in popularity on home consoles and I think you missed out by not releasing Virtua Fighter 5 R, there was a good chance to get some strong sales from the VF series. There's still new versions of Street Fighter and Blaz Blue coming to home consoles in 2010 so please make sure Virtua Fighter 5 R makes 2010 an even better year for fighting games.

Another thing I wanted to say is that, if the home port was supported with revision updates, item updates and other features like the Arcade service then i'd be willing to pay a small monthly fee for such a service. I'm not sure how other Virtua Fighter fans or gamers would take to that idea but it seems worth it to me.

From Jon Crofts - Nottingham, UK

 

Message to Sega:

Virtua Fighter 5 on Xbox 360 was a great game. I hadn't played VF before that, and it really got me hooked. Once I learned about VF5R, I was really excited, but unfortunately was unable to play the game, since none of the arcades near me have it.

In the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world, it is difficult, if not impossible, to play VF5R at all, since the arcade scene is not as strong as in Japan. However, fighting game fans have adapted by moving toward playing more on consoles, holding tournaments on consoles, etc. I feel that it's possible to still capture the enjoyment of playing fighting games in an arcade even when playing at home on a console. The atmosphere is different, but the heart of the experience is still the same.

For the sake of all VF fans worldwide, please release VF5R on consoles, so that we can play the latest version of a game we enjoy so much.

Sincerely,
David Drennan
Texas, USA

 

My message to SEGA:

I'm a guy of 26 years old living in Italy. I play VF since vf1 on pc. I just bought it because, me and me friend were seeing the tv show in vhs. We have all the episodes and after that we bought vf1 and vf2 and started playing a lot this game. I never had vf3 for dreamcast but i had the luck to try the arcade version a lot. I just walked a lot in august just to go in the arcade and play that game. Unfortunately i was the only one who played it and i never had a chance to test my skills with a real pro, thought that i was really impresse by the game because it improved a lot in terms of Graphics and gameplay.
With VF4 for ps2 i had the chance again to play my favorite game and finally i had a serious training. When i discovered vfdc i realize i'm not the only one who loves this game and i decide to improve my skills with the game, and when i decided this, sega announced vf5.
I waited a lot and after some monts i discovered Sega was going to release VF5 for xbox 360 too, so i just bought an xbox and the game. From that i improved a lot and finally i had the chance to fight against people all around europe and i found even a new friend in my town, who i see often to play.
Releasing VF5R for consoles is a great move in my opinion, because this is the year of fighting game, and the vf community will gain more fighter with a new game and not a old one. WCG supported vf5 a lot, so then is SEGA's turn to support the game, all around the world.
So please SEGA, italians too are waiting VF5R for consoles, and we are waiting for a good release, just like Virtua Fighter 4 for consoles.
Greatings
Fabrizio Lerch
From Cagliari, Italy

 

Hello SEGA!

This is Talis Baltgalvis from Riverside, California. I post as Plague on http://www.virtuafighter.com . I started the VF era of my life with Virtua Fighter 2 about a year before the release of VF3. This is my story...

Back in those days, movelists were hard to come by. I figured out Jacky's moves by just trying everything. I knew nothing of crouch dashes or frames or even the VF system back then.

VF3 came around and Jacky had a ton of new moves and I was a little distraught that I'd need to experiment again. Turns out that my girlfriend, Catherine, had the internet and brought a movelist to our next date. This was certainly one of the reasons I decided to marry her, no doubt. As we dated during 1996 and 97, we went out once a week to play VF3 together. I switched my character to Akira and have stayed with him since.

I was married in 1999 and a few short years later, Virtua Fighter 4 was released. Our local arcade installed a machine and I found virtuafighter.com . Catherine and I played at least once a week and bought VF4 for PS2 as soon as it came out. This ushered in the concept of VF house parties.

Catherine and I held many events at our house from 2002 on. December, 2005 brought an unprecedented event. Trevor, a VF'er from New York bought a plane ticket to fly to my house so he could play VF at a Southern California (SoCal) event with Mike Abdow, the owner of VFDC. This opened up the idea that flying to SoCal for VF was something that made sense! 2006 saw the first huge SoCal VF event. People came from across the world to fight against Yosuke (a tournament level VF4:FT player from Japan) and Mike Abdow from Australia.

VF5 came to console in 2007 at it was the main reason that Catherine and I bought a new PS3 and imported two Virtua Stick High Grades from Japan. These items arrived just in time for SoCal VF event #1 for 2007. One of our members, Srider (David Zau) announced a contest for a free VF5 disc. The challenge was to "Show us your scene!" I made a post covering the history of the SoCal Scene.

Later in the same year, the staff of the Evo tournament decided to include Virtua Fighter 5. Players from around the globe arrived at Las Vegas. To celebrate, SoCal held another VF event - "The Month of Virtua Fighter"! We hosted many players for a total of 28 days. It was amazing.

2008 and 2009 saw VF5 playable online with the advent of Virtua Fighter 5 Online for XBOX 360. This did not dampen the drive to play VF offline in SoCal. Two years in a row, players arrived en masse.

Here are links to coverage of VF events in the United States in 2008 and 2009...

California, 2009
California, 2009 Results

New York, 2008
New York, 2008 Singles Tournament Results
New York, 2008 Team Tournament Results

California, 2008
California, 2008 Singles Tournament Results
California, 2008 Team Tournament Results
California, 2008 House Party Video

Many of the fights from those events are on my YouTube channel... VF5 matches played in California and online

There will be another event in 2010. It would be beautiful if it featured VF5R on console.


Please release VF5R for us on console as soon as possible. Please make item packs downloadable. I will buy the game. I will buy all the items. I will tell my friends to buy the game and the items. I will hold more events. You have my promise.


Thank you so much for your consideration,

Talis Baltgalvis
Riverside, California

 

To Sega

The first 3D fighter I played excessively was Virtua Fighter 2 on Sega Saturn. It just felt so fast, fluid and smooth compared to other 3D fighters at the time. Unfortunately, I only started playing during the Saturn's final months, I was young, and only had friends who preferred Tekken, and lack of information available to me, I never found any who liked it like I did.

When the Dreamcast arrived, I finally was able to get into playing VF3, but once again, due to youth and lack of information, I never found other people to play it with. I was able to play VF4 when my nearest arcade got a VF4 machine. I had matches with a few people, but not too many. Unfortunately, the arcade eventually removed the VF4 machine (along with the majority of the other fighting games) and I was back to playing VF2 and VF3.

In 2005, I had only been at university for two weeks when I saw a copy of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution on Playstation 2 pretty cheap, and realised that with my student loans, I could finally play it, so I bought the game along with a Playstation 2 console. It was at this point that I discovered just how deep this game was, which made playing the game incredibly fun and rewarding for me.

It wasn't until Virtua Fighter 5 was announced for Xbox 360 with online that I discovered a community of people who also loved the games in the series like I did. People who are willing to travel hundreds if not thousands of miles just to play this game with others. People who are willing to open their houses to complete strangers from all corners of the world just for this game. These are people who want to play VF5R.

Every day, new videos are uploaded to the different streaming video of VF5:R matches, and people outside of Japan (including myself) are watching them and thinking "I really want to play this", but they can't due to the circumstances.

With console ports of Street Fighter 4 from Capcom and Tekken 6 from Namco along with several other big name fighting game franchises getting console releases last year, the genre has had a revival as such. A lot of people believe that VF5R would definitely help to bring the genre back to the strength it once had in the past.

I know I do.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Smethurst, Rotherham, UK

 

Hello Sega,

I've been playing Virtua Fighter since I managed to buy a copy of Evolution back in the June of 2005. To say the least, Virtua Fighter is the defining game of the fighting genre (at least to me, but so would most of the people here would agree).

For the next year-and-a-half I played mostly alone until the release of Virtua Fighter 5, where I began to meet up with other fans of the game. It was at this time the game became part of my life; I remember scraping in pennies to purchase a PS3, when it was still at the original $600 price tag, as well as 2 arcade sticks... all just to play Virtua Fighter 5. For me, this was a big deal, because the following semester I starved, but it was worth it.

I have since spent hundreds of hours playing, practicing, and traveling to gatherings throughout California (San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, Pacifica, Carlsbad, Irvine, San Francisco, Danville, and Daly city). This is hundreds of more dollars on gas, plane tickets, group dinners. All of it worth every cent (even though it meant I literally was hungry on other days).

The only time I ever took a break from all the playing and practicing and traveling for Virtua Fighter was due to my father's failing health (early 2008) and eventual death last year on 1/20/09. Time has passed and I ended coming back because one needs to move on and enjoy life, Virtua Fighter for me, is one way.

This goes to say, if VF5R were to be released, I'd get it instantly as well as a slew of my friends, one of whom, Neidel Crisan (who runs the popular website: IPLAYWINNER.com), can advertise a possible release which would definitely lead to more copies being sold. Just remember, if you plan to ever release VF5R for consoles, include a training mode akin to Evolution's as it would make the game more accessible for the thousands of players who are more versed in Tekken/Street Fighter; reaching out to these players will be very important in terms of making profits. Regardless of the decision, when I come to Japan for my study aboard journey, I plan to play VF5R in arcades... as long as you have machines in Oita (please have them).

Sincerely,

Sebastian (Sebo) Mosur

San Francisco, California


----------------------------------lol
p.s. (spit balling/throwing an idea around that has been bugging me)

Give Vanessa a third stance (Grapple Stance/GS); making stances changes into:

From DS; ++ to GS and ++ into OS
From OS; ++ to GS and ++ into DS
From GS; ++ to DS and ++ into OS

Virtua Fighter is severely lacking a female grappling character,at least since VF4 when Vanessa has a throw in each direction. Granted this was extremely strong with her powerful attacks, she also lacked in the combo department. Adding a stance would make her more versatile, more fun, and at the same time keep her from being too powerful.

In GS give her a throw in every direction, like El Blaze or VF5 Jeffry, and give a 3rd low throw (++), but keep the damage modest (no throw above 60ish damage). Her striking game could resemble VF4 DS, in terms of strikes (i.e. few moves you could combo with, and far from good punishing abilities). At the same time, maybe lessen the damage to DS's throws, like + to 65ish.


----

 

Dear SEGA,

Like many, my first experience with Virtua Fighter was Virtua FIghter 2. I had been heavily into fighting games throughout the early 90's and Virtua Fighter 2 was the sole reason for myself and my younger brother to choose a Sega Saturn over Playstation, a decision I am still proud to standby.

Prior to our Saturn we had a Megadrive / Genesis and loved playing games like Super Street Fighter at home and at our local Arcade, we spent huge amounts of hours on Street Fighter but when VF2 came out we spent majority of our days after school playing VF2 and every now and then play Zero 2 and other Capcom titles.

We've stuck by SEGA since those days, I have a few Dreamcasts and over 100 titles purchased for them. When SEGA ended their console run we bought every Virtua Fighter title we could and I still believe that VF4:Evo is the best Fighter on consoles to date.

VF5 on 360 was the defining moment in my decision to not only buy a 360 but to invest myself in the Pro Gaming Community in Australia, I was able to play against the best for the first time from my house and I've made some truely great friends through playing VF online, however when I learned of VF5R I couldn't contain my excitement.

Everything looked better, the fighting looked more intense, characters items and stages appeared to be taking it up another level and seeing the whole thing via VFDC raised my hopes of seeing and playing this on consoles one day.

I've been a loyal SEGA and Virtua Fighter fan since it's conception yet your refusal to release VF5R on consoles outside Japan has shaken my love and belief in your company, you've been letting your fans and yourselves down over the past few years by ignoring our pleas, enough is enough release VF5R on consoles not just for the people that have supported you throughout their lives but for the next generation of gamers to come.

I truely believe VF5R to be the pinnacle of fighting games, my friends and colleagues agree and will pay whatever price necessary to play it, to represent it at national tournies and would even travel to EVO and SBO to compete with the best, please SEGA release VF5R and show us you still care about the VF community outside Japan.

Sincerely,

Troy Nelson,
Adelaide, Australia.

 

My Msg to SEGA:

This is Devin Williams from Baltimore, Maryland, currently residing in San Diego California. I grew up on Virtua Fighter since the very first one. I started out mashing buttons as a young chap with Lau, but eventually began learning the strategies enveloped in such a deep game. It was very hard for me, because the area I lived in had only casual players, and they were afraid to take on a challenge such as mastering Virtua Fighter.

I continued on with Lau and Lion in VF2, and even in VF3 which was my favorite of all Virtua Fighters. I've even played the many versions that were on the Sega Saturn. I continued playing VF3:TB during the Dreamcast era and still play on my Dreamcast today. I started playing with Taka Arashi after finally seeing how fun of a character he was to play with.

I moved on to VF4 right before college, and upon joining the military after a year or so of college advanced to VF4 Evolution. I played those games more than I played any other fighting game, or any other game from another genre for that matter. During 4 I picked up Aoi, who I thought was a very interesting but challenging character. I decided not to play with Lion as much, as Vanessa and Lei Fei were my interests at that time as well. When VF4 Evolution was released, I strictly played with Lau, Brad, Aoi, and Jeffry.

While serving in the military, I got to live in Hawaii for about 3 and a half years. While there, I ended up playing Tekken a little bit more, but I still practiced Virtua Fighter. I met a few fans of the game and they could play pretty good. We started our little group. I continued playing with Lau and Aoi, and kept Jeffry as a side project. I got a few friends interested in the game, and they both decided to learn Goh, as he was the most appealing to their styles.

I got the chance to travel to Japan to attend the Tokyo Game Show of '04. There the Sega booth had a Virtua Fighter 2 station setup in commemoration of the 10 year anniversary. I fought a Wolf player from Japan using Lau, and out of those 3 matches I won one of them. The other 2 matches were close, but I saw my strengths and weaknesses and felt somewhat accomplished. It was an eye opening experience for me. I decided to train even harder on VF4 Evolution in preparation for VF5.

Even during the release of the PS3 version of VF5, I continued to play VF4 Evolution for its tutorial and to get in depth with Jeffry and Aoi. At that point I figured I was well into Lau that I could put him aside, and refine characters I wasn't that good with, but were fun to play with.

Upon moving to Texas, I got a copy of VF5 for the Xbox 360. I met another person who liked fighting games, and got him hooked on the game. He also learned Goh, but initially started to play with Jacky and Sarah. I've been utilizing the online aspect due to my work schedule, and no one else was near my area to play against. I finally decided to bring Jeffry to the forefront. I ended up making somewhat of a small name for myself online playing with him. I don't really know if its how I play, or if its the pink string belt I have clashing with the armor plates and pirate hat, but its still good to know that I'm playing the game at a competitive level.

I recently moved to California as mentioned earlier, and am still fighting and practicing with Jeffry. I've been watching a bunch of VF5 & VF5R match videos, and saved some of my matches on the Xbox 360 to watch and study. I plan on making it to more tournaments and offline sessions pending on my work schedule.

I personally feel that VF5R would be a good way to start the 2010 as the 2nd year of the fighting genre. A lot of fighting games came out in 2009, from Senko no Ronde, Battle Fantasia, to BlazBlue, and Tekken 6. I personally feel that while these games are good and have their strong points, they just won't beat the fighting system that VF5 gives. And with the new features added in VF5R, I believe that this installment in the series would bring not only the fans of Virtua Fighter back to the series, but it would attract the curious, and the skeptics to the series. Virtua Fighter has been apart of my life just as much as music, kickboxing, and art. I feel many people can say the same thing. If you guys at Sega truly love your fans' support, please resuscitate us with a console port of VF5R for the current gen systems. That release would probably be an even bigger event than the release of Street Fighter 4, because you will see just how many fans have been truly waiting for it... I certainly have, and still am.

Very Respectfully,

Devin M. Williams (Jinxhand)
San Diego, CA, USA
Devout Jeffry player

 

Dear Sega,

I've always been a fan of fighting games but never really looked into the Virtua Fighter series until Virtua Fighter 5 came out on the xbox 360. I quickly fell in love with the game and it rightfully took its place as my favourite game.

Over the past two years and two months I have played very little besides VF5. I even attended an event in a different country just to play VF5 offline, something I have never done for a video game before. All those hours spent travelling were well worth it though. It was one of the best times I've had.

It pains me to watch videos of VF5R and know that I can't play it. But at the same time I have to watch it because of how impressive it is.I think with the recent resurgence in fighting games over the past two years Virtua Fighter 5:R would sell well in the west.The communities of every one of the fighting games released over the past two years have increased noticeably in the west. The same can be said for Virtua Fighter. I know myself and many others would not be playing the game today had you not made the decision to port it to the Xbox 360.

I don't know if you will read the messages that we are sending you. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me at all if you chose to ignore it. But after reading through what people have said I realise that there is nothing I have to say that hasn't been said already and that I am not the only person who wants to be able to play this game.

So please, Sega. Don't alienate your fanbase in the West.

Sincerely,

Brian Copeland,
Glasgow, Scotland

 

Hi Sega,
I am part of a new generation of Virtua Fighter players that have joined with VF5. I have tried Tekken and Soul Caliber, Street Fighter did not interest me. Guess which game I have always come back to? Guess which game I just bought a £100 arcade stick for?

It was 'the year of the fighter', with a new release in almost every major fighting franchise except one. Fair enough. But to think on a positive note, Tekken under performed, Mainly the hardcore are left in Street Fighter and the very hardcore in Soul Caliber. You could mop up on all these fighting game fans wandering around thinking about what game to buy next.

You know that VF5R is a good game. With the right marketing you could increase your fanbase off the back of these other titles. Sure I'm not going to tell you how to do your job but there are a lot of loyal, angry fans out here who feel neglected by the franchise they follow. You need to look after your fans Sega. You need to grow on your successes and not become complacent.

By releasing VF5R you would; Keep the existing community happy, gain more fans off the back of other games and with that have a bigger fanbase ready for the time you release VF6. So like I said, you must grow on your successes and for the record I would definately buy VF5R, as soon as it was released.


BorisOfWales, virtuafighter.com