Biggest take-aways for me was the confirmation that they're thinking about new concepts and how to brand / market it. New concepts is something we would obviously expect with a major version of VF but, let's be honest, SEGA's branding and marketing has lots to catch up on especially when compared to other big FGC titles, and even more so for the global market outside of Japan.

So, it's interesting to hear that they're considering not going with the number 6, and I think that idea is already being tested when they rebranded as Virtua Fighter esports (for the Japan market only) by dropping the '5' from the current title.

VFes Season_1 is about to start in May this year with 3 Challenge Cups scheduled. The top 2 places at each cup earn a Pro License and at the end of Season_1 (March 2023) will be a grand final with the 8 Pro License holders (2 from Season_0 + 6 from Season 1). I think as Season_1 progresses we can reasonably expect to see more updates to maintain interest and engagement in VFes / VF5US.

Harada is right though, in that with the recent revival of the series and with such iconic IP in the front of many minds again, SEGA should try to capitalise on the momentum with a new title. Perhaps (and I hope!) we'll see that momentum maintained during Season_1 and, who knows, maybe we'll get teased something toward the end of the season? @akai pointed out something interesting to me in regards to the Season_1 roadmap:



There's a one month gap between Cup 1 and 2, yet there's a two month gap between Cup 2 and 3. Would that be a good time to tease something, right before Christmas holidays, and generate hype for the 8 player Pro License final? Who knows!

I'm curious as to what they mean by a potential reboot of the series.
I'm all for it, as long as the old games are preserved in some way too. It sucks that we have to pirate the old VF games to play them at all now, or buy ancient retro hardware.
If the old games (1,2,3) are the best selling in the franchise, hopefully they see potential to do some kind of collection.

Episode 2 with Aoki and Tokido



Updated the first post, premieres in half a day.

My notes from episode 2 (these are really interesting videos!):

- Overseas Market (from a Japanese-centric viewpoint) - Focus on overseas is important. Harada mentions Tekken Japan domestic sales make up only 3%. According to Tokido, Street Fighter Japan domestic sales make up about 10%. Aoki mentions for Virtua Fighter, domestic Japan sales makes up only 5 to 10%. Harada joke, you are kind of slow to realize the importance of the overseas market!

- Harada use example of Morkal Kombat. Design for that fighting game for family to play against each other (Harada) and single player content (Aoki), not for competitors like Tokido. Tournament participation decrease every year for that game, but sales better than Tekken and Street Fighter. Aoki mentions how he is interested in seeing how Street Fighter 6 performs as he feel similar situation.

- Rumors many times of collaboration, but first actual collaboration seen inside the game titles.

- Release fighting games and the announcements, the companies try to make plans (read in between lines) to not overlap with each other. Aoki glad Street FIghter 6 was announced, "we won't have to overlap if we released a new title."

- Read in between lines, it sounds like Harada delaying announcements for next Tekken, in respect of Capcom/Street Fighter announcing Street Fighter 6.

- Aoki casually mentions the big gaming shows around September or so such as Tokyo Game Show / E3 (which is cancelled for this year) for announcements . Most Announcement for overseas first, the Japan gets to try it out first.

- Funny story about Harada accidentally tweet announcement for Street Fighter V before it was intended. Also miscommunication between different branches of the companies especially due to time differences.

- Aoki mentioned wanting to "make one big project with everyone" something Harada express interest also. Note that in the Roundtable, Aoki mentioned something similar. Seems a major hurdle for this, is which company gets to do it.

Looks like one more episode with Aoki and Tokido.

Edited: To correct some grammar and revised some notes that could be misinterpreted.

With the latest episode, I think it reinforces some teaser of some sort around that time. Or maybe planning the Challenge Cups around the next Beat Tribe (not sure when that will happen)!?

Or If RGG is really going to troll....announce "Project Judgement" making fans not knowing if its related to Lost Judgement (spinoff of the Yakuza series) or Judgement 6 (evil organization in VF series).

Link to Episode 3 premiering this weekend.

My Notes on Episode 3 (This time not much pertaining to VF):
- The topic of this session "Blow Up" - I assume another term would be controversy over something that grew large through social media.

- Tokido in an online tournament used a controller config that had combined two inputs into one button input (not allowed). Publicly apologizes. Negative, frustrated feelings how do they deal with it . Tokido, hate the person inside the game, to focus on winning the game. But always kept it within the game only.

- Harada sometimes want to tell someone to "STFU" as he feels they attacked for completely mistaken reasons. A good % is based on misunderstanding. He gets some crazy replies from some tweets that for the most part are positive.

- Aoki, not recently had a blow up, but 10-12 years ago (before Sega had official twitter accounts) had some controversy when he personally tweets about the game Border Break.

- Outrage at article totally different from the interview topic. According to Harada an article about Tekken on Wii U. It was not a misinterpretation, but a deliberate misleading article.

Season 1's schedule/roadmap has been adjusted. The 2nd challenge cup will be starting 2 months later than the previous schedule advertised at the end of Season 0.

So there is now a 3 month empty block from July to September....