The Future of Fighting Games .. 2010,11, 12.

Virtual Fighter 6 with 3D?

I know another VF is coming to consoles at some point. But are there enough fight gamers to go around?



Future of Fighting Games What?

Holographic Taka?

Ultimate Fighting Championship 2010

Tekken Tag II HUH?

VF Long into the future?
Likely future LOL

Global Mixed Martial Arts? Maybe...


Seems like every other fight game developer can manage to give their console fans some kind of indication of a future. Most with big online fight camps, belt races, etc.

The new latest MMA games to come out will sell millions of copies in the first year. And both have already suggested when the fans can expect the next installment.


Where does Virtua Fighter fit in all of this?[/size]


By the time Sega releases the new VF, will there be anybody left to play it, except for a small handful of old school sentimental gamers?

I was at the midnight gamestop opening for EA's MMA, and even in my small town, the line was almost a block long. There were more people there for EA's MMA than for most of the other midnight releases this year.

Namco no secret what their plans are...
The old Midway MK no secret what there plans are....
Capcom no secret what their plans are...
THQ no secret what their plans are... UFC 2012 here it comes
EA MMA we already know (there will be a every other year release)

Where is Virtua Fighter in all of this?[/size]


VF 6 2011, 2012? When.... and will it be too late?

Maybe VF will become just a spectator's sport, where we watch
what the Japanese can do on their arcades.

VF 5R we can only be spectators (unless we go to japan)
VF5FS so far only spectators (unless we go to japan)

Perhaps Sega is just not worried. It knows that Virtua Fighter regins supreme, and whenever the next console version is released, everybody will put down whatever other fighting franchise they're messin around with and make the VF purchase.
Maybe they're just that sure of VF's superiority.

I hope they're right

 

masterpo you fellated ufc undisputed like there was no tommorow. tryed EA mma yet? it absolutely kills it.

 

I look at it like this, if the fans want it, and the company has a good track record of not letting their fans down, they're gonna wait however long to get it... Prime examples being Starcraft 2 and Duke Nukem Forever... Both games, espeically the last one came out waaaaaay later than when it "could" have. But the fans still waited... Ok some almost lost hope for DNF, but its been confirmed, and more recent screenshots and articles have been released for it...

Sega has a bad track record, period... Between the crappy Sonic games, dropping games that were due for sequels (Shenmue, Panzer Dragoon, SoR), bad advertising, the Sega CD launch, not reviving games worth reviving, releasing remakes on systems that wouldn't sell much as they would on a different console (Guardian Heroes, House of the Dead) and making games only for Japan only thus collecting a small %age of their revenue (VF4FT, The Rumble Fish), Sega as a whole really could fall out like Data East or get swallowed by a bigger better company...

It's obvious that information is key... When people know, they can anticipate and get hype, which will result in more sales possibly, whether the game will suck or not (hello KOFXII)... We all wish Sega would say something to their non-Japanese crowd, but the fact is they aren't, and you know its sad when MK (which almost dissolved until WB saved the day) gets mentioned, and everybody knows about it, even when the series was in a bad state, and left a bad taste in people's mouths with MKvDC... Sega's just not as interactive as they could be... Hell, even the moderators/reps at Sega.com aren't that great imo... They might say one thing or 2 things, but half the time they don't really know much about anything... It's even more sad that you have companies like Aksys releasing polls asking what game you want released on console, and they're even going as far as porting a game over if the fans want it, and Sega hasn't done anything like that to my knowledge, and if they did, I'm pretty sure nothing was ported over...

How many people here have played Guardian Heroes for the Saturn??? How many people knew about the port to GBA (which was kinda like a sequel sorta)??? I'm pretty sure the numbers for the former question is larger than the latter... Now how many people want Guardian Heroes to be ported to a console??? Look how long it took Gunstar Heroes to get released... They've got a ton of Sega Ages games that could easily be ported over, but you only get about 1-3 on xbl/psn maybe, and some of them aren't ones people are requesting... It's like we're asking for bread, but we're given snakes...

The future of a company really depends on them and the fans... Meet the needs of the fans, and you'll live on... BUT, you have to know what the fans want, and getting that is as simple as asking them... Once you ask them, just implement the damn thing... If it's good, start promoting that heavily so that those that don't know about the product get interested in it... Advertise all aspects of the product (some people will buy it for looks, some for its main use, others for its longevity)... Blizzard has been successful with WoW because of this... Granted, it only has 14 million subscribers (in comparison to Perfect World, which has at least double) but its still alot of players, and WoW is more known than Perfect World, simply because of advertising... Accesibility is another form of advertising, as is getting involved with the fans by holding events, tournaments, and having give-aways Blizzard does just that, too... Those things also produce local and international events held by other companies and the fans as well, because that product is good... I personally don't play WoW (I play GW & FFXI), I just know good business marketing when I see it, and they're putting in work... Capcom is doing the same with SSF4 and they've got a bunch of people holding local sessions, people are putting up tutorials, holding tournaments, money matches, etc. and more people are tuning into SSF4. Even if they don't like the game, they still get on it just because so many people are playing it, and not whatever game they're playing (GG, HnK, MB, ST, KoF, T6, VF5 even)...

Sega, where are you at??? Speak louder, speak boldly, and come down to Earth where the real people with real requests are and speak in person (with and without a translator)... Boon does it, Ono does it, Harada does it, Miyamoto does it, Shane Kim does it, Itagaki does it, Molyneux even does it (gives promises he can keep, but still does it). Why can't you Sega??? I mean even Rocky had to come back to show he was still good (in terms of fighting, not the movie). Jayz, Michael Jordan. Michael Jackson, Hulk Hogan, and Mayweather all came back and showed how they still reigned supreme... Why can Virtua Fighter come to all, and not one(Japan) to prove just that??? 'Cause everywhere I go, I read that people want it, but they aren't anticipating for it to come because you don't say nothing... Even after a HUGE petition, nil was said... "Oh we're not sure"... Namco was sure... Capcom was sure... Arcsys/Aksys was sure... And some of us were sure, but its wavering... Where's that "fireball" you were talking about D.K.??? Shoot it already!!!

 

@ugg yea, got EA's MMA its solid, I'm sure its gonna do at least 2-3 million in sales this year.

@jinxhand, well.... I'm one of those fans who will buy VF whenever they release it and they release it for my console. But there's something more here. I'm a big Yakuza fan, Sega produces that right? The Yakuza fans already know that Yakuza 4 is coming and will be here sometimes next year. We knew when Yakuza 3 was coming etc. So for some titles Sega will at least make some kind of time frame commitment for the consoles. The fact that VF is an arcade business as far as Sega sees it probably is the real issue here. How much does Sega make from
VF at the arcades vs how much they make from a console version?

So from a production point of view VF is an arcade game. They can produce console versions, but then they have to purchase licensing from Sony and Microsoft, and if they're only going to sell 300,000 - 500,000 units then maybe its just not worth it.

Of course the fans say if you advertise more, more people will buy and play the game. And Sega's executives probably say well
if more people were buying the game we would devote a little more advertising dollars and round-n-round we go.

So rather than worry about licensing from Microsoft and Sony, and advertising budgets etc, they can just stick to the arcade
business for Virtua Fighter, where advertising and licensing is not an issue. Just pure profit.

I almost wish Team Ninja or Tecmo would buy the license to the console version of VF. I hear they used the engine once upon a time. VF is a masterpiece its a shame that Sega owns the license.

I know from first hand experience that these newer fighting games e.g. EA's MMA and UFC 2010 are eating into what little market share VF has outside of Japan, and the longer we go without a new console version, the smaller that market gets and if Sega is never going to invest any real money into the basics
like a website dedicated to VF and an advertising budget, then the market will get smaller and smaller between releases.

People have only so much online gaming time available. I just don't know how VF is going to make it in 2011, 2012. And Sega may be content to leave it in the Japanese arcades

 

SF4 is eating up most of the $$$ available right now... Even KOFXIII, which right now is in the arcades (even in America - wassup Sega?) is posing a threat right now... KOF fans (including myself) are waiting for this to hit consoles, and they don't necessarily know when its gonna hit (to my knowledge), but they still get the heads up and a bunch of information from Ignition (even the admins are talking, eh)...

They want just pure profit??? Start dumping classics that people want on xbl/psn... Make the FS board swappable like the SSF4 board, and put it in an arcade location in the US that's still booming (somewhat)... People will travel, bust a nut, and ring out their coins into the machine and probably pack the arcade machines... I mean hundreds of people have been wanting to play it (even those SRK cats)... That could've been the kink in the armor of "Sega-hate" and the console release could be the finishing blow to end their long streak of fail and start success...

 

Jinx this takes massive time to do to cause even making cheap ports cost money and does not garauntee sales personally I think Sega has been doing well so far for the last 5-8 years with their other titles Sega is making good small steps of profit that and if a FS machine was built it prabably be placed in Cali

 

As it should be.

 

Fucking right.