Virtua Fighter X eSport announced

at least DOA5 and 6 both had complete version of the game along with the F2P one.

Speaking of DOA6, esport focus and gacha mobile like mechanics really ruined the sixth game, both in gameplay and content...

I'm really worried for VF.

 

I don't think Sega will make the same mistake as TECMO did for DOA 6. DOA6 was/is a financial failure precisely because of $99 DLC on first day, $1 hair dye, lack of full features, dropping of team mode, lack luster feature poor story mode. TECMO made serious mistakes with all of that !@# and it cost them sales, reputation, loyalty and market share. VF is not popular enough to even try that bull!@#$ and if Sega does try to play the micro-transaction grab-n-squeeze it will be a disgraceful and shameful end to a legendary fighting game. VF. will "lose face" and leave the world stage in utter dishonor

In this moment, at this time, Sega and VF have the opportunity to advance the course of fighting game history once again. To take the fighting game genre to the next level. To raise the bar for all the other FGs out there , to show the way forward for all fighting games to come. In this instant of time the eyes of the entire fighting game world are on Sega and the Virtua Fighter X e-sport project. Sega has a choice: they can take the High road and change history or take the Low road , go the micro-transaction route and become a tragic cautionary tale in the annals of fighting game history.

 

Having both would be cool. I'd by a complete set or whatever, but part of the reason people were upset about something like SFV was because they charged $60 for a game with less features than previous entries ON TOP OF the seasons passes, costumes and what not.


If there's a F2P option that could has more to potential to bring people into the fold.

 

The way to do it is like Riot did with League of Legends, completely F2P gameplay-wise only the aesthetic aspect of the game would make them profit.

The parent company Tencent told Riot that they were insane to follow that business model but then they did it and it worked to the point that LOL still relevant to this day on E-sports and made them to invest and experiment with new F2P games in other genres like Valorant, Legends of Runaterra, LOL Wild Rift and their future fighting game which of course will be F2P.

SEGA would avoid to compete with Riot and the others in the competition since there's a market for people that want a minimalist non-over the top fighting game with special powers. There's a niche of people that want a fighting game with a realistic representation of traditional martial arts. Besides it has SEGA's seal of quality.

Also making cosmetic items available via game currency only would also be a huge mistake. There needs to be a way to unlock cosmetics via crates, missions of some sort completely free as well. Give the players options.

If SEGA doesn't do it someone else younger and hungry will. Never overestimate the competition and upcoming talent. Specially in the electronic industry.

See Riot's history of success:

 

When are the news SEGA ?

 

I hope you're right.

But I also see Border Break on PS4 as another example of a recent AM2 game with the F2p model.

Of course it's a different kind of game, but in Border Break you see all the negative aspects of the F2P model that could plague Virtua Fighter esports too:

game that lack content, focus on multiplayer with basically almost no content for single player modes, costant gameplay updates (for me it's negative since balance is always cormpomised, but I think the same for updates in modern fighting games too), game works only when connected to internet and not offline etc.
Also the F2P model means that the game is made on tiny budget, so don't expect great graphics or huge innovations.

 

Oh yea, I reeeeeaallly hope SEGA does not try to convert VF to a F2P model otherwise known as GAAS (Game As A Service).

With F2P or GAAS, the game is purposely:

• developed with very little budget
• ships as a MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
• shipped with known (sometimes planned ) defects
• intentionally includes grind
• has pay to win mechanics
• intentionally ships with key missing features
• intentionally ships missing frequently 'requested' features

GAAS is the modern day, updated arcade model. pay as you play. Its worse than the arcade model because at least with arcades the games were fully functional. With GAAS or F2P the games are barely functional.

The strategy for GAAS is to put out a game as a MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and use strong arm psychology string players along and to force the players to continuously spend money hoping that one day they will get to a finished game, when in fact the game is never finished. It will never have all of the features that the gamers want. There will always be some feature promised on the horizon. There is always something that needs to be patched. There is always something that's just out of reach and if the gamer spends another $1.99, $2.99, $10.99, ....$99 it will make the game a little better. The game development is literally funded in real time as the game publisher rakes in the micro-transactions.

Of course SEGA would like to convert Virtua Fighter to a GAAS because GAAS Virtua Fighter could be far more profitable than an Arcade release of VF.

Yes there are some games where F2P works. But it failed with DOA 6, it failed with SC (remember Soul Calibur Lost Swords?) EA UFC 4 (released August 14) another fighting game is failing spectacularly right now with its GAAS.

Just because some games (e.g Fortnite) , some sports games (FIFA) and oodles of mobile games make billions of dollars from F2P does not mean that the F2P model will translate well to other game genres. So far FGs have shown not to make very good candidates for F2P or GAAS. Most FGs that have tried this have either failed, or not been as successful as the game publishers originally hoped they would be.

Fighting Games are already a niche market. Virtua Fighter is niche market within a niche market. It will be very very difficult for SEGA to successfully pull off GAAS with Virtua Fighter X e-sports. Unless Virtua Fighter X e-sports is transformed into something non of us recognize. That's why I don't think SEGA will try this with VF especially if they've done their homework. In order to make VF successful as a F2P, SEGA would have to essentially produce a new IP and just call it Virtua Figher and that would be very risky.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_as_a_service

https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/the-whales-of-microtransactions-and-the-elephant-in-the-room

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product

 

With Sega making a strong emphasis that this is an E-Sports Virtua Fighter Project, I think it's safe to say it won't be F2P. All the biggest fighting games in the competitive scene are NOT F2P. As crazy and disappointing Sega can be at times, imo it's clear they want this game/project to be competitive and played in tournaments/leagues/tours.

 

Like Po said DoA6 microtransactions messed up DoA6. DoA5 is clearly the better version and its only because they had VF characters in it

 

From a casual players perspective microtransactions ruined DOA6 . From a hard core gamer's perspective that actually learns frames and plays competitively beyond story mode, the 8 frame input delay on PS4 ruined DOA6. Xbox One X version was only slightly better with 6 frame input delay.

 

If SEGA does F2P the way the old Asian online PC F2P games and Tecmo did with DOA6 is going to fail miserably.

This is why Riot Games is so successful. No pay to win in none of their games. They have micro-transactions but only for cosmetic purposes that can be ALSO be achievable for free with special events, drops, player to player gifts, missions etc. There's no scummy ways of GAAS like EA or Tecmo.

I highly recommend to watch the documentary of the history of Riot Games and how did achieve success. I'm excited what kind of thing are they gonna do with their upcoming fighting game. They already have a successful MOBA, a FPS, a card game, an auto battler game, a mobile game. All successful and high quality.

SEGA has four options. Go the traditional retail game way and risk not to sell many copies as the competition. Go the scummy GAAS F2P way like EA and Tecmo and face backlash from the casual and hardcore fanbase. Go the confusing Killer Instinct ways and their many options of acquiring the game . Or go the Riot Games way, completely free with only cosmetics as their profit but make them also achievable for free with the correct mechanics. For this last one SEGA needs to have an engaging staff that is willing to listen to their players. That's one one of the main reasons how Riot went from a small staff in a garage to a corporate juggernaut that is today on the top of the esports world.

 

GAAS........all of a sudden, I remember Tekken Revolution.

 

I used to love Doa in doa3 and 4 days. Now it became garbage.

 

DOA 2 3 4 were sick, while 5 and 6 are just "ok" fighting games.

DOA really got fucked when Itagaki left.

 

Yea, the GAAS model has really !#$@ked games up for most players. Some companies have made a lot of money. But gaming is worse off and in general gamers are worse off.
And right around the time Itagaki left, the GAAS model was on the drawing board and about to get real. And DOA did begin a downward spiral. What DOA did with the modes and the DLC was just shameful.

These days a game has to be beyond exceptional for me to even consider buying it. if I even think it will have the GAAS model I go the other way. My official position is to not buy GAAS games. 90% of them are just hustles, ripoffs, and money grabs, that take psychological advantage of gamers.

GAAS works because it depends on GAS (Gamers Are Suckers). And any time we spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a single fighting game, the publishers are justified in using GAAS as a business model

 

I wish fighting games will just return to the old days, when they had no patches updates, no continue rebalance, no dlc, no season pass, no 10-20 clones characters released in the nest 2-3 years to justify a gaas model etc

You had the disk with all the content and that's that, no excuse like "I'm not good now because my character got nerfed".

Game was kept alive naturally with tournament and people play it normally, not kept alive artificially with DLC and gaas for people who has a very low attention deficit, that costantly need an incentive and istant gratification otherwise they abandon your game.

I still wish Virtua Fighter 6 or esport will be a different kind of fighting game, that can show again the pure challenge spirit that should be at the core of any sports, e-sports included.

 

So DOA5 and 6 actually exist?
I thought I was in dreamland.

 

Once the idea of a digital version of the game was possible and Internet connection speeds gave game publishers the option of uploading a game directly to a console, the writing was on the wall. Then some gamers started demanding and preferring digital copies rather than disk copies. I don't think those gamers realized at the time what it would lead to.

Add to that in the FG community we had the "so called" pro gamers or "high level" players in the various FG community bitch about this character or that character being broken or OP. Since The PS3 and XBox One operating systems supported the notion of digital downloads and dynamic patches, the publisher could push character buffs and character nerfs out to the consoles, so away we go!

Take it a step further, High level players, Pro players starting to stream games, lab sessions, etc, and started to have large subscriber bases 100k viewers +. When these players started to lab characters with the frame data and show that Character X or Character Y was OP or was broken to their 100k + followers or subscribers, then game publishers were kind-a backed into a corner, and had no option but to try to fix roster balance, and so the model of nerfing and buffing characters through dynamic patches on consoles was born.

In some ways its our own fault. Back in the old days, when FG shipped on disks and there was no such thing as online update/patches or DLC, if a character was OP (Over Powered) then the community had to find a work-around. Either the community found various techniques to win against the OP character, or the character wasn't allowed in official tournaments. Or players were shamed out of using a cheap character during tourneys. Sure the FG arcades would get updates or new versions if there was a problem, but the console community just dealt with any broken or OP characters until a new game came out (if a new game came out)

But these days, the second a new character is released in a FG as DLC or through a patch, the streamers, influencers, high level players are going to take that character into the lab (dojo) get out the frame data and do a microscopic-nit-picking -level inspection of every frame advantage, disadvantage, dmg level, launcher, orbital, tracking, high ,low, mid, level, wall splat, wiff punishing move the new character has, and if they don't like what they see, the bitching , complaining, and whining will be televised over youtube, twitch, facebook, etc. I know the FG publishers probably in retrospect wish they had never released frame data to the consumer. I know its probably caused the game publishers no shortage of headache, heartache and grief. When they first started releasing frame data the game publishers probably had no idea that the gamers would eventually hold them hostage with that very same frame data.

So part of the problem with GAAS is on the game publishers, but various members of the FG community are also to blame

All we can hope at this point is that GAAS fails in the long run

 

I agree masterpo.

I just remembered a thing, on Virtua Fighter 1 instruction manual on Saturn, Lau Chan was described by Sega itself as a little "cheap" character

It wasn't an issue, like you said it is (was) normal to have stronger characters or weaker characters (even if in VF series it wasn't never a problem, all games were wonderfully balanced to perfection), and the challenge was for the player to overcome your favorite character weakness etc.

Now when these "pro" start to lose, they just complain on social media waiting for publisher to fix issues that doesn't exists.

That's why a part of me don't want Virtua Fighter to return in such a deviated fighting game world.

 

Yea, somewhere inside I'm worrying that Sega might F!@# the game up. I reeeeally hope not. At this point I'd really be happy with VF5FS just completely ported to current gen/next gen consoles 'as is' I recently was lucky enough to get a new stick for PS3, so I can keep playing VF. But if the game is always on a current console then I don't have to worry about hardware wearing out or being not able to replace something.

Sega could also just release Virtua Fighter The Definitive Edition that brings back innovations from previous editions like:

• Team Battle Mode
• Announcer
• Programmable AI Partner
• Quest Mode
• Underground Tournaments
• License Mode
• Kumite Mode
• Training Dojo Mode from VF4 EVO
• Player Profiles (loadable from USB stick)

These modes and features and as an added bonus allow the players to select game engine version prior to the match e.g being able to select VF4 Version A, or VF5 version B prior to a match or under game settings. That would be dope. Then players could play the version of engine that they like best. For example If both players agree to VF4 Evo version A, or if the tournament announces that VF3TB engine is going to be used for the tournament everybody knows what to expect and what rules to train under.

Sega literally could get away with just re-packaging all of the previous versions of VF!