Virtua Fighter - Akira Yuki Announced by Storm Collectibles

Nice!

I saw this yesterday and about lost my mind. About God damn time...

I'm a schill for any character they throw out for the VF crew...but I'm hoping we at least see a Pai, Jacky, and Jeffery sometime in the next 6-10 years. The parts are all there from various lines they've put out thus far, and VF's simpler designs make them a bit more ideal to kitbash them and crank them out at a faster rate one would hope.

Hell...if they did polygon ones like Figma did a while back...I'd be all over those as well.

Really excited for this!

Yeah....
This is cool...
Kudos Storm ;^)

Virtua Fighter eSports - Akira Yuki by Storm Collectibles - The Toyark - News

Interesting "E-Sports" branding. Virtua was always billed as more of a fighting simulation than a game and played as such, but it's interesting to see that highlighted with the toy license. I haven't paid enough attention to know whether Storm has used "E-Sports" with their other fighting game properties, or if this is specific to VF.

I miss the Virtua Fighter franchise.

Looks pretty good but the head looks a little tiny and the legs look huge. The sculpts and paint look good.

I haven't followed the series lately, I couldn't find anything labeled VF esports when I searched.

Virtua Fighter Esports is rumored to be Sega's next attempt at relaunching the series. They launched a trailer for it some time last year, but provided no context to what it is exactly. Speculation is ranging to everything from being a remaster of the last game with better stat tracking for an Esports focus, to an update in the Capcom vein (i.e. champion edition/super...etc) to an entirely new project altogether. Whatever it is...Sega has been playing it very low key and has been keeping it's secrets very close to their chests.

Is there any information as to whether this will be exclusive to Japan or will domestic retailers like BBTS carry it?

That makes a little more sense than Storm arbitrarily slapping 'E-Sports' on there. SEGA always talked up Virtua as a fight sim distinguishing it from its less realistic and more arcade-learning-curve friendly fighting game competitors. However, SEGA's traditionally coy and overly secretive business strategy will continue to stymie any efforts at effective marketing. They never learn. I used to think that the Saturn's failure rested solely at the feet of Bernie Stolar, SEGA's US division COO, at the time. How the Saturn, essentially an affordable poor man's NEO-GEO, which produced nearly pixel perfect home console versions of just about every popular 2D fighting game of the mid to late 90's, didn't find traction in US markets was a source of considerable consternation. But having also experienced the Dreamcast and similarly poor positioning, I've concluded this is just the way SEGA's going to roll; perpetual self sabotage.

Here is the rather cryptic trailer that Sega released last year...



Youtube influencer and fighting game ambassador Maximilian Dood did a great break down on what the game might actually be...working through some of the rumors that were circulating at the time. Warning, there may be some NSFW language in the video...

"They never learn."

https://www.stormco.com.hk/collectio...imate-showdown

It's on Storm's own website, I would assume it'll get a regular release. Interestingly enough their own website and the pictures are labelled Virtua Fighter 5.

Hopefully they make Pai and Sarah.

Cool to see, felt Storm Collectibles has become the fighting game action figure company. That being said I think they should finish up the lines of the current licenses they have. If anything I see them doing VF figures as a sign for Dead or Alive figures since VF characters made it in DOA5 (2012-2015). But would rather see them finish other lines and go deeper into the Samurai Showdown line before DOA.

The rights for Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive are totally different, so I wouldn't take that as anything, just as not to expect Marvel vs. Capcom characters.

^Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive aren't as different as you might believe. Tecmo (Team Ninja) built their engine on Model 2 Sega tech to make the first DOA. In fact, Tecmo used Virtua Fighter's graphics-engine as the foundation of DOA and this fact likely had much to do with why the port for the Sega Saturn was superior (marginally) on the console in comparison to the Playstation version despite the Sony machine being built to support the advent of polygonal graphics.

The games are spiritual cousins and it was for this reason that Tecmo included Virtua characters in DOA 5. As far as Storm's plans are concerned, I wouldn't be surprised to see DOA fighters licensed by the manufacturer.