SEGA-AM2

SEGAbits Exclusive Interview with Veteran SEGA Designers Akihito Hiroyoshi & Yumiko Miyabe

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During our visit to Japan for the Tokyo Game Show, we seized the opportunity to meet and engage in conversation with former veteran SEGA Designers, Akihito Hiroyoshi—renowned as the character designer for classic SEGA AM2 arcade games such as Arabian Fight and Virtua Cop—and Yumiko Miyabe, the former art director for the Space Channel 5 series.

These interviews unveiled insights into their early lives, careers during their tenure at SEGA, and personal hobbies. By clicking the link, you can delve into the interviews and explore behind-the-scenes artwork from the games they passionately crafted during their time at SEGA.

Additionally, the interviews are available in video format, with links provided here for Akihito Hiroyoshi and Yumiko Miyabe. A special acknowledgment goes to our fellow writer, Dakota, for video recording, as well as SEGA fans, Martin Hemmingway and Scott Hamby for translating the interviews. *Please note: images provided in the interview are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission*

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Tekken finally crosses over into Virtua Fighter with the ‘Tekken 7 Collaboration Pack’

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Since both Virtua Fighter and Tekken dominated 3D fighting games in the 90s, fans have been wondering when the company would create a Tekken x Virtua Fighter cross-over fighting game. Officially, neither game has crossed over in an official game, until now. Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown breaks that trend with the DLC “Tekken 7 Collaboration Pack” which is set to launch on June 1st.

This Tekken 7 Collaboration Pack includes:

  • 19 Tekken 7 outfits: When you equip these outfits, character customization will be disabled.
  • 20 full Tekken 7 background music tracks.
  • Tekken 7 UI interface
  • Two Tekken 7 collaboration titles: These titles are added into the “other” category when selecting titles.

While this isn’t a full fledge new crossover title, its nice to finally see an official Tekken cameo in some form within Virtua Fighter and maybe will open up the discussions for something larger in the future.

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Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown to have delay-based netcode

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According to the folks over at Kotaku, who talked to a SEGA representative via e-mail, have finally confirmed if Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown will have roll-back netcode. It won’t. This might be the biggest disappointment to fans looking forward to playing games with someone across the country.

It seems that the game will be re-using the old Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown netcode, which at the time was well received but now more people are asking for rollback netcode in fighting games. This movement has spread so far out that SNK has even went back and updated their old classic games with rollback netcode.

Though just because a team uses rollback, doesn’t mean that the game will not have lag or other issues. For example, Street Fighter V uses Capcom’s own rollback netcode and I personally have had way more smoother games in Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown back in the day.

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Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown getting an arcade release & opening cinematic released

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This is one of those two for one post on Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown. First we got a brand new opening cinematic released by the Japanese Virtua Fighter YouTube channel, seems this is the ‘eSports’ branded intro (for the arcades?). Regardless, the cinematic has me hyped, really loved the ending where all the main cast is looking at each other.


While SEGA and their arcade future isn’t looking too bright, it is known that each main series Virtua Fighter game has had an arcade version and Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown is no different as SEGA has confirmed the existence of an arcade version. It seems SEGA is branding this one Virtua Fighter E-Sports, like the teaser and releases on June 2nd, 2021. Interesting enough the opening really sells on the ‘fight anyone around the world’ and the arcade cabinet only supports one player.

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Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown being given away to PlayStation Plus members starting June 1st

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It looks like the rumors running around that Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown was going to be given away to PlayStation Plus members in June are true. It has now been confirmed via the PlayStation Blog:

Sega’s iconic one-on-one battler gets remade for a new generation by Yakuza and Judgment developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. This console exclusive debuts on PlayStation Plus, allowing both VF veterans and newcomers to experience the intense martial arts combat, deep strategy, and intricately balanced gameplay of the groundbreaking 3D fighter in stunning HD. New online features – like custom tournaments supporting up to 16 players and live spectating – join classic modes like Rank Match, Arcade, and VF5’s famously robust Training to deliver the definitive Virtua Fighter experience.

The game will not only be available on PlayStation Plus for about two months – June and July – but it’ll also be releasing on PlayStation Now in June! PlayStation Plus members can enter Virtua Fighter 5’s arenas starting Tuesday, June 1.

According to the internet, PlayStation Plus has over 47 million subscribers, meaning that Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown might be the most online active Virtua Fighter game ever. Maybe. What do you guys think of SEGA’s move in giving the game away for free to Plus members?

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Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Announcement Trailer – To Be Released Next Week Digitally on PS4

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IGN has an exclusive announcement trailer for Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown aka Virtua Fighter Esports in Japan. The trailer features the entire VF cast and stages remade with the Dragon Engine and is developed by the collaboration between SEGA AM2 and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio as part of SEGA’s 60th anniversary project.

The game will include include new background music for every stage, a new user interface, a new opening cinematic, and new lighting and shaders. In addition to updated graphics and background music, it will allow players to spectate online matches in real-time, and will also include the ability to build robin-robin style online tournaments. The private and public lobby system will support up to 16 players, and will include new communications tools like stamps.

Check out screenshots of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown and let us know what you think? Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown will be available digitally on PS4 on June 1st.

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Virtua Fighter x Esports Official Announcement Broadcast to be held on May 27th

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The official Twitter account for the Virtua Fighter series teased that there will be an official announcement broadcast for the “Virtua Fighter x Esports” project held on their official YouTube channel on Thursday, May 27th at 20:00 JST (7 AM EST, 6AM CST, 4 AM PST). You can head on over to their countdown site and the official Youtube channel for the game to keep yourself updated.

We are finally about to receive some news on the project. What are your expectations for Virtua Fighter x Esports? Let us know in the comments below.

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Yu Suzuki and Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada talk Virtua Fighter 6, cancelled Tekken Dreamcast title and Tekken x Virtua Fighter

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Yesterday the Japanese video game news site Denfaminico Gamer held an interview with SEGA-AM2 legendary arcade designer Yu Suzuki (Virtua Fighter), Tekken’s Katsuhiro Harada and Arc System Works’ Toshimichi Mori where they talked about the histories of their franchises that included Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear and Blazblue. There was also some talk about the possibility of creating Virtua Fighter 6!

The important bits of the interview were taken from @gosokkyu twitter account, who translates Japanese gaming news. If you like Japanese games, I suggest you give the account a follow.

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Rumor: Leaked Image shows Arcade1Up’s upcoming SEGA AM2 Fighting Games

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Over on Reddit, a user named Smashingtime98, released a leaked image of Arcade1up’s upcoming arcade cabinet of games which features five SEGA AM2 fighting games. The list of games included is Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter Remix, Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers and Sonic the Fighters.

While the arcade cabinet is not officially confirmed by Arcade1up, we will keep an eye out for more details when it’s available. In the meantime, Arcade1up is also working on arcade cabinet featuring Golden Axe Revenge of Death Adder and more AM1 classics to be released soon.

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SEGA stopping Border Break arcade support a decade after launch

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SEGA has just announced that they will officially close support for Border Break in arcades, the SEGA-AM2 game launched way back on September 9, 2009 on the RingEdge arcade board.

According to SEGA’s financial reports on the game, as of March 2012 it has grossed over $100 million dollars for SEGA, so its no surprised that it was still being updated till this day. The last ‘rename’ update the game got was Border Break X Zero back in 2017. Border Break will still live on considering that a PlayStation 4 free-to-play version of the game launched in Japan last year. What about us here in the West?

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Going to Evo? Enter the Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown side tournament!

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If you are going to attend EVO 2018 and where looking for some Virtua Fighter action, you’re in luck. Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown will have a side tournament at EVO 2018 and you can sign up here if you want to enter. Registration to sign up closes in a week, so don’t wait.

Console: Xbox 360
Where: Evo 2018, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas USA.
When: Friday August 3, 10AM
Entry Fee: $5 (Plus Evo 2018 Event Registration ($60).)

Here are the rules:

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SEGA’s Border Break Custom HORI PS4 Joystick will only get made if they get 3,000 pre-orders

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As we already that Hori is making a Border Break themed custom flight stick (is that what they are called?), but it has not been revealed that they will need at least 3,000 pre-orders by May 2nd to begin production. Seems fair, if you can’t sell 3,000, is it even worth making?

The Border Break custom HORI controller is set to cost 18,334 yen ($168.67 USD) and will ship sometime in 2018. You can pre-order the stick on the official HORI store, the pre-orders cease on May 2nd at 10:00am JST. If you pre-order the custom HORI stick, you will also get a original mech paint color with the HORI logo for Border Break. Sadly this is only (so far) for the Japanese market. Border Break and the HORI custom controller are only being promoted and released within Japan. 

[via Siliconera]

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Unboxing After Burner II Limited Edition Data Discs Vinyl

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We got a new package in the SEGAbits office, this time we will be unboxing a After Burner II Limited Edition Data Discs vinyl, which went up for pre-order a few months ago. Like all Data Discs vinyl release, there are three versions released including a black vinyl, colored vinyl (purple for After Burner II) and a limited edition (this one being splatter design). He can pick up a vinyl copy of a non-limited version here.

This is the 15th release on Data Discs retro vinyl line-up, are you picking these up? If so which release is your favorite so far?

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Check out this amazing Hori Border Break branded controller

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Mech games like Virtual-On and Border Break need their own controllers to make the user feel more engaged with the game. Sure, you could play the games just fine on a regular PlayStation 4 controller, but why not increase the awesomeness with a mech like controller? Don’t worry, Hori’s got you covered with their newly (a few days ago) announced PlayStation 4 Border Break controller.

There hasn’t been a release date for the controller or the free-to-play Border Break PlayStation 4 software. All we know is that its tended to release sometime in 2018. But according to 4Gamer, we should be getting more Border Break news during April 14-15th, at the upcoming SEGA Fes 2018. So come back to the blog and we’ll keep you updated as always.

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SEGA Talk Podcast #13: Virtua Fighter (1993)

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Welcome to another episode of our SEGA Talk podcast, where we pick a SEGA game  and have a talk on various subjects regarding said game. On this episode we discuss  SEGA-AM2’s iconic 3D fighter Virtua Fighter! George and Barry talk about the games’ development,  success, and our personal thoughts on how the game has stood the test of time. If you are a big SEGA or Virtua Fighter fan, give the podcast a listen. You might learn a few new thinks regarding Virtua Fighter’s history and even if you don’t, its nice to support us… Right? Let us know what you love about Space Harrier in the comments below!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – Play Music – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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