SEGA drops first official Virtua Fighter Project gameplay trailer featuring a grid training stage

SEGA has finally released official gameplay footage for its upcoming Virtua Fighter Project. The minute-long trailer offers unfiltered and dead-silent combat featuring a showdown between Stella (not Sarah Bryant) and Akira Yuki in a supposed Training Stage. 

The gameplay trailer was released on August 4, 2025, and lacked a HUD or background music, putting a steep emphasis on the realistic fighting mechanics of the upcoming game. At the end of the trailer, SEGA confirmed that it would reveal more information about the new Virtua Fighter Project during Tokyo Game Show 2025, scheduled between September 25 and September 28.

Previously, SEGA released a teaser on January 25, which explicitly mentioned that the trailer showcased “pre-development engine footage.” Finally, fans have gotten official gameplay, which is pretty much on par with the prior teaser.

Some fans believe the game lacks eye-candy and polish, but this is largely a design choice on SEGA’s part. The company is apparently committed to keeping the realistic yet fluid technical combat mechanics of the original game, which debuted back in December 1993.

At the 2024 Game Awards in December, SEGA announced that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio was spearheading the new Virtua Fighter Project. This comes as a bit of a surprise, considering the studio is known for narrative-driven games like Yakuza.

During the same show, Ryu Ga Gotoku announced a completely new open-world game, which was unexpected. It appears the studio is juggling the new Virtua Fighter Project alongside Project Century, now officially titled as Stranger Than Heaven, which is set in multiple periods stretching from Japan’s 1915 Taisho period to 1943’s Showa era. The game bears a stark resemblance to the Yakuza series, minus the turn-based RPG mechanics of Like A Dragon.

As for the new Virtua Fighter Project, it still hasn’t received a proper release window or an official title, for that matter. Speculation suggests that the project is slated for a release sometime in the Summer of 2026.

For now, SEGA is scheduled to release Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O World Stage for the Xbox Series S|X and PS5 on October 20, 2025.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O World Stage is a visual overhaul of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown and follows the release of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O on PC. Furthermore, it boasts a new single-player mode, “World Stage,” and a new DLC character, Dural. A Nintendo Switch 2 port is also in the works and is slated for release at a later date.