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 Virtua Fighter 5 Stun-Palms Xbox 360, PS3 Loses Exclusive
:: Posted by MrCHUPON on 2006-12-21 ::
Earlier this morning, Sega announced that the once-Playstation 3 exclusive title, Virtua Fighter 5, would be made available for Microsoft's Xbox 360 in the summer of 2006.

Trigames.NET first spotted the news on Gamesarefun, who cited SEGA Publishing Europe Ltd.'s Creative Directo Matt Woodley as saying, "Bringing Virtua Fighter 5 to the Xbox 360 offers us a platform with power to handle the astonishing visuals, the complex and varied fighting styles of all the customisable characters and will undoubtedly put Virtua Fighter 5 into the hands of a gaming audience craving for a highly polished and credible fighting game."



A press release was later made available to us and can be viewed at the bottom of this post.

Noticeably absent from the Playstation 3 version is online play. While some cynics may attribute this to a lack of direction on the part of Sony with regards to its online strategy, Sega claims otherwise. In an interview with 1up.com editor James Mielke, Sega development team AM-2 claims that it is impossible to recreate the perfect arcade experience with lag problems inherent to online play.

In addition, the press release announcing the Xbox 360 version did not mention any online play. Though there is no official word yet on whether or not online play has been decidedly omitted from the Xbox 360 version, Trigames.NET speculates that due to AM-2's staunch position on network lag issues and recreating the arcade experience, Xbox Live may not be used for online multiplayer matches. However, it must be stressed again that there is no official word on this matter.

Fighting games have been met with varying success on Xbox Live's service. Developer Sensory Sweep's port of Capcom's classic arcade fighter, Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting, saw almost universally laggy play - ruining precision combos vital to advanced Street Fighter II play. Meanwhile, Midway released a port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 developed by Digital Eclipse that often treated gamers to almost perfect, lag-free online play.

Yet, the depth and timing of Virtua Fighter 5's fighting engine might prove to be too valuable for the perfectionist development team to sacrifice to even a few lost packets of network data. Tecmo's Dead or Alive 4, a game in a franchise considered at first glance to be the closest in speed and surface gameplay to the Virtua Fighter series, is reported to have varying degrees of lag during play over Xbox Live - some sessions going perfectly, others with broken flow.



Though online play is up in the air and quite possibly not going to make the Xbox 360 version of Virtua Fighter 5, perhaps the bigger cause for concern here is the state of Sony's exclusives. Sony has slowly seen its arsenal of console exclusives diminishing. Last generation, the Grand Theft Auto double pack - which consisted of the once-Playstation 2-exclusive Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - was made available for the Xbox. Later, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was deemed only a time-exclusive PS2 title as an Xbox port surfaced eight months after its original release. At this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo, Microsoft's Head of  Interactive Entertainment Business Peter Moore giddily revealed a (potentially fake) tattoo on his arm and announced that Grand Theft Auto IV would be released on the Xbox 360 with no delay between it and other versions.

Grand Theft Auto IV wasn't the only exclusive that jumped ship. Ubisoft's much-hyped next-generation offering, Assassin's Creed, was also thought by many to be a Playstation 3 exclusive and was reportedly on its way to being so when Sony's alleged "dallying" - the same reason for the GTA IV situation - caused Ubisoft to keep it a multi-platform title. Publisher Koei also slapped the "also on Xbox 360" moniker on two of its titles, Fatal Inertia and Bladestorm, which were originally intended as excuslives for the Playstation 3.

Finally, the next entry in the Dragon Quest series - Dragon Quest IX - is set to debut only on the Nintendo DS. Traditionally a console franchise whose iterations appeared on the best-selling hardware, Dragon Quest remains hugely popular in the eyes of the Japanese gaming market and is often a telltale sign of which hardware will dominate in Japan. Dragon Quest VII and Dragon Quest VIII were Playstation and Playstation 2 titles respectively.

Not all is lost for the Playstation 3, as Devil May Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII are currently all still slated to be coming only to Sony's platform. Time - and sales - will tell if this remains the case over the next few years.

Presented below, in full, is the Virtua Fighter 5 press release from Sega of America. (All content below the following line is direct from Sega with no input from Trigames.NET.)



SEGA ANNOUNCES VIRTUA FIGHTER 5 FOR XBOX 360

Premiere Fighting Game Franchise Makes First Appearance on Microsoft's Next Generation Videogame Console

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (December 21, 2006) – SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA Europe Ltd. today announced that the highly anticipated arcade fighting game, Virtua Fighter™ 5, will make its way onto the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system. Virtua Fighter 5 is scheduled for release on Xbox 360 in North America and in Europe late summer 2007. The game will also be available for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system on February 20, 2007 in North America and will be available in Europe simultaneously with the system's launch in March 2007.

"SEGA delivers the most technical fighting game experience on Xbox 360 with this installment of the award-winning Virtua Fighter series," said Scott A. Steinberg, Vice President Marketing, SEGA of America. "Virtua Fighter 5 takes full advantage of Xbox 360's hardware with action-packed gameplay, customizable characters, stunning graphics and highly detailed 3D fighting environments."

Virtua Fighter 5 features beautifully detailed stages from around the world where players face off in fast-moving martial arts battles against one of 17 characters. Two new characters join the elite group of fighters, all with their own unique fighting style. With more skill and strategy than ever before, players will employ a new "Offensive Move" technique to take down their opponents from different angles. The game also includes the ability to customize your own character by selecting from four base costumes and a wide range of unlockable accessories and earnable items. As players win more tournaments they will not only earn costumes and accessories, but also prizes and in-game money that will allow them to buy items from the in-game shop.

"The Virtua Fighter series from SEGA has one of the most prestigious histories in video games," said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "It's a franchise that has grown an army of loyal fans both in arcades and on consoles worldwide, and is consistently rated extremely high by the media. Fighting game fans have been hungry for Virtua Fighter 5 and we can now proudly deliver this game with SEGA to Xbox 360 gamers around the world."

About SEGA® of America, Inc.
SEGA® of America, Inc. is the American Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The SEGA® of America, Inc. Web site is located at www.SEGA.com.

About SEGA® Europe, Ltd.
SEGA® Europe, Ltd. is the European Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, and a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. The SEGA® Europe, Ltd. Web site is located at www.sega-europe.com.

 
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