"VF5 R.E.V.O. World Stage" Producer Letter #17

Hey everyone, Aoki here, producer of the Legacy VIRTUA FIGHTER Project. 

On June 18, we rolled out an update for the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage (Ver.1.11). This patch fixes an issue where the game failed to launch if two or more players were registered on the system’s block list, along with a crash that could happen when matching against players using multiple Switch 2 consoles. Updates for other platforms are on the way as well and we appreciate your patience while we get them ready. 

Next, I want to talk about a change we made in Ver.1.10: Combo damage scaling no longer being applied to downed opponents. Since this gets a bit technical, I want to break it down for you. 

In Ver.1.10, we adjusted how combo scaling works when a player chooses not to tech roll after being knocked down. In previous versions, just staying down instead of tech rolling was often the safest, most reliable option. 

That’s because it came with a few key advantages: 

• Damage remained low since combo scaling still applied to ground follow-ups (OTG / on the ground hits). 

• Players could avoid aggressive setups designed to catch tech rolls (aka “tech traps”). 

• Overall, the risk was pretty low. 

The downside, though, was that this created a meta where not tech rolling became the go-to choice way too often, which slowed down matches and hurt the pacing overall. This adjustment was made specifically to address that situation. 

With this change, there will be more situations where OTGs are unscaled, increasing the risk of staying down. So, while we want to encourage players to tech roll more often, the goal isn’t to remove that tactic entirely. It should still be a viable option in the mind games of battle when used intentionally. 

On top of that, the game already has plenty of moves that can relaunch or pick up a downed opponent. Because of that, we think this opens up even more room for players to experiment, whether that’s discovering new combos or calling out an opponent who chooses not to tech roll and punishing them with unscaled follow-ups. 

Switching gears, EVO 2026 was just held in Las Vegas as the third official stop in the VIRTUA FIGHTER Open Championship 2026. There were incredibly high-level matches across the board, and the energy in the venue was electrifying. A big congratulations to Tricky for earning their spot in the Special Event. 

Next up is Battle Arena Melbourne 16 in Melbourne, Australia and we’re looking forward to seeing what new challengers rise up there. 

Thanks as always for your continued support of Virtua Fighter and SEGA. 

June 30, 2026 
Seiji Aoki 
Producer, Legacy VIRTUA FIGHTER Project