No online mode in Virtua Fighter

By Ellie Gibson Published 7 March, 2006

Not ever, says series producer.

Online gaming may be all the rage these days, but it seems not everyone's convinced that it is indeed The Future.

Take Hiroshi Kataoka, for example, the man behind the Virtua Fighter series. In an interview with US magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly, Kataoka said he and his team tested the latest instalment online - but that it didn't work out.

Apparently they simulated lag and timing issues that would come into play if the game had an online mode, and weren't too impressed. "It wound up feeling like a completely different game," Kataoka said.

"If we ever wanted to do an online fighting game, it would have to be called something besides Virtua Fighter," he added.

So there you have it - no VF online, but perhaps we'll see a whole new franchise in the future...

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • riz23 #1 6 years ago

    Actually this is a bold and true statement. Just look at DOA4 online it does suffer from time to time and latentcy would affect VF in a bad way. I guess the purity of VF remains however I still want to cry.

  • Genji #2 6 years ago

    Oh no! However will they survive without online?

  • Darren #3 6 years ago

    So that story more or less confirms that Virtua Fighter will never be coming out on the 360 then...

  • kgthatsme #4 6 years ago

    not really

  • Darkedge #5 6 years ago

    "So that story more or less confirms that Virtua Fighter will never be coming out on the 360 then..."
    Why? Condemmed is not online, King Kong isn't
    All games need is an online component - like the gamer rewards adding to your score not an online play mode

  • JonFE #6 6 years ago

    "So that story more or less confirms that Virtua Fighter will never be coming out on the 360 then..."

    I sure hope it does confirm nothing of this sort... On the contrary, the fact that they tested it online, could actually imply that they XBL support in mind :)

    /fingers crossed

  • The-Bodybuilder #7 6 years ago

    >"Take Hiroshi Kataoka, for example, the man behind the Virtua Fighter series"

    I thought Yu Suzuki was the man behind the FV series?

  • lambtron #8 6 years ago

    Meh whatever. Lag and timing online (especially in this genre) are something you accept as a matter of fact. If you're a good player you will learn to adapt and avoid tards like cable pullers. It seems silly to say you'll never do an online mode simply because of things that are facts of life and that every other online game suffers from. Especially in a genre where online is a real asset, because lets face it unless you have a plethora of mates who are good players or you are happy just playing the AI good opponents are hard to find.

  • JonFE #9 6 years ago

    Where is that SEGA announcement ? I must have missed it...

    Well thank you frod - that's as close to official as we're going to get...
    Edited by 2 at 07/03/06 @ 15:27

  • Triggerhappytel #10 6 years ago

    Since online gaming and Broadband is improving all the time, this statement may be something that will change over the next few years.

    I'm not fussed about playing online anyway. I prefer having people in the room with me, so when I rinse them I can gloat in their face :)

    Can't wait for VF5

  • myrmican #11 6 years ago

    Since online gaming and Broadband is improving all the time, this statement may be something that will change over the next few years.

    Yeah, they'll do something about that speed of light issue soon.

  • SeesThroughAll #12 6 years ago

    So that story more or less confirms that Virtua Fighter will never be coming out on the 360 then...

    Why on Earth would one thing imply the other?

  • Scientist #13 6 years ago

    "Meh whatever. Lag and timing online (especially in this genre) are something you accept as a matter of fact. If you're a good player you will learn to adapt and avoid tards like cable pullers. It seems silly to say you'll never do an online mode simply because of things that are facts of life and that every other online game suffers from. Especially in a genre where online is a real asset, because lets face it unless you have a plethora of mates who are good players or you are happy just playing the AI good opponents are hard to find."

    In games such as VF and Tekken frame data is so important for the hardcore players that any kind of lag can completely ruin the playing experience.

    "If you're a good player you will learn to adapt and avoid tards like cable pullers."

    Again, the problem here is if 2 excellent player want to play online. Any lag, whether it be one frame or three, will irrevocably affect the outcome of a fight.

  • alimokrane #14 6 years ago

    Or may be they are just too lazy to invest the time to develop games that play smoothly online (that includes DOA developer as well). OFF TOPIC: the same goes for the lazy boys over at Blizzard not being interested in developing an MMORPG on next gen consoles (control issues aside, of course)

  • smelly #15 6 years ago

    All online games cheat. That person who just shot you dead may not even be in the same room as you on your verison (you just assume he's behind you).

    Beat-em-ups require total responsiveness and cant cheat. So that means a bad game will be had.

    I dont know how pro-evo works (never played it, hate football games) but i can gaurantee there will be some cheating going on.

  • kangarootoo #16 6 years ago

    @alimokrane

    "Or may be they are just too lazy to invest the time to develop games that play smoothly online (that includes DOA developer as well). OFF TOPIC: the same goes for the lazy boys over at Blizzard not being interested in developing an MMORPG on next gen consoles (control issues aside, of course)"

    Two words for you. Naive... and naive. You seem to be forgetting two key components in all game development, in fact in all parts of business.

    Time.
    Money.

    Once you factor those in you might realise that laziness is waaaaaaay down the list of reasons for not including any given feature.

  • Feanor #17 6 years ago

    So many stupid comments.

    /sighs

  • alimokrane #18 6 years ago

    @ kangarootoo

    I know that time and money are a big issue but look at what the guy said: he said we tried it online and there were problems and we are just not bothered about at least trying to fix them because ... what to blame here ? the lack of money and time obviously comes to mind but IMO the underlying failure IS IN NOT THINKING about ONLINE PLAY since DAY 1 of the project which consequently translates into these issues later in the development cycle where time and money are more crucial. This is my personal opinion and feel free to disagree though. Thanks

  • Tonka #19 6 years ago

    never say ever.

  • kangarootoo #20 6 years ago

    @alimokrane

    The point you make about not thinking of online play early in the project is a good one. If that is the reason why they can't go online with the current engine then thats a pity.

    But even if that is the case, surely pursuing online functionality anyway would be foolish. Sure, we can mock them for not looking ahead sufficiently when building the game engine perhaps, but I think that accepting limits and working within them to make a quality product is the professional path to take.

    People often talk about "dilluting the experience" when discussing games with a wide feature set. In this case, it sounds to me like they thought "we can't provide a strong player experience online, so we will stick to offline only and guarantee quality".

    Now whether they were driven to that conclusion because of a lack of forsight or not, I still think its the right thing to do given the reality of their situation.

  • alimokrane #21 6 years ago

    @ kangarootoo

    Agreed indeed.

  • Rambaldi #22 6 years ago

    Very in line with Sony's online 'vision'

  • Rambaldi #23 6 years ago

    Now I think about it: that's just plain lazy. If Halo can work with 16 players, RR6 with 14, Gotham with 8, why the hell can't a one on one fighter?

    Lazy arrogant arses.

  • David_W #24 6 years ago

    Now I think about it: that's just plain lazy. If Halo can work with 16 players, RR6 with 14, Gotham with 8, why the hell can't a one on one fighter?

    Lazy arrogant arses.

    Like frod said a few posts ago, you don't play these games very much do you?

    In a game like VF even the slightest hint of lag would result in your a** being juggled to a agonizing ring out. Timing is just too cruicial in VF for SEGA to be happy taking it online at the moment. Sounds like a correct call to me.

    Also, Lambtron, -"Lag and timing online (especially in this genre) are something you accept as a matter of fact. If you're a good player you will learn to adapt" The really skilled players are the ones that would suffer the most from a laggy gameplay imo. Counting frames won't do you any good when you get hit two seconds before seeing what the other guy throws at you.

  • tengu #25 6 years ago

    So long as it has as decent a single player set up as VF4 Evo, I couldn't give a rat's toss about the 'OMG T3H ONL1N3!1!' functions of it.

  • Drakron #26 6 years ago

    Oh no! However will they survive without online?

    Online is overrated.

    Look at NwN that was aimed at online play, the majority of people that played the game never played online and that was from a BioWare poll in their site that would naturaly be biased towards online play.

    I been hearing "online" since ... Baldur's Gate 2 and so far only MMORPGs had success, online is simply *a thing* in order to convice people to buy it when most of the users will not even touch it.

  • lambtron #27 6 years ago

    "The really skilled players are the ones that would suffer the most from a laggy gameplay imo."

    If they're really so skilled why do they need the safety net of a completely deterministic game world? Are they that scared of losing a game once in a while? Fighting games are largely about being able to adapt to in real-time to a change in tact from your opponent. I'm very much of the school of thought that if you are a truly great player you overcome obstacles such as this. Besides no one would be forcing them to play online.

  • Rambaldi #28 6 years ago

    @David W

    Like I said..if you can have 16 player games WITH NO LAG...why not 2 player games? If you can have FPS that requires constant interraction without having to wait for a pre-rendered animation to play out before timing your next move, why not have one that's built on sequences of pre-rendered animation?

    Lazy coders not willing to push themselves is why.

  • kangarootoo #29 6 years ago

    "I been hearing "online" since ... Baldur's Gate 2 and so far only MMORPGs had success"

    Except for Counterstrike of course, which has been extremely successful.

    @Rambaldi

    "Now I think about it: that's just plain lazy. If Halo can work with 16 players, RR6 with 14, Gotham with 8, why the hell can't a one on one fighter?"

    You compare complex pieces of software as if they have anything in common. They aren't all just socks you know, maybe different colours and sizes but all essentially the same thing.

    You don't actually program yourself do you? Why don't you find a coder and direct your questions at them. Then you will avoid appearing steeped in ignorant self belief when you post here.

    "Lazy coders not willing to push themselves is why"

    lol, like you are in any way qualified to form that judgement.

    Oh, I don't mean to pick on you Rambaldi. I just get stroppy whenever anyone calls devs lazy. You can bet the teams working on games as successful as VF are anything but.

  • Owain #30 6 years ago

    Rambaldi, there is always latency in halo games its just tweeked so you dont notice it nor does it affect that style of gameplay but its allways there a 20 - 50ms latency in a fps can pretty much be filtered out the sad fact is for hardcore VF fans who need it pixel perfect its game ruining.
    also sega want to sell lots of VF5 arcade machines ;)

  • old_skool #31 6 years ago

    I knew a counterstrike player who complained of a 40ms ping reply , apparently his neighbour got a 30ms ping reply . Crazy . Even hardcore Counterstike/Halo/Quake players know that a 10ms gap can mean the difference between you seeing the enemy first and thus 10ms quicker to respond.

  • rommy667 #32 6 years ago

    good news i cant STAND online gaming.

  • Drakron #33 6 years ago

    Except for Counterstrike of course, which has been extremely successful.

    Too bad its a Half Life mod and not Half Life multiplayer.

    Also I am going to point out Half Life stand up from the FPS because it actually had a story, you no longer were just someone send to some place with everything in sight trying to kill you.

    I do not say online does not have its place, UT pretty much shows that but when its done at the expense of the single player ...

  • Rambaldi #34 6 years ago

    Whoa! And I thought I was on a public forum, not a devs convention!

    /eats humble pie and bows down to the glory of off-line button bashers ;)
    Edited by 1 at 08/03/06 @ 08:14

  • Genji #35 6 years ago

    @Drakon

    Sorry. I should've made the sarcasm clearer :-)

  • kangarootoo #36 6 years ago

    Christ disc, good post (especially the predictive algorithm bit, that was new and interesting for me)

    ... if a bit long ;)

    @Rambaldi
    "/eats humble pie and bows down to the glory of off-line button bashers ;)"

    lol :)
    Edited by 1 at 08/03/06 @ 11:57