Tekken 8 devs miss competition from Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive

Fighting games are riding a high right now, and Tekken 8 looks to continue that momentum when it releases on January 26 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. But while we see a lot of diversity in the 2D fighting world with series like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, Tekken pretty much stands alone these days in the 3D realm.

That wasn’t always the case. When Tekken got started in the early days of 3D gaming in the era of the original PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, it was contending with Sega’s Virtua Fighter and Tecmo’s Dead or Alive. The last original Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter 5, debuted in 2006. Since then, we’ve seen nothing but remasters and mobile spin-offs from the franchise. Dead or Alive isn’t quite that dormant, with Dead or Alive 6 releasing in 2019, but it received a muted response from fans. We haven’t heard much about the series since.