Midori shed some light on the production of Sega’s upcoming reboots of their classic games.
We’ll summarize what she said below, but she was responding to several questions form fans after being asked about a supposed leak of Jet Set Radio.
Midori says these games started development in 2021, and proper production started a year later. The timeframe is a little different for some games, but with their scale and budget, she says these titles are in the middle stage of development now.
According to Midori, Virtua Fighter 6 and Golden Axe are further along production that the other games. Sega is planning to announce Virtua Fighter 6 later this year. She also mentioned Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi. She says both titles are scheduled for the first half of 2026, but she clarified that this is subject to change.
So, Sega is likely at the stage where they have an expectation of how long it will take them to finish these titles, but they aren’t completely sure if something else could come up to force a delay. We can be hopeful that Sega will finish these games as soon as the dates Midori gave, but we shouldn’t be surprised if it takes a little longer than that.
Getting back to Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi, Midori reiterated that both titles are being made on Unreal Engine 5, and they are being produced by a combination of Sega developers and Ryu Ga Gotoku developers. Sega had, of course, confirmed long ago that the Ryu Ga Gotoku developers were helping make Virtua Fighter 6.
While it may seem strange that the Ryu Ga Gotoku / Yakuza / Like A Dragon staff are involved in these games, it really shouldn’t be. We should remember that Ryu Ga Gotoku / Yakuza was one of Sega’s biggest games after they left hardware. As such, many of Sega’s developers in the 16-bit and 32-bit era landed at the Ryu Ga Gotoku / Yakuza saltmines.
Of course, we’re jesting a little here, but if you think about it, part of the reason Sega made such meticulous recreations of their arcade games in the Ryu Ga Gotoku / Yakuza games was because many of the people who made those games ended up being part of the Ryu Ga Gotoku / Yakuza team.
So, these projects may be reboots, but their connections to their original developers may still be there, even if it seems invisible. If you had concern that these games would feel like SNK’s revival of their classic fighting games, with completely new studio, you won’t get that here.
We have yet to see how these games will play out, but we all saw the promise of those announcement teasers. For now, we will just wait for Sega to cook, and see if they nail the landing on real revivals of these games, to be more than just nostalgia products.
