DOA Rumor & FSD News Updates

Over the past few days, I've received so many notifications and messages about a new Dead or Alive game; specifically, DOA6 and I don't really understand where the claims are coming from, and while I do have a press badge, and while I do write for Free Step Dodge, I do not work for Team NINJA or Koei Tecmo. The number of inquiries I'm getting makes me feel like I should politely debunk any possibility of you getting excited for no reason.

Original Tweet that Stemmed Interest

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1987838265693806901

It's amazing that a small voice with literally no following can still manage to attract attention with rumor-based jargon. There is no confirmation of literally anything within this tweet, but it did manage to get thousands of engagements. I'm not bagging on the user that posted the information; I'm simply baffled by what the algorithm of Twitter X picks up and what is never actually seen. Following numbers and having an informative message doesn't really seem to matter for the platform as it used to. Things either seep into public knowledge at Twitter X or they don't.

Sony State of Play (Debunked)

People requested that DOA6 show up at a PlayStation event; and while they did show some Koei Tecmo games nothing from Dead or Alive was shown. Please look forward to Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake & Dynasty Warriors Expansion.

Game of the Year Awards

While I guess I can't directly confirm Dead or Alive is not going to show up at the Game of the Year Awards; I can say that more than likely it will not. Koei Tecmo isn't going to pay those prices for game trailers. They're an overseas company that focus on smallest budget for maximum profit as they should. Advertising is not Koei Tecmo's specialty (though they have improved the formula through player content creation) and if they aren't getting to advertise from Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony's pocketbook they aren't doing it.

Venus Vacation 8th Anniversary Stream (Debunked)

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I guess if there would be a slim chance at an announcement it could be made at the DOAXVV stream, but the chances are low even if DOA6 content has been announced at these events before. Not to mention that it could just be another DOA related project that has nothing to do with the fighter similar to that of Prism.

UPDATE: There was no announcement of any kind pertaining to new characters for Venus Vacation, a fighting game announcement; not even a sequel to Prism or Venus Vacation. A lot of people left that stream feeling disappointed considering it was the 8th anniversary of the game. Is Team NINJA running out of ideas or are they prepping a sequel?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1988200030638157824

Free Step Dodge News

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There haven't been many posts from me personally since the death of Tomonobu Itagaki, but rest assured projects are being looked at. I'm recovering from what turned out to be bronchitis, so I've been moving very slow with stacks upon stacks of paperwork on my desk.

We have a book interview coming with author Mathieu Lallart from the book Tomonobu Itagaki's Dolls (we were working on it the day Itagaki passed away ironically). There is another interview I'm working on right now with the controversial NINJA Gaiden veteran, Blader. He's one of the old school NINJA GAIDEN players that has exploded in popularity over his controversial takes, but astute personality. We might also give Master NINJA Ryu a call for some interview space to be the counter debate of Blader; but these would be separate interviews. NINJA GAIDEN 4 has sparked so much debate that we are going to iron it all out fairly here at Free Step Dodge.

There are also several new DOA competitive prospects that I'm looking into. There was another 'Hold That' tournament which Kwiggle won that needs some coverage and also a new fight promotion from Destruction Bomb that will get fighters involved with the game once more. We'll have news on both those topics soon.

Just a little post to summarize things for our readers! Take care,

DOAN

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I sort of feel sorry for this Bayonet guy, I think he meant the "possibility of DOA6 announcement" part more as wishful thinking rather than an actual rumour of something happening.

 

I think the release of DOA in 2026 is still possible at some point. They literally have 2 releases in Q1, and I don’t think that after that there will be 9 months of silence (don’t count nioh3 dlc), also I don’t think that Yamagiwa project will be revealed right after Nioh 3 release because there’ll be 3 dlcs. Fatal Frame 2 iprobably won’t get any post release support. So even if we won’t get it during TGA, we can see it as part of early 2026 showcases.

 

I wish gfg$ was right but it would seem that they are just starting to make DOA7 so it will likely take a few more years. Below is a YouTube video, at 0:17 you will see why I say they are just starting.

I only seen the beginning of this video, I didn’t care to watch the whole thing.
For the time being I will look forward to seeing you all on DOA6

 

DOA6 is a game that should remain discontinued and doesn't get any announcement of a DOA6 update like DOA5 & DOAX3. I would be much happier off if DOA doesn't get an announcement of any kind especially for worldwide audience because of DOA6 & Venus Vacation Prism left a bad taste in My mouth, and I don't want KT be anywhere near a big corporates like Microsoft, Sony, & even Nintendo. The only advertising KT should be doing with is DMM Games which DOAXVV has been their Number 1 game for years and is on its 8th Anniversary, DOA would be in much better hands under DMM Games. The only announcement I would prefer is DOA franchise being only available in Japan & Asia (no Worldwide releases like DOAX3), PC only (similar to DOA3-DOAX2 being exclusive to Xbox), and DOAXVV Players are the only people giving the role of play tester & only ones giving feedback for the upcoming DOA game. (similar to Overstrike which later became Fused)

 

i remember DOA6 is reveal through official twitter /youtube account not any game award. Because KT too cheap they want to make money through view/engagement. lol

 

Only four hours away...

 

Xbox Developer Direct 2026 why not

 

Alright I didn't know where to put this, but I also saw this on the FSD Discord and figured I fill up that copium tank for all the boys and girls into creating a new unhealthy obsession that people do every year with DOA news:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1995532070525747391

 

Alright I didn't know where to put this, but I also saw this on the FSD Discord and figured I fill up that copium tank for all the boys and girls into creating a new unhealthy obsession that people do every year with DOA news:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1995532070525747391

If TN isnt the lead for a future DOA, that raises one question... who WOULD be??

 

Yeah, sounds like BS to me, at least partially... it'd be suicide to hand a long running FG series to another developer. It worked OK in the case of NG and collabing with Platinum (and again, that was a collab not a total outsourcing), but FG series aren't built like other game series... I can't think of any precedent in history where an FG series was (successfully) handed over to an entirely new dev team. (if anyone's wondering, the closest examples I can think of is when Toshinden development was taken over by its publisher Takara from Tamsoft, or when Samurai Shodown Sen was made by Tenchu devs K2 LLC... both cases didn't end well.)

IF it's not gonna be just TN again, MAYBE I could see them continue on collaborating with the same Platinum team that helped them make NG4 if that's how satisfied they were with the results and/or the feedback... an even bigger stretch would be collabing with Sega, but they're already more busy than they've ever been with VF atm. Other than that, I can't stretch my brain any further without risking a worse outcome than DOA6... UNLESS "reviving the franchise" means remaking/remastering or updating an already existing DOA, then I could see some outsourcing being reasonable for that but TN would still need to have input for it to not be an insanely dumb move by KT.

 

Tbh if they give the reigns to someone else, my guesses are:

°Sega since they go hand in hand and Itagaki based some of the DOA mechanics from VF, and it would be a generous move to honor Itagaki by giving his series the Sega treatment and tuning it up, I think Itagaki would have been just fine with that.

°Platinum games if they wanted to make a big budget collab for a remake or remaster but idk if PG would shell out for the FG series atm.

°Least likely but I could see maybe Harada and Namco trying to do something with it, only reason I say this is since Harada and Itagaki did have cordial history and I could see Harada doing something in ode to him. Very unlikely at this time but you never know

Tbh tho im content just waiting until something formal drops, I dont want to get excited just yet when there's not been a trace of a DOA FG announcement yet

 

Honestly the possibility was always there because Shimbori left. You definitely can't just simply get some random guy at TN to head-start DOA. I had that possibility for a long while now (even early history posts on FSD where if Shimbori left then a 3rd party studio could end up picking up on it). If anyone looked at my ancient FSD posts before Ninja Gaiden 4 was even a thing, I mentioned that if TN didn't want to do a Ninja Gaiden then Platinum was like the only one I can think of. Boom, it happened. But Fighting games are different though. I don't know anyone else besides SEGA or even Namco that can do that type of 3D fighter.

When I heard about the details regarding outsourcing I already knew that TN did not want to do Ninja Gaiden in-house, but they don't want the franchise to look like shit either. Yaiba at first was the originator of making the word -outsourcing- in a negative light. When that game flopped, people were like: "see guys? outsourcing is bad", when in reality they just gave it to the wrong studio that went bankrupt soon after. Gave it to Platinum for the next Ninja Gaiden however, and turned out to be one of my favorite Ninja Gaidens (technically NG4 is still somewhat of an outsource despite named as a collab. TN overlooked the project visiting Platinum Studios). I think a few key things we have to put here on the potentials along with Matt's intake on it:

- Shimbori left
- Yasuda is not a fighting game guy
- TN got a bunch of new college grads hires according to Matt and feels they are not even DOA hires
- They apparently mostly hired action game guys/girls while outsourcing anything else that isn't Nioh.

I can't think of any precedent in history where an FG series was (successfully) handed over to an entirely new dev team.

- Smash Ultimate (Bandai Namco)
- Street Fighter IV (Dimps, Capcom published and did the artwork)

This might be a different case and not entirely outsource I guess, but ArcSysWorks's DBFZ, Granblue etc. (maybe even Marvel Tokon if it does well)

In terms of traditional 3D fighters though it was never done before so either it could be bad which you might be right, or the greatest thing made who knows. Probably still a risk worth taking since DOA doesn't even have a battle director nor director/producer. This hasn't been done before so no one knows if it'll fail or not. Obviously this is a What-If they decide to outsource DOA.

Just for all that is holy (if they decided to take that route) don't give it to some random unknown studio with barely any credentials.

MAYBE I could see them continue on collaborating with the same Platinum team that helped them make NG4 if that's how satisfied they were with the results and/or the feedback

Platinum Games are not really fighting game devs by heart so I'd probably scratch that one off the list in my opinion lol. The only two within that realm is either SEGA or Bandai Namco I guess. I prefer SEGA but those guys have their hands full with VF.

I dont want to get excited just yet when there's not been a trace of a DOA FG announcement yet

Honestly this ^ right here, and the mindset everyone should take. For the past 4 years, I see the same exact samey articles with the same clickbait shenanigans and with the same exact questions being tossed and answered. There's plenty of articles with interviewers consistently asking the same question that they know the answer to with a DOA7. People know there isn't one still, but yet for whatever reason feel the need to ask anyway for the sake of bad engagement with no actual push lol.

That noisypixel article page for example, that was like the 15th time Yasuda has said "we don't have any plans". Water might as well be wet lol.

I've had a chat with Manny (MASTER) from time to time for it which I genuinely think the best bet is for everyone to at least wait until the next console generation (PS6/Next Xbox) at minimum. PS5 is already 5 years old so even a DOA sequel would probably just be a waste when current gen is already reaching max performance for the upcoming GTA6. The next DOA should just right off the bat start off strong with a better hardware and hopefully budget+support.

 

- Smash Ultimate (Bandai Namco)
- Street Fighter IV (Dimps, Capcom published and did the artwork)

They weren't entirely new dev teams tho, they both had devs who had already worked on the series before (in the case of SF4, some of them were even in Dimps as former Capcom & SF staff) and especially in terms of direction (Sakurai and Ono). I'd say it was even less close to outsourcing than NG4 was.

But I guess no one's said that the next DOA would be totally outsourced anyways.... it could very well be partially outsourced again like DOA6 was but maybe with better choices being made this time? Outsourcing doesn't have to be bad but it has to be done right... there's a difference between getting help and collaborating on a shared vision or just handing the whole thing off without much thought in order to just save money and use the series name rather than having a vision to try to make something good in the series (or in the case of DOA6, heavily using total noobs on the series to work on most of the asset production and support tasks just to save time and money on development)

Then there's always the chance that they might actually "go there" and recruit an outside team of former TN members who have actually worked on DOA before, like Soleil? That would be a situation comparable to Dimps with SF4, I'd say...

Maybe just to get wild, let's throw ARIKA out there too as a possibility, lol. Although I just remembered ARIKA is supposedly still supposed to be working on putting out a new more 3D version of Fighting EX Layer....

 

Then there's always the chance that they might actually "go there" and recruit an outside team of former TN members who have actually worked on DOA before, like Soleil? That would be a situation comparable to Dimps with SF4, I'd say...

It's never really be done before with DOA on a far external level so there's no actual evidence that it'll lead to a failure is all. It's the same What-If scenario with NG, where if TN for some reason does not want to do it in-house then having another studio handle it shouldn't be a problem if they are the ones overlooking the project, which is what they did with NG4. The problem is the pool of solving that would be even smaller with who to go to.

There's like 10 action game studios with Platinum being one of them. 3D fighters is like 2-3 at best. I can't trust anyone else other than SEGA or Namco for that. Either way, it's not even guaranteed news so it's the usual DOA engagement post of getting people overly optimistic of something that doesn't even exist.

This was something that was predicted ages ago with NG4 being one of them on another studio handling it. If TN does that with DOA then I would not be surprised in the latest given DOA's rough situation at the moment since Shimbori is gone. Even if that tweet could be fake news (which I also think it is), it's actually a very believable possibility that no one should really be surprised for the outcome really.

They weren't entirely new dev teams tho

This is under the assumption of no new dev devs to begin with which is what I was referring to for DOA. It has to be a group with actual credentials in not only in name, but also history of such. Platinum Games is known in name including their action games, but they are not known for fighting games.

If it came down to it, I would rather let it be handled by known external fighting game developers than a bunch of new in-house college grads that got in for the paycheck, or who don't understand the games at all which is severely common in other game genres outside of DOA.