There Are “No Concrete Plans” for a Dead or Alive Sequel

As of today, we are less than two months away from it being 6 years since Dead or Alive 6 released. The latest entry into the series failed to achieve critical or commercial success. The support for the game ended after just a year, with lots of DLC costumes but very little in terms of more tangible content. Between the questionable quality, lack of rollback net code, and reluctant support from its publisher, DoA6 was never destined to bring the franchise to the mainstream. More crucially, it made the fans wonder if this could be the end for the franchise that used to be iconic.

In the recent interview with noisypixel, Azario Lopez got to ask this question directly to Fumihiko Yasuda, a game director, producer, and in general one of the key people at the current Team NINJA. Sadly, the answer is about as vague as you might expect from someone who has to carefully consider their every word:

This is neither a no nor a yes, but if you're familiar with PR conscious corporate language, then you know what it means. Fans might want to interpret this as "there is a chance!" and pour hope into seeing another entry into the series, but really what this means is that Team NINJA has no intention of making a Dead or Alive game any time soon. Maybe some individual people at the company want to make it happen, maybe Fumihiko Yasuda himself would love to see a sequel, but in the end the publishers are the ones who get to make that call. In the current climate, it's hard to see them pouring money into a costly development of a new fighting game that will likely yield far less profit than producing games in one of their many other IPs. You're more likely to see more dating sims in the vein of Venus Vacation Prism, if anything.

With that said, IPs carry a certain amount of value even as they lay dormant. Companies are reluctant to make definitive answers about making or not making games in certain IPs, because saying no leads to negative attention and potential issues with stocks and investors, who rely on the sort of potential that holding valuable IPs provides. Truth be told, Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja would jump at the opportunity to make a Dead or Alive game if the time was right. It might not be the same game in the vein of its predecessors, but all that has to happen is for executives to think "now is the time to make profit with a fighting game, and we have just the brand for this."

There are plenty of examples of how this happens to other franchises. Remember the recent Painkiller game? Sure, it might only be Painkiller in name only, but it exists because Saber Interactive got rights to it from Embracer, who acquired the IP from Koch Media (now Plaion). They saw that co-op shooters are generally doing well, and there has been a bit of demand for boomer shooters and revival of older series (like Doom, for example) and thought the time was right for a co-op Painkiller game, even though the series is not too well known among the younger audience, while the older fans are not pining for a PvE co-op shooter with Whedonisms.

Some of the fans are reluctant to see a return of Dead or Alive for similar reasons. The late Tomunobu Itagaki, may he rest in peace, did not direct any games in the series since Dead or Alive 4, and without his vision, the series has not been the same. Yohei Shimbori still did a remarkable job on DoA5 and DoA6, so they are still solid competitive titles, but competition is one thing that Itagaki wasn't truly interested in. He was more concerned with the immediate satisfaction of playing a video game, and an exciting pace of action. The competitive integrity didn't even begin to enter the picture. With him gone, and even Yohei Shimbori leaving Team NINJA, who is there to really carry the legacy of the franchise? 

As much as fans might want a sequel, it's better to get no games than receiving one that has no vision or personality. Especially with a franchise as unique as Dead or Alive. While the chance still exists, it's best to not expect another Dead or Alive for a very, very long time...