Koei Tecmo Teases The Return Of A “Nostalgic Title,” And Fans Are Praying For Dead Or Alive
Quinton is a Staff Writer from the United States. In his youth, Quinton was ridiculed for making video game ranking lists instead of paying attention in math class. In adulthood, people sometimes pay him for it. Life’s a trip.
Taking his first steps into the industry in 2020, Quinton has written for several digital publications, but his permanent literary home is right here at TheGamer.
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I had to double-check that the latest Dead or Alive game released in 2019, because somehow, it felt even longer than that. Six years ago, Dead or Alive 6 launched on PS4, PC, and Xbox One to… middling acclaim. It followed the epoch of its predecessor; Dead or Alive 5, which hit store shelves in 2012, got – takes a breath – 5+, 5 Ultimate, 5 Last Round, and 5 Infinite in the years that followed.
Since then, it’s been all quiet on the beachfront. The sixth mainline game didn’t receive such a robust spread, and there hasn’t been a whole lot of chatter about what the future of Koei Tecmo’s 3D fighting series might look like. The bad news is, we still don’t know. The good news is, some words have been spoken that could well point to Dead or Alive 7.
You Know, That Nostalgic Title
As part of a massive end-of-year piece, Famitsu spoke with Koei Tecmo’s AAA Game Studio lead, Yosuke Hayashi, on aspirations for 2026. (Just one of 171 people whose ’26 industry resolutions are in that artifcle. Yeah… Famitsu has serious reach.)
Hayashi’s answer, which has been translated and paraphrased by the prolific Genki above, is all rather telling. “‘AAA Game Studio’ will continue to develop new titles,” he says. “At the same time… that nostalgic title may make a comeback?!”
It’s hard to imagine Dispatch without Aaron Paul, but that could have been the case.
Fans on social media have been quick to point out that there aren’t really all that many options here. What would this studio be talking about? Mind you, I love that somebody said Kessen. But the sheer volume of Dead or Alive enthusiasm in Genki’s post – not to mention subreddits where this is blowing up in a hurry – speaks to the relative commercial strength of a series that has sold over ten million copies and climbing.
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You have to sift through some (equally worthwhile) sentiments about Captain Tsubasa, Toukiden, Monster Rancher, and more, but the “DOA” shouts are real. The only caveat in all this is that 2019 isn’t exactly an eternity ago – even if global developments have us feeling otherwise. Does that suit “nostalgic”? Maybe, maybe not. But I’m banking on those DOA shouts, much as I’d love to see Pokemon Conquest 2.
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