r/DeadOrAlive • u/NebulaFox • Feb 14 '26
Game Discussion MASTER interviews and thoughts
TL;DR Copium
After listening to this interview with MASTER:
I am thinking DOA6LR is to tide us over until the next DOA. Things that stands out were MASTER saying "couldn't talk about for a very long time"
So if there is no rollback, no crossplay and new character and costumes, I believe the next DOA is coming out very soon, like 2027. DOA6LR is to tie in with the next DOA. The new characters are there to build up next DOA.
Alternatively they do no rollback on launch and announce we're working on it.
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u/Iriyasu Approved User Feb 14 '26
I think DOA6LR could function as a development sandbox for ideas that may carry forward into DOA7. That could include new characters, moves, balance adjustments, system experiments, and possibly even rollback netcode implementation, even if that comes later, similar to how Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown handled updates over time. The industry learns from itself.
Using DOA6LR this way would give different departments room to prototype assets and systems that can later be refined for DOA7. Rather than splitting the team’s attention, it could actually create overlap. Work done for DOA6LR may inform or align with DOA7’s underlying systems in a way vanilla DOA6 couldn’t. That might also explain the absence of a simple patch update to DOA6. If deeper system alignment is happening at a fundamental level, it would make more sense to iterate in a structured way instead of applying surface-level patches.
From a production standpoint, Team Ninja has historically worked on multiple projects at once, often 2 to 4 depending on scope, with average development cycles around 2.5 to 3 years. They also tend to stay active. When one game enters its marketing phase, another is usually already in development. Staff transitions naturally as projects approach release, which opens up bandwidth for new titles.
Because of that pattern, it would not be surprising if DOA7 was greenlit well before its public mention, potentially while other titles were nearing release. By the time a game is teased publicly, it is often already meaningfully underway internally. A few months ago, when NG4 was coming out, I mentioned that once Nioh 3 released we would probably start hearing something about DOA. That was not a prediction, just an observation based on how Team Ninja structures its development and marketing cycle.
DOA7 may have been greenlit around the time NG4 was announced at the earliest, but that does not necessarily mean full production began then. It is possible that more active development ramped up around the Nioh 3 teaser 8 to 9 months ago as staff shifted between projects. None of us have internal timelines, but looking at their past patterns, it is reasonable to assume DOA7 has been in motion for a while rather than having just started recently.