Someone somewhere was given an assignment.

He was given a deadline. Criteria. A bullet-point list of dos and donts. He was given an office, a staff to order around. Computers and servers. A company car. He was given time.

He went to work. He worked late. His family suffered, but ultimately they all benefited. He needed to complete his assignment or face the consequences. Perhaps a cut in salary, or even worse. So he worked long hours. For his family.

But a part of him wanted to complete the assignment for himself. He had an interest in what he was doing. He wanted to learn the parameters himself and modify them as he saw fit. Like Neo in the Matrix.

The deadline loomed. His work approached completion, his life’s work, his zenith. His superiors witnessed it in action and were satisfied. The new iteration of fighting game Dead or Alive could go ahead and eventually be released.

What did all that time, money and effort go towards? What was this assignment? To design a new storytelling system with limitless branching pathways? A unique fighting mechanic that enabled interaction with an environment in ways never before seen?

No. Thousands of work hours, petabytes of data, and a broken marriage were spent in an endeavour to figure out how to make rivulets of photo-realistic water correctly slide down breasts the size of car tyres.

Welcome to Dead or Alive 5.