All you guys begging for Honey to come back for a new fighting game are forgetting something.

Sega is actually reviving Virtua Fighter. If VF6 actually sells, you know damn well they're gonna look at their other old fighting IPs. Fighting Vipers is the most obvious one to bring back next.

They're not going to let Sonic Team use Honey the Cat if they have any plans at all to revive FV. They'll want the original human Honey for that series. Remember, Honey the Cat only exists because they ported the FV character into the engine as a test. It's literally the same character.

Sega would absolutely shelve a Sonic character to avoid "brand confusion" with one of their other IPs, especially one they're trying to make relevant again. So yeah, she would end up off-limits indefinitely.