Tekken 8 Director And Producer Discuss Making A Console-First Entry In The Series
Bandai Namco’s Tekken is one of the longest running combating video game franchises and has actually gone from strength to strength with every iteration. Its last entry, Tekken 7, proved to be enormously popular around the world, sparking the competitive spirit in seasoned battling video game gamers, and stoking the curiosity of newbies with an interest in learning.
8 years because its release, Tekken 7 has actually maintained its appeal, which makes the possibility of making a sequel daunting. And yet, a follow up is certainly en route, with Tekken 8 being revealed in September 2022. How does the group behind one of the most effective fighting video games of the last few years approach clearing the table and doing it all over again? We asked long time Tekken creator and director Katsuhiro Harada and producer Michael Murray about precisely that, along with their take on the current state of the combating video game category.
Bandai Namco’s Tekken is one of the longest running combating game franchises and has actually gone from strength to strength with every iteration. Its last entry, Tekken 7, showed to be massively popular around the world, igniting the competitive spirit in skilled combating video game gamers, and stoking the curiosity of newcomers with an interest in learning.
Eight years given that its release, Tekken 7 has preserved its popularity, that makes the possibility of making a follow up intimidating. And yet, a sequel is certainly on the way, with Tekken 8 being revealed in September 2022. How does the group behind one of the most effective combating video games of the last few years approach clearing the table and doing it all over again? We asked long time Tekken developer and director Katsuhiro Harada and producer Michael Murray about precisely that, in addition to their take on the existing state of the battling game category.
What is the beginning point for a brand-new Tekken when the previous one has been so effective? How do you approach making a new one knowing that you’ve essentially advanced with the previous one?
There’s a lot to consider making a new video game, as you said, when Tekken 7 is so effective, however if we have to choose a starting point for the discussion, it’s most likely the truth that it’s the first time we’ve ever launched a game initially on console instead of the arcade iterations. So that in itself is a substantial difficulty for us in the manner in which we make the game, however a huge benefit for the gamers because everyone worldwide gets the video game at the very same time.
For people who do not have the context of why game release is essential or historically why arcade releases have preceded, why is that such a huge offer?
The series has actually been around for practically 30 years and the game variation always came out initially and then the console, and as you said, lots of individuals are playing now from Tekken 7, so they didn’t truly recognize what it utilized to be back in that day. And Tekken was probably the very first combating video game to do that.
Now everyone is used to having a story mode or other modes of play, but back in the day, Tekken was the first one to do that. And not simply a story– we had the Tekken Force or the bowling, so that even if you are not a great battling game gamer, you still have a great deal of things to play by yourself. You don’t have to constantly have a challenger to play the video game and enjoy it.
Back in the day, we would make the game version where we were able to very first concentrate on fine-tuning the primary portion of the game of battle [gameplay] and the characters and the moves and all that is entailed there. And after that after getting that done and having it ready, we would carry on to the console material I just explained. This time, given that it’s one package on console from the start, all of that has to be done in one integration. The quantity of money, people, and time that takes compared to the old method we utilized to do things is so much more extreme.
How much of that is a reflection of the state of arcades in Japan and what do you lose by not being able to go to a location and see individuals playing?
We grew up with arcades and were lucky to be able to experience that., like you said, although later, are pretty much on the exact same trajectory as the West. Harada was simply stating that he feels simply the times have changed of what people require in their life.
The quantity of time everybody is on their cell phone or seeing Netflix in your home even if now they’re able to do more things when they could not previously has actually changed. Maybe they stopped going to the arcade as much as they utilized to. It’s not like any one thing that might cause this to happen, it’s simply that the method individuals live now is various in what they select to invest their time on.
That stated, we are trying to find a method to, how would you state … We haven’t announced everything about the game yet, however inside of Tekken we’re trying to find a method to resolve those requirements of the existing generation and how they wish to play games. It’s something we wished to do with the game, so maybe later we’ll talk more about it.
Those place tests based in games were likewise a great way for you to collect details on the game. Now, does that mean that the online neighborhood is, by need, the stand-in for that? And after that just how much does their input change the way you play the video game? We’ve already seen the Heat meter change based upon feedback.
The way we receive feedback presently [is not just by] having the online checks that we’re simulating the presently closed network tests, however also being able to have hands-on opportunities where individuals can actually play the game and we can see them playing is a very practical method of collecting data. You need to test early on to ensure performance works and whatever since that’s something that’s so important nowadays. And it’s not just Tekken, any video game that’s online basically does that same method testing, however likewise gathering feedback.
At that point the video game balancing was pretty much locked in and it was more about testing the income, so how many play times, how much money did you get in that specific day … Not just to make a financial choice– it’s likewise an excellent way of measuring if the video game is hot, I think you would state. If the income isn’t high enough, you’re not going to be able to get everybody to purchase the game, and you can go back to the drawing board. There is a little bit of feedback taken at the time, however there isn’t a whole lot of time in between the area test and actual release of the video game to actually make a lot of fine-tuning of the game itself.
Tekken 7 is still hot in a great deal of ways, so from your point of view, as individuals who make the video games and also need to make business choices around video games, how do you decide when the best moment for Tekken 8 is?
As you stated, Tekken 7 is still going strong. The regular monthly active users continues to increase, which is rather unexpected. And even if you look at eSports, the viewership increases every year and even the number of individuals taking part in the competitions increases. Like you stated, it’s hard to judge the precise timing of when to proceed to a new one. Initially we were believing, for Tekken 7, possibly there’s a season two which’s when we would go to the next one. Since people are investing so much time and money into Tekken 7 and learning the system and complexities and competitive nature of it, there has actually been a lot of feedback that they wanted to continue to see more with Tekken 7. And so we just gradually we’re type of doing a temperature level consult them and they keep stating they desire more of Tekken 7.
We tried to address those requests in a way. However it’s a fine balance there that at some time individuals want a brand name new game and you simply have to look closely at the weighting of that. I play Payday 2, so I resemble, “I love this game, I wish to play it permanently.” And then you get to about the sixth year or two and perhaps around the seventh it’s like, “Okay, I believe I’m ready for a brand-new experience.” Therefore there is that sensation, it’s sort of comparable to Tekken 7.
There’s been durations where combating video games have not been as popular, but Tekken’s constantly been consistent. Do you feel like the battling video game category is still a bubble that might rupture at some point and we’ll have another phase where it’s low-key, or do you believe it’s here to stay? Are combating games now recession-proof, for desire of a much better phrase?
Harada: So that’s a question that gets asked sometimes therefore I’ve had a lot of time to think of it and it’s most likely got to make with the image of Street Fighter 2 being so huge at that time that it seemed, as you stated, not a bubble or anything like that, but it was a thing. And I think what you’re getting at is if something is so popular and everyone’s doing it, possibly you feel like it’s got to boil down at some point. Maybe that image was there with Street Fighter, however if you compare it to a puzzle game or something, I do not know if it’s ever been like, “Oh, everyone’s playing puzzle video games”– it’s just been around so long that individuals have been playing it continuously. So everybody understands that it’s a genre that’s not going away.
Battling video games have been around for a quarter-century, and so it might seem like there’s been ups and downs, but as a genre it’s been so long that we’ve continued to have a fan base, not just for Tekken. It never went away, it’s still in the Olympics. It’s kind of like that– we don’t feel it’s going to ever dip down drastically.
One interesting thing is we were talking about combating games as a whole. If you look at 3D fighting video games– and to make a difference here, considering that even 2D games now have 3D character models, we’re talking about having coordinates on a 3D playing location– Tekken’s probably the only one that continues to keep having updates and new installments. That’s kind of an intriguing thing to look at in the genre as a whole.
Do you feel a responsibility to keep that side of the category healthy? You are custodians of 2 of the biggest 3D combating franchises in Tekken and SoulCalibur.
It’s simply that when you look at 3D battling video games, they’re so difficult to make. 3D battling video games simply need so much innovation and understanding very particular to that classification, and we’re not even the custodians of 3D fighters, it’s like we’re making Tekken and Tekken is kind of its own thing. It’s not like we have a torch and think, “Oh, we need to keep 3D battling video games alive” or anything like that.
