Tekken 8 faced some serious criticism due to Bandai Namco’s decision to sell Heihachi’s new stage seperately from the season 1 DLC pass. Now, following community uproar, Bandai Namco has reneged on its original decision, giving the stage out to season pass owners alongside some in-game currency to help sweaten the deal.
This news came from a message posted on social media from the official Tekken 8 account. It states, “We apologise for not meeting the community’s expectations for the ‘playable character year 1 pass’ content and the ‘Genmaji Temple’ DLC release method. After thoroughly discussing the feedback, the Tekken Project team has decided on the following measures.”
This is obviously a nice gesture, and the right move from both a PR and community management standpoint. It’s surely a situation that would have caused some turmoil internally, especially since the season pass was – as explicitly stated in the message – a character pass rather than a full content pass. However, as any Tekken player will tell you, stages aren’t just fancy backdrops. They have real impacts on the gameplay. Thus, the uproar following its listing as a seperate bit of DLC.
While it may seem like this has tied a nice bow around the issue, one wonders where Tekken 8 goes from here in terms of its monetization practices. Yes, this time around, players get the stage for free. But what about next season? Sure, you could assume that from here on out stages will be contained within future passes, but it’s not like developing new stages will get any cheaper. Will the pass price increase to include stages? Or, will messaging be improved to make it crystal clear that buying the pass will get you characters only?
But has this come too late? I ask because, if you look at community hubs for fighting games, the consensus around Tekken 8 isn’t nearly as glowing as it was when the game first came out. Players are a bit more skeptical these days, they’ve been through a few rough spots. Whether it’s the whole debacle about the lack of punishments for rage quitting, or the recent Tekken World Tour ruling that resulted in a Chinese player getting disqualified, sentiments are certainly mixed.
If things like this keep happening, how long can the good will last? Tekken 8 is by no means a bad game. I’d go as far as to say it’s a wonderful game. But at times it appears bogged down by shortsightedness from those within Bandai Namco, but not directly involved with the development team. Speaking to us recently, Harada himself stated he was worried that once he and other senior Tekken staff left, the power balance between the development side of the company and the corporate side would shift. Perhaps all of this is a taste of such a future.
What do you think of all this? Are you concerned for the future of Tekken? Or are you just happy the stage will be available with needless spending? Let us know below.