Bandai Namco’s Tekken 8 has come under fire recently for its upcoming in-game shop, launching between late February and early March. While its paid cosmetics don’t confer any gameplay advantages, the addition of microtransactions has rubbed some the wrong way, especially given the direction that Mortal Kombat 1 and Street Fighter 6 have gone.
Addressing some tweets about the implementation of microtransactions, series producer Katsuhiro Harada said, “Development costs are now ten times more expensive than in the 90s and more than double or nearly triple the cost of Tekken 7. Even the Fight Lounge servers are costly to maintain. In the past, there weren’t so many specs, and there wasn’t online.
“Plus they didn’t have such high resolution and high definition. Now, so many people want the game to run and be supported for a long time. It costs money to continually update the game for that reason.” Citing “changing times” and “increasing costs”, Harada added, “The economic situation and everything else is changing” and that if nothing is done, “the game will simply stop running in a few months.”
Tekken 8 has sold over two million copies since launching on January 26th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC (check out our review). Compared to previous entries, it’s the biggest in terms of content and production values. Whether microtransactions are necessary for covering costs or not, their impact on the game’s public perception is worth noting over time.
Besides the shop, the developer is also working on DLC characters. Eddy Gordo is the first, arriving this Spring, with Year 1 Pass owners receiving three days of early access. Stay tuned for more updates on the same in the coming weeks.