- The recent announcement of microtransactions in Tekken 8 hasn’t been met with positivity.
- However, Katsuhiro Harada believes it’s a must-have to support the game for many years.
- He stated that Tekken 8 development cost thrice as much as Tekken 7.
After almost a decade of Tekken 7, a new fighting game for the IP was released by Bandai Namco this year, and it became an instant hit. Tekken 8 has already sold over 2 million copies and became last month’s best-selling game in the US.
However, the game has recently introduced a new microtransaction shop with legacy costumes, leading to criticism from some fans. Amid the controversy, Tekken lead Katsuhiro Harada has claimed that this is a necessary step for modern games.
He states that Tekken 8 required a 2-3x higher budget than the last game.
Why it matters: Microtransactions have become common in new games, and rival fighting games like Mortal Kombat 1 have used similar tactics for additional revenue recently.
Development costs are now 10 times more expensive than in the 90's 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…
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) February 21, 2024
While replying to one of the comments on Twitter, Katsuhiro Harada explained why Bandai Namco decided to include an in-game shop and microtransactions in the game.
Firstly, he mentioned that the development cost of games is much higher in general, making it difficult to compare with past titles. He then compared Tekken 8 and Tekken 7, highlighting that costs have gone up since the latter’s release.
Development costs are now 10 times more expensive than in the 90s and more than double or nearly triple the cost of Tekken 7.
– Katsuhiro Harada
He also addressed the fact that fans want developers to support games for many years and want more content in the game. For this extended support, these in-game shops and microtransactions are very helpful as they create a revenue stream for the developers.
Katsuhiro Harada wants fans to stop comparing Tekken 8 with the past entries as gaming is in a different place compared to ten years ago. He hopes to support the game for many years, justifying the in-game shop.
While microtransactions always meet criticism in the industry, Katsuhiro Harada raises a valid point. Still, many fans remain upset that Bandai Namco waited for the reviews and positive press before releasing the in-game shop.
Ultimately, his point on development costs is accurate. Tekken 7 also had a much smaller budget than the latest entry since it came after the commercial failure of Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
Meanwhile, Tekken 7’s success meant that Bandai Namco could go all-out with a bigger budget for the latest title.
Nonetheless, Tekken 8 is doing great on Steam as it has already reached over 2.5x more players on the platform than Tekken 7. At the time of writing, 20K players are still active in-game, making it a popular fighting game one month after launch.
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