Featured among the biggest video game releases of January, Tekken 8 seems to have been overzealous when it comes to accessibility.
Last June, his rival Street Fighter 6 had already set the bar very high in the field. In an effort to make its new title playable by as many people as possible, Bandai Namco has notably focused on Tekken 8 a color blind filter. However, it seems that the latter presents numerous side effects that are particularly dangerous for the health of sensitive people.
A filter that could knock out some
Expected by many fans on January 26, 2024 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, Tekken 8 presents itself as a great comeback for a legendary fighting game license. Who says more modern game says in particular efforts made around accessibility.
As such, Bandai Namco’s next big game has recently received rather bad press, among other things through a playable demo. In particular, there was a filter for color blind people which got people talking. This displays a black and white rendering and character silhouettes filled with vertical bars for the one you are playing, horizontal for that of the opponent. The video below will certainly be more telling, but caution is advised when viewing it.
Shortly after this revelation, some indeed sounded the alarm. According to them, prolonged use of such a filter could cause terrible migraines or even epileptic attacks. Ian Hamilton, an accessibility specialist, notably insisted that Bandai Namco must “ urgently delete this filter “, at the risk of seriously endangering the health of sensitive players.
Bandai Namco tries to put its fists… on the i
The director of Tekken 8Katsuhiro Harada, came up with an answer about this filter which has already caused a lot of ink to flow: “ A few people have either misunderstood the accessibility options we are trying to implement, or have only seen a video without actually trying the options in the demo for themselves “.
Besides this black and white display, there would indeed be many other color options, in order to cover as many types of color blindness as possible. According to him, the demo participants who were able to configure these different accessibility filters left generally positive feedback.
If the intention to make Tekken 8 playable by as many people as possible is laudable, adjustments must however be made so that the accessibility options do not have terrible side effects. Between now and its release scheduled for January 26, we can bet that Bandai Namco will have had time to review its copy in this sense. It then remains to be seen if the game will be good enough to compete against a Street Fighter 6 currently reigning champion of modern fighting games.
Sources: Ian Hamilton on X.com ; Katsuhiro Harada on X.com
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