Recently, Tekken 8 received a new update adding several changes. These were not well received at all by some players. The director responds to this anger.
Tekken 8, released at the start of the year, caused a sensation in the world of fighting games. Highly anticipated, it did not fail to hit the mark with the press. With us, it gets an almost perfect score of 9/10! It must be said that the software has several strings to its bow: it is graphically the most elaborate of its colleagues, the lifespan is also one of the longest and it has made itself much more accessible to beginners. Tekken 8 seems to have it all, and yet! Recently, a patch showed up and it seems to be angering a lot of fans.
Players unhappy with the Tekken 8 store
Tekken 8 version 1.02.01 has just been released. The biggest new thing is the Tekken Shop, a cosmetics store. So far nothing shocking, especially at the moment. But the devil is in the details. As usual, skins are purchased with a so-called “premium” currency, here “Tekken Coins”. The only thing is, a character appearance costs 400 Tekken Coins while the minimum bundle allowing you to buy currency gives 500 and costs €5. There is therefore a surplus of 100 pieces, which means that 20% of the price is paid for nothing. A common technique in free-to-play to get players to consume more by leaving them with a little extra money in their hands.
That said, there is a way to have all the skins with virtually no surplus. The total price of the 8 skins available is 3200 Tekken Coins and there is a pack providing 3210 for €29.99. Here there are almost no discounts, except that the price is clearly not the same. Some players then get angry on social networks, such as on Reddit where we can read: “To say that this is acceptable is to invite Bandai Namco to put a paywall anywhere using methods that are far from being to the advantage of the player. This will not save the license. This will kill her.” said csreynolds84.
Katsuhiro Harada, the director of Tekken 8, responds!
Having heard of this controversy, Katsuhiro Harada, the director of Tekken 8, posted a press release on Twitter. He explains the financial needs of the studio. Indeed, the development costs for such elaborate games are very significant. Video games today cost 10 times more than during the 90s. For comparison, he explains that Tekken 8 cost 2-3 times more money than Tekken 7. As a result, even the already enormous price of €79.99 at the game’s release cannot cover the costs in the long term.
Because yes, games today must also receive content updates and see their online servers maintained. It also costs a lot of money. If a game is to stay alive, it must bring in revenue. Remember, however, that these microtransactions are still optional and that they do not affect the gameplay of the game.