Tekken 8 Money Grab, Harada Liar, Liar Pants On Fire!

Harada San says

"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 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. However, he probably only keeps good memories of the old games he experienced as a boy and does not pay attention to these changing times and increasing costs. The economic situation and everything else is changing. If we simply do nothing as he suggests, the game will simply stop running in a few months. I think that is what he wants. So there is no point in talking to him about these realities. He wants us to stop economic activity and stop updating and supporting the game."

I will explain why this statement is just Bull$#it

• Premium Collectors Edition $300 USD
• Micro transaction Store
• Season Pass
• Battle Pass

The fact of the matter is we are paying way more for games now too!

• Fact 1 You can't even play Tekken 8 online until you pay for Xbox Live, or Playstation Plus every month or yearly

• Fact 2 PS1 titles started at 19.99 That's what I paid for Tekken 2. The Ps2 Titles were between $29.99 to $39.99. I paid $29.99 for Tekken 4 and got way more content, way more game modes, considerably more value for my $29.99 me and family and friends played Tekken 4 for hours and hours weekly and the graphics for the SD were excellent at the time. PS3 titles went from $39.99 - $49.99 (mostly) My Tekken 5 fell in that price range., I had plenty of customization that I liked, a good solid character roster (for free) and plenty of game modes (for free)

• Fact 3 It might cost more to make games in 2024 but we're also paying more than we did in 2002 and there are considerably more people buying the games at the higher price, so the microtransactions, battle pass, season pass, selling old skins is not necessary.

Now here we are with Tekken 8 at $79.99, $99.99, $299.99 with less content than Tekken 6, Tekken 5, or even Tekken 4 at double, triple or 10 times the price if you really add in the fact that you have to pay just to play online.

I'm am a developer. I develop very high end stuff. I've been a developer for over 25 years. I intimately know the tools, the workflow, the toolchain involved. The game development tools, graphics editors, game engines, 3D modeling tools are 1000 times more powerful than what was available back in the days of Tekken 2, 3 and 4. Today the click of a single button can get you what use to be 16 hours of work back then. So Harada with all of that talk about development costs, is making some very misleading statements. The game development toolchain is a 1000 times more efficient, and easier to use than its ever been. I'm not saying that game developers and graphic designers don't have to work their ass off. Because they do! But the reality is they are working with amazing graphic design, and game design tools in 2024 compared to what was available in 2002. A game developer or graphic designer can get 10 times the work done in the same amount of time with the tools available today. With all the libraries, templates, frameworks, and automation available today, game development has never had it better. (in some respects) The game publishers and companies are also treating the game developer like slaves, they may make more money today, but that have to do the work of 10 people.

Also Harada San, Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1 have saved Millions and Millions of dollars in advertising because of all of the streamers, podcasters, and shillers constantly selling the game for free. All those Youtubers, Twitchers, and Discorders are advertising the f@ck out of these games at no cost to Harada San et. al If it wasn't for the Youtube streamers, and the Twitchers Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat One would have failed in the first month.

Also the basic Tekken command set, and move list, core character, core Tekken idea and core engine is more or less the same as it was back in Tekken 3. Yes there have been massive balance changes, infinity fixes, some new mechanics added here or there. But Tekken 8 is still recognizable as a Tekken game. The game play hasn't changed so much that a person who played Tekken 4 would have no idea what to do in Tekken 8. That's not true. A casual or button masher player from Tekken 4 would do about the same in Tekken 8 and would find a lot familiar. So its not true that each version of Tekken starts over from scratch causing Harada and Namco to spend all of this money that's Bull$#it.


The Real Costs of why Gaming Prices and MicroTransaction go up

• The real costs involve executive salaries. How much are the Bandai Namco executives making annually
• Server and hosting costs. Many companies are outsourcing their servers and are paying through the nose, when it would now be cheaper and more secure to have their own in house servers.
• Licensing Fees
• Internationalization
• Legal Fees
• Payments to Xbox and Sony
• Shareholder payouts
• Greed, greed, and more greed

Harada don't try to push the cost on game developers Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

 

There is no way I am able to justify what is happening to Tekken 8 because it is objectively awful. Having said that, is is not Harada's fault. It is more so to blame on the executives at Bandai Namco.

 

Maybe where your attention/money goes, your engrgy flows? Is like "i want more of it"?

Maybe gaming is addictive and addict gamers allow all abuses just to get another "bag of dime"? Supporting bad stuff with their money and attention?

Would it be that simple?

 

That is the reality of the situation with mainstream games. Some games are honest about it right away and makes the annoying things they do very minor or cosmetic so it doesn't affect the actual game play too and like how overwatch 1 did it and in that case it was fine. Not all companies want to scare their audience away but they might have to and ease people into what they are doing.

 

Are the Tekken players so damn thirsty that they'll take any Bull$hit shoveled

All the streamers, pod casters and everybody that's shills for bandai namco are going to say anything and everything to keep suckers playin the game

I literally hope Tekken 8 fails spectacularly so Seiji Aoki won't try the same Bull$hit with
the next Virtua Fighter

I don't have any respect for Tekken players You can expect the greedy publishers and developers to try push this garbage, but for the players to bend over and take up arse

What's next, soon they'll be charging these dumb mutha f*ckers for core moves from the move list and back dashing distance.

 

Po, YOU take any Bullshit SEGA shovels. Fine they (RGGS)don't know how to do FG mechanics for VF5US: FINE, they don't know how to make *stages*either! Are they blood clot stupid? They have the *least* characters in any legacy fighting game. What do they do for VF5US? Remove DURAL for the plater roster. FIRE Aoiki, he doesn't have a clue. Unforced errors like the DURAL debacle are why this game went from being the storm of the industry with VF3 to a god damn joke now, they gave it for free like shovel ware. I love VF, but I love the *old* VF , when it was a thinking man's fighting game, and not a mash fest. Is VF better than Tekken? Yes, but by a much smaller margin than 20 years ago. Or even 17 years ago with Vanilla VF5. It's been VF5 was the last gangsta VF. When they removed Vanessa and Kage's reversals in VF5R, it was the beginning of a downhill spiral. Get off HARADA'S dick, he knows how to make fighting games successful. Stop crying about being charged for DLC , and get a damn job.

I bought *every" DLC for Tekken7 and the end result was the spiritual successor to FIGHTERS MEGAMIX, a classic fighting game SEGA doesn't have the brains to make a SEQUAL TO ,25 YEARS LATER and counting. Somebody at IGN said "SEGA is the perfect nexus of genius and ineptitude " - Jared Petty. *Facts*.

 

No I think VF5US is garbage. It has hit sparks, Tekken Skins, Tekken UI, has removed 2/3 of the customization, and dropped all of the VF5FS single player. I don't take any Bull$hit Sega Shovels. Sega took features out of VF5FS. I complained back then too. But Tekken 8, and Tekken 7 are F*cking Trash

 

It’s frustrating when games seem like they’re all about the cash grab. I was reading your comments and thought of something interesting—there are some real money app games out there that actually pay you to play. It’s a different approach where the focus is on rewarding players rather than just pushing for more spending. I understand not all companies are upfront about their monetization, and sometimes it feels like they’re easing us into more aggressive tactics. I agree that transparency helps and keeps things more enjoyable. It’s a bummer when a game you love gets bogged down by pay-to-win mechanics or other sneaky stuff.

 

The sad thing is, for over a decade, almost every game is a cash grab game. These game companies have this fantasy, of making a game, that can give them everlasting profit.

 

Now Harada is making fans pay for stages Tekken 7 was trash., Tekken 8 is nothing more than Harada's retirement plan. He is going to squeeze fans for every drop of cash they have before he leaves.

https://www.psu.com/news/tekken-8-genmaji-temple-dlc-statement-harada/


There will not be a Tekken 9 This is it folks The final curtain for all of these arcade fighting games.

I doubt seriously if we see another Virtua Fighter, because Tekken's money grab, the Tekken Store, the Battle Passes, selling stages, the Ultimate Tekken version ($300) all failed. There was just too much push back. People aint fallin for this $#hit This same nonsense failed with Mortal Kombat 1. This same nonsense has failed with Street Fighter 6. Seiji Aoki and RGG were betting on Bandai Namco being able to successfully rob the FGC. IF Aoki had saw Harada do it, then VF6 was gonna play follow the leader and be full of more bull$#it than you can imagine. But Harada's robbery attempt has failed in spectacular fashion The jig is up

Fighting games are too hard for today's casuals., and nobody's going for all of this microtransaction hustle. And all of the game publishers and developers are refusing to make legitimate single player content, so this is it. Tekken's player base will be down to nothing but the absolute die hards by June 2025. And once the curtain closes on Tekken 8 we all might as well wave good bye to the last of the 3D arcade fighting games.

• DOA gone

• Soul Calibur gone

• Virtua Fighter gone

• Tekken gone

Bandai Namco, Capcom, Sega,etc want players to spend $1000-$1500 for a fighting game, and only the old-timers who have nothing else to live for are prepared to do that.

On another note I'm playing Virtua Fighter 4 EVO with friends and family weekly
SIFU is an absolute masterpiece I can't put down
Absolver is refereshing and gets several hours a month from me.
The UFC games offer the most realistic Martial Arts in a video game and I play them regularly also



Its too bad Sega, Bandai Namco let greed destroy an entire genre.