Tekken Riding The Wave Of Casual Fan Loyalty

The Tekken franchise has sold millions of copies. When most of the Tekken loyal fan base was built the games had:

• Survival Modes
• Ghost Battle
• Team Battle
• Story Modes
• Tekken Force
• Tag Modes ( & Tag Versions)
• Character Intros, Outtros, Movie Endings,
• Arcade Modes
• Knock Out Replays
• Back Stories
• Galleries
• Strategy Guides
• Art Books, Posters, Figurines, etc
• Folk Lore!

So much content, so much family and friend fun. This content garnered millions of casual fans world wide. But now., from a feature point of view Tekken is a mere shadow of its former versions. Now Tekken is stripped down version that primarily caters to e-sports hopefuls. Now instead of game modes and features its all about e-sports over-the-top graphic fireworks (targeted at spectators) character balance and roll-back.

But lets do the math. There were millions of copies of Tekken 7 sold. But there are not millions of Tekken e-sports competitors. The majority of people that play Tekken are casuals and primarily enjoyed all of that Single Player content, features and characters that have now been removed from Tekken.

The Tekken fan base and Tekken loyalty was built on all of this content (that's what sold millions of copies!)
The majority of customers that bought and played Tekken have never been in an e-sports tournament and have absolutely no desire(or time) to be pro players. Don't get me wrong , its all good if you're into the competitive Tekken scene. I think the competitive scene helps bring more visibility to the game, and more players to the game. But in terms of numbers: There are thousands of competitive players, but millions of casual players And Bandai Namco is now taking advantage of all of that casual loyalty built up over the last two decades to cater to the e-sports minority and the DLC hustle.

Bandai-Namco, and Harada-san want to sell millions of copies of Tekken 8 to casual players with a feature set that has been trimmed down and optimized for the e-sport competitive scene

• Loud-rambunctious over-top-graphics
• A Stream lined Roster (no duplication or unnecessary characters)
• Cross Play
• Improved Roll Back
• Meters, Meters, Meters,
• Rage Art, Heat Art
• Comeback Mechanics Galore
• DLC characters every 4 months

These are great The wet dream of e-sport hopefuls and competitive Tekken players everywhere. But what about the millions of casual players? Where's the Team battle, Tag Modes, Survival Modes, Ghost Battle, in-depth-story-modes, Tekken Force, Cut-scene galleries, character art galleries, large rosters, Vs mode options that made the Tekken franchise? The streamers,twitchers, discorders, and podcasters cater to the competitive scene and largely ignore the fan base that made Tekken what it is today.

There's a lot of hype around Tekken 8, I'm just not sure the millions of casual players will fall for the same bait-n-switch again How long will Bandai-Namco , Harada-san, and the e-sport hopefuls be able to ride the wave of millions of casual players that bought into Tekken because of its incredible Single Player and Two Player content but now realize significant Single Player and Two Player content is no longer part of the game.

 

I agree. But it's not just Tekken falling to this problem. Virtua Fighter had beloved modes like quest mode removed from the game. So many 3d fighting games have removed single player content for reasons I don't even understand at all, with Soul Calibur being one of the few exceptions. Soul Calibur 6 is the most criminally underrated fighting game I've ever played.

 

It was not only Quest Mode. Virtua Fighter had:

• AI Mode from VF4
• Kumite Mode from VF4
• I think VF3TB had Team Battle
• Announcer
• There were Underground Tournaments in VF4Evo
• Arcade Mode in VF4 Evo had special challenges
• There was a Replay Feature in (Single Player and Vs Modes in VF4, VF4 Evo)
• Player Profiles for Single Player and Vs Modes
• Move Demonstrations/Animations for every move for every character
• VF5FS had License Mode
• VF5FS had Sparring Mode

Sadly., its simple. Its all about profit, and greed.

Single player modes cost extra money to make. Single player modes require developers to be far more skilled. Single player modes require writers, actors, voice actors, high quality AI programming, motion capture actors,etc.

From Sega's (and other FG publishers) point of view if they can make the game for $1 and sell it for $60 its all profit. If they have to spend $50 to make a game and they can only sell it for $60 its less money for the executives, less money for the shareholders less money for all of the people trying to profit off of the fighting game.

The e-sports hopefuls and competitive players really don't give a damn about single player content. They don't care about back stories, or story modes, or even customization for that matter. All they really care about is:

• Character Balance
• Roll Back/ Net Code
• Launchers & Combos
• A small Roster (10 -20 characters) - They don't want to have to learn too many matchups
• And a couple of stages

The Fighting Game publishers can get rid of all of that costly Single Player and Two Player content and deliver a very stripped down game, with lots of bombastic graphics and as long as the game is balanced and has good net code the e-sports hopefuls and the competitive players will gladly, and eagerly pay full price. And happily pay for the online season pass that allows them to play online, and happily pay for the quarterly DLC characters over the life time of the game

So the fighting games companies that demonstrate they don't want my money, won't get it.


I play all the versions of VF between VF4 and VF5FS. Its bad ass and will remain in my top 2 fighting Arcade games.

I've gone back-n-forth between Soul Calibur and Virtua Fighter as which was my #1.
Currently Soul Calibur has the #1 spot for best 3D arcade fighting game. It has consistently delivered from version to version. The graphics are second to none. The fighting engine is amazing. Single Player and Vs Content is excellent. The Roster is FN amazing. And Project Soul takes pride in what they produce. I'm not sure whether
RGG even GAF about the Virtua Fighter series. I think it is only seen as a potential money-grab (I sincerely and truly hope I'm wrong about this)


I'm extremely thankful that Soul Calibur 6 is not the goto choice for e-sport hopefuls and pro players. That would ruin the game. @Solomon Rayland I'm actually happy that Soul Calibur is underrated, because every fighting game that is targeted for competitive gaming and e-sports, ends up stripped down, with small rosters, no single player content, and totally catering to the online e-sports hopefuls and youtube streamers. Soul Calibur 6 is one of the few current gen fighting games that's still fun to play for casuals. You can find SC6 tournaments all the time on PSN its just not all that try hard stuff that the Tekken community is into.

 

All that beloved content going down the drain. Feel your pain there.

Perhaps you're right. It's sad to see all that content go to waste due to business.

Some of those things are undeniably important for fighting games and can make the game way better and more enjoyable. With that said, single player content will always make the game a lot better.

I see you there.

If I had easy access to those games, I bet I'll have just as much fun as you did.

I also hope that you're wrong about that. In the best way of course.

Perhaps you're right. Libra of Soul is by far my favorite single player content in any fighting game I've ever played, and I would be heartbroken if they removed it.

I deeply enjoy these chats. They always brighten my day. Thank you for your great work @masterpo. You are my favorite content creator here now.

 

It's a bit early to be saying Tekken 8 won't have the extra stuff. Yeah you can look at trends from past releases but Harada's no fool, he's said before that the esports stuff is mostly just a marketing exercise, and he knows what the bulk of the audience comes for.

What you're seeing now is i think them being smart about their marketing. The competitive players will always be first to buy (almost regardless of what's new/different), and so they'll appeal to them first to create the buzz around the game. And it's working, Tekken 8 has already given the impression that it'll be a hit at launch, so a lot of casual players will want to jump in.

At least it's looking like the game has more budget this time, so they'll probably be able to do a bit more than the crappy story mode in 7.

 

I hope you're right about that.

 

Soulcalibur consistently delivered from version to version? I wish I could agree with that.

 

Soul Calibur V was somewhat controversial because of removal of characters, reduction and simplication of some of the move sets, and stripped down story mode. All of which seemed like Soul Calibur V was about to make the mistake of pursuing that e-sports bull$#it.(Although Namco claimed the changes were driven by budget) But Project Soul and Namco saw the error of their ways and put out a remaster and online version of Soul Calibur II as an apology and followed it up with a proper Soul Calibur VI that set the series basically back on course again.

 

Interestingly, that problem actually started with SoulCalibur 2. SoulCalibur 2 even removed alot of Quality of Life stuff, and Virtua Fighter game mechanics, that were only seen in SoulCalibur 1. Also, SC1 interestingly has better side stepping, in contrast to SC2, where the side stepping doesn't always work, or avoid attacks correctly.