It’s been over 13 years since Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was released on September 14, 2011. Though the game garnered a cult following from some of the most hardcore fans of the series, it was seen commercially as a failure that almost killed the series.
“It’s a great game for highly skilled players, but for those who can’t play it well, before even considering whether a game is fun, they feel like it’s their fault that they can’t play well. So they stop playing,” recently said Harada about why Tekken Tag Tournament 2 failed.
“Usually, players feel they should be able to play well, but then they can’t and keep losing. They get frustrated and call it a crappy game,” continued Harada. “But because they are so close, they keep playing to get better. Once they get it, they find the game pretty fun again.”
“It was just that originally when the first Tag came out, you know, Tekken was a much more simpler franchise back then.” — Katsuhiro Harada
Ultimately Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was only fun for the players most experienced with the Tekken series. Of course, this only represents a tiny subset of players.
Harada was recently spotted in Sweden by Gamereactor, who had the chance to sit down with him for an interview. They used this as an opportunity to ask about the possibility of Tekken Tag Tournament 3. Harada had this to say on the matter:
“So it’s not like it was planned to have the Tag series appear at a certain 12-year cycle or anything like that. It was just that originally when the first Tag came out, you know, Tekken was a much more simpler franchise back then.
“Much less characters than we have now on the roster. All the different gameplay systems and all these things that have been added since then have made Tekken, the base game, much more complex.
“It’s not something we’re currently really thinking of, because the direction we’re going into is to try to have as many people enjoy the game as possible.” — Katsuhiro Harada
“It would be quite difficult to make a new instalment in the Tag series that many people would be able to enjoy, because you know the top tier players who are competing worldwide and who really spend so much time on Tekken are at like the highest level of the player base really love that series, but for people who are more casual it’s a much more difficult game to pick up and play.”
Once again, Harada acknowledged that the Tekken Tag Tournament series had a difficult time attracting and retaining those that just want to play casually. Unless something changed, Tekken Tag Tournament 3 would likely be doomed to fail like its predecessor.
“It’s not something we’re currently really thinking of, because the direction we’re going into is to try to have as many people enjoy the game as possible. But at the same time, maybe if we were to add a new idea, rather than Tag, it would be something like a team battle, or some other twist on the current format of the game.”
Overall, Harada seems to be indicating that he doesn’t have any immediate plans to return to the Tekken Tag Tournament series, but this idea isn’t completely off the table. Should it ever happen, the third game in the series would have to go in a slightly different direction to cater to a wider audience.