Bandai Namco does appear to be at least more open and transparent now at least, and hopefully it’ll stay that way
Tekken 8 launched as one of the biggest fighting games of 2024 to kick off the year with lofty expectations from both players and the publisher though there’s been a growing sense of frustration between the two parties as of late.
Bandai Namco’s flagship 3D fighter is now seeing its review ratings tank into the “Mostly Negative” range amid multiple recent controversies.
The overall Steam user review score may currently say “Mixed,” but recent reviews for Tekken 8 are being much harsher about the game.
Over just the past week, Tekken 8 received 914 negative ratings as opposed to 241 being positive.
Almost 260 of those came on October 6 alone, which was the same day that Bandai Namco disqualified the young Chinese player, Essence|XCC, from Thaiger Uppercut 2024 after making top 8.
This drew the ire of the competitive scene and some of the wider playerbase for the decision to remove him after getting so far along in the process of the event.
Just earlier today, Bandai Namco put out an apology statement for their actions and are inviting XCC to compete at the Tekken World Tour 2024 Last Chance Qualifier along with expanding the tour to allow Chinese players to officially participate.
Although the company is trying to make amends on that front, they’re also receiving backlash for their handling of Tekken 8 itself — and particularly how it’s monetized.
The other recent spike in player frustration boiled over when it was revealed the new Genmaji Stage would not be included in the Year 1 Pass or Ultimate Edition when Heihachi released.
Many were seemingly left confused or feeling misled as well after the Sea Side Resort stage previously came out for free alongside Lidia Sobieska, but now this one they were putting up for sale at $5.
Stages were never listed as part of the season pass or expanded editions for Tekken 8, but looking at the recent reviews, it seems to be just part of the symptom for the issues players are getting vocal about.
Even if there are presumably some trolls exacerbating the situation and review bombing the game, we’re also seeing quite a few lengthy posts left from players as to why they feel it’s not worth others to pick up Tekken right now.
There’s seemingly a multitude of new reviews from users with hundreds of hours clocked into Tekken 8 on Steam with the monetization being the main source of complaints that we’re seeing currently.
These players are not liking how after spending $110 on the Ultimate Edition that they’re being asked to spend more money on the premium store, battle pass and now stages, which all came after the game launched.
There’s also the usual complaints surrounding game balance, character design and online netcode as well, but problems with the DLC practices are most prevalent.
This is now the second time since launch that Tekken 8’s reviews have slipped to “Mostly Negative” with the first coming back in April that coincided with the launch of the Tekken Shop and battle pass.
Longtime Tekken Director Katsuhiro Harada also recently shared his own apology statement in regards to how they handled the new stage and apparent lack of transparency.
He pointed to an apparent / potential disconnect between Bandai Namco the game developers and Bandai Namco the game publishers, who end up making much of the decisions as to how a title is marketed and sold.
“As a result, I think that there were parts of the process that did not take the Tekken community’s opinion into account,” he wrote in part of his statement. “I think I failed to create an organizational structure that would allow me to oversee things beyond my own position. One of my roles was to listen to the opinions of the Community and reflect them not only in the content but also in the out-game, but I was clearly becoming passive, worrying about the relationships between companies and not exercising my role.”
Harada concluded that he’ll “review this structure and change it to one that values the community as it did in the past.”
Despite these complaints, Tekken 8’s average player count on PC has actually increased by over 16% in the past month to more than 6,600 with Heihachi’s launch likely providing that boost according to SteamCharts.
So it doesn’t appear that Tekken 8 is in danger of being actually abandoned by its continued playerbase at this point, but there are some cracks that need some mending.
Bandai Namco hopefully being more open and transparent now will continue and lead to a healthier spot for the community and Tekken in general.