Cognition Dissemination: Why Excitement Levels Have Dropped for Tekken 7

When Tekken 7 was announced for arcades at Evo 2K14, anyone familiar with arcade-to-home conversions could have told you it would be a while before it reached home consoles. But even then, no one thought would take quite this long. Bandai Namco made the supposed best move for their fighting game business, by letting players that still visit Japanese and Korean arcades — and almost literally a few others worldwide — put some quarters in machines to play. That’s despite the arcade market’s slowly dwindling relevance in territories where they previously rebounded in popularity.

But that home release is taking longer than even previous Tekken installments, due to how Bandai Namco chose to approach the arcade version. At the time of its announcement, no one knew it would arrive with only a fraction of the cast, leaving popular characters like Jin Kazama and Yoshimitsu to wait until later. Throughout the last year, they’ve been slowly updating the arcade version with new and returning characters, though fan favorites like Nina and Julia still remain missing.

In a way, they took an approach previously attempted to Tekken Revolution for PlayStation 3. Heck, Tekken 7 even retains some gameplay systems first tested with that title, like Street Fighter-style special techniques.

Despite the long wait, no one doubted it would release on consoles sometime in the future, and producer Katsuhiro Harada finally confirmed it during Paris Games Week. That’s great news! It also made for a fun moment when Harada shared the stage with Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono, both of which have enjoyed a fun rivalry with each other in the last half decade. This also happened due to the Bandai Namco-developed crossover, Tekken x Street Fighter, being presumably still in development.

Yet this also raised a big question: Does anyone care about Tekken 7 at this point? In the interim between its announcement and period in arcades, the excitement level has almost completely diminished, especially in western markets.

The reason for that doesn’t lie solely in the excruciating wait, but also its presentation. People expected this title to represent the next big leap for the franchise, beyond it being the next numbered sequel: It also marked the development team’s move to a new engine, one Unreal Engine 4. By this point, Tekken’s dedicated fanbase had grown tired of the series relying on the same animations and aesthetics since Tekken 5 in 2004, and the shift to a different engine was treated as a clue that this would happen.

So imagine the look of disappointment upon their faces when the game was first shown, once again using similar outfits and animations. Outside its graphical prowess, Tekken 7 doesn’t mark much of an upgrade over its predecessors, and represents a serious step back in terms of the cast available compared to Tekken Tag Tournament 2. The middling reviews from those who’ve played it in Japanese arcades haven’t helped, who said most of the new features (the aforementioned super techniques and a focus attack-esque technique) are nearly useless, and that everything about it feels half-baked outside of the gorgeous backgrounds.

You’ll find most pointing to Street Fighter V for what Tekken 7 should have been, in terms of being a significant upgrade over its predecessor. Like this game, SFV also represents a shift to UE4, and Capcom’s development team (along with Dimps) made the most of that by altering the gameplay, art style, and especially the animations. Not to mention this game will release on home consoles sooner. I’m sure having Sony for support helped, but it would be nice if Tekken 7 came close to achieving something halfway similar.

But there’s still a chance for them to generate some excitement, which could come with a new version before this one hits consoles. Since Tekken 5 had Dark Resurrection, Tekken 6 had Bloodline Rebellion, and TTT2 had Tekken Unlimited Tag Tournament 2, it would be a shock if this one didn’t have a new version down the line. The only problem is how this could delay the home release even further, especially if characters are added at as short a pace. Since that’s part of the reason for why hype has dwindled, releasing another version in arcades first is somewhat of a risk. But then, they can’t just release this current version now. Talk about being damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

Bandai Namco previously gave the impression that they weren’t impressed with console sales for TTT2, so logic suggests they won’t release Tekken 7 in the same way. They could go the free-to-play route in addition to offering a premium-priced version, but it would be best if they didn’t take inspiration from Tekken Revolution’s format. That they announced this without providing a release timeframe suggests it’s not coming until the end of 2016 at the earliest, but it could come later than that depending on their plans. We should see more of them in a short time.