Gaming is at its peak nowadays, and every developer who makes an excellent game gets the success they deserve. In 2023, games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty got the success they so deserved. But the most surprising was Street Fighter 6, which became an unexpected breakthrough for Capcom. The same happened for Tekken 8 recently; both of these games became successful, surprising everyone involved.
It’s not as if fans do not know about these games or that they are small franchises; it’s just that fighting games have a very niche audience. Hence, when these games get so successful, everyone can’t help but wonder what happened. But the director of Tekken 8 has his doubts about the future of his genre.
Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada explains how the world is changing in fighting games
Over the years, shooters like Call of Duty, Wolfenstein, and Doom have gotten way more popular than fighters like Street Fighter and Tekken. Now these games are popular, no doubt; everyone knows their name, and people have been playing them for years, but they mainly have a small, hardcore fanbase.
This does not mean that people did not want to get into these titles; it’s just that getting into these games was not so easy. They have a huge learning curve, and playing them alone is not as fun. When gamers try to go online with them, they are easily defeated because their opponent might be a seasoned player.
Both Capcom and Bandai Namco are aware of this issue now. Hence, they decided to give these games a spin. They kept everything the same and just gave these titles very elaborate tutorials. This would allow players to learn as they go and eventually learn the moves and find the character they favor the most.
This allowed both Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 to become more successful than their developers had expected. Street Fighter 6 launched last year, and it has already sold around 3 million copies. On the other hand, Tekken 8 sold over 2 million copies within a month of its launch.
These are pretty insane figures for games that cater to a very small audience. Now, the producer of Tekken 8 Katsuhiro Harada suggests that the future of fighting games is not what fans are expecting. All because the essence of gaming and the nature of a gamer are changing.
And that’s why fighting games need to change too. He gave a very interesting example, explaining how gamers of today are not the same as gamers who played fighting games years ago.
“In Japan, and probably in most of the world, my generation is a big one. It makes up a good chunk of the population. That made our society a competitive one. If you apply to a school or for a job, there’s always a lot of competition. Young people nowadays are the opposite. They are rarely eager to engage in one-on-one showdowns. Fighting games pit you by yourself against a single opponent; you have to accept all the responsibility if you lose. You can’t blame anyone else.”
He then went on to suggest that while there is still demand for one-on-one fighting games, they just have to include ways of competing outside of the main game too. This means they could either go for team battles or 3-v-3 matches.
He also suggested that incorporating such changes in the online mode’s official rankings would also be required. It makes sense too; this would allow players to go for online modes more often, as a new player would hesitate to play online alone.
Capcom did something even better with Street Fighter 6
While Tekken 8 no doubt does a lot to make players feel comfortable in that competitive environment, Street Fighter 6 did things even better. They actually gave players a complete story mode where they traveled around and learned to fight from various in-game characters. Then they engaged in fights and implemented what they learned.
Then again, what matters is the fact that both games at least try to attract gamers to this genre. Now it’s Dragon Ball SPARKING! Zero’s turn to do something similar and be more beginner-friendly.
