There are many reasons that fans are excited about Tekken 8. The first is that the previous title by Bandai Namco helped elevate the series to new heights and welcomed new fans while still catering to veteran gamers. The second reason is that the game looks beautiful via Unreal Engine 5. The team has said they’re pushing the engine hard to get the best-looking game possible. Another reason is the roster of characters that the team has been showing off through reveal trailers, including some “long gone” characters that are making their return after decades away.
But if you need a different reason to look forward to things, the director of Tekken 8, Katsuhiro Harada, has provided one on Twitter. A fan asked him whether crossplay would be available in the game. Harada replied that it would “of course” happen, then noted that he planned to do it for the last game but had issues with publishers:
He later went on to give another history lesson on the topic before reassuring fans that crossplay will be coming in the 8th mainline entry:
“Remember when they announced they were open to crossplay a few years ago?” Harada tweeted later on.
“But in reality, they didn’t actively support third parties at the time, and the hurdles were actually quite high. There are still some problems left, but it will be possible.”
He’s not wrong about the history of crossplay and its woes, thanks to publisher rivalries. You might recall when Sony was seriously dragging its heels to let crossplay happen, so Microsoft and Nintendo banded together to let crossplay happen with games like Minecraft across their systems. They even made a small trailer about it happening and why they were “stronger together.”
Since then, Sony has dropped the walls a bit, and many games have crossplay capabilities. It’s not hard to see why gamers want this to happen for the upcoming fighting title. There will be more variety and competition if you’re playing the whole pool of players versus only one section of them. Plus, sometimes friends don’t have the same consoles. So if they can crossplay one another, it’ll ensure they interact with them on their favorite games or new ones.
Either way, Harada confirming this without hesitation further shows his desire to make this game as grand as possible and accessible to all players. Unfortunately, no release date for Tekken 8 has been given yet.
