Does Tekken 8 Rating Mean Release Date Imminent?

The gaming community is already known to be an impatient lot, but it doesn’t help that developers sometimes tease games for a long period without a clue as to when they will come out. For example, Tekken 8 has been doing tests and trailer releases for new/returning characters. Still, Bandai Namco refuses to give a release date or even a window for a potential release. However, eagle-eyed fans have noted that a rating for the game from Korea could be a sign that this may change soon. After all, you can’t rate a game that isn’t near completion, right?

The rating in question was posted on ResetEra, and it notes that the rating came from South Korea, which rated Tekken 8 for ages 15+. That’s fair, given the game’s sometimes dark storyline and intense fighting. However, what many on the forum site focused on was how the rating came out at all and thus could hint that Bandai Namco might be on the verge of getting a release date.

However, as the person who posted the rating revealed, just because it’s out doesn’t mean the game will come soon. They gave an example of how Street Fighter 6 got its Korean rating back in November 2022, but the title didn’t arrive until June 2023. That’s quite a gap between rating and release.

That doesn’t mean you should give up hope; however, it just means that we have to think of things along those lines. For example, if the Capcom title came out about six months after its Korean rating, we can apply that to Bandai Namco’s game. That means, should the pattern hold, we could get the game sometime in January or February, maybe March at the latest. The wait would still be long, but as recent events have shown us, the last thing gamers need is another rushed-to-launch title.

Bandai Namco has been working hard to make its upcoming game special. They did a closed network test recently and then made it clear that anyone playing the “cracked” version of the title might face severe consequences for doing so.

More recently, at EVO 2023, they revealed two characters for the roster, including a fan-favorite and the “Peruvian Coffee Queen.” More reveals like this can be expected in the upcoming months.

The big question for the game is how grand they’ll go with the story. It’s only Jim and Kazuya left in the Mishima Clan, but with Jun now returning, things are going to get complicated.