We’ve talked quite a bit over the last 13 months about Tekken 8 and how it went from an “incredibly impressive fighting game” to one being mired in controversy. The biggest controversy within the game is how the title started out with minimal microtransactions and then, a month after release, became inundated with them. That got fans talking about how Bandai Namco “hid the microtransactions to start” so that the game could get good reviews, ensuring people buy it, only to milk players for money later on. The microtransactions didn’t end there, though, as it went to the DLC, where characters and stages were separated, causing even more controversy.
Along every step of the way, players have called out what they felt was “bad taste” or “bad faith” by Bandai Namco, but yesterday, when the new Season 2 DLC trailer was shown off and revealed Anna Williams as the first DLC character in the pack, fans went of fin a different way. Many criticized the new look for Anna Williams and asked for her old model back. And that’s when Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada entered the fight and decided to go off on those people. Don’t believe us? Here’s the tweet:
A key part of that tweet was when he noted:
“Either way, your method of expressing your opinion and the content of your argument are entirely unconstructive, utterly pointless, and, above all, disrespectful to the other Anna fans who are genuinely looking forward to her.”
To be fair to both sides, it’s natural that a “revamped look of a character” doesn’t resonate with others, however, we’ve already seen comments that some are totally fine with her look. Some even quoted Harada’s above tweet to state that they are happen with how it looks.
When others tried to add to the negativity, including saying that Tekken 8 has been swarmed with negative feedback by fans and that the data proves it, Harada said the person would be muted and:
“One more thing—stop making counterarguments based on your baseless assumptions. It only exposes your shallow values and lack of intelligence. If you don’t like something, you don’t have to buy it, you don’t have to comment, and you can simply leave.”
So, yeah, Harada decided to “choose violence” today, and part of his reasoning is fair. You shouldn’t go after fans like this just because they don’t like a character’s design. However, you do have the right to defend yourself online because you think people are insulting your team’s work.
We’ll add this as the latest chapter in the game’s complicated history.
