Katsuhiro Harada still wants to make Tekken happen on Nintendo.
Harada was asked about bringing Tekken 8 on the Switch 2 in an interview at this year’s EVO. He said this:
It’s an interesting option, and not totally off the table. But it would require a lot of work on the game to get it running on that hardware.
Harada continued: “From a business standpoint, [the Switch 2] is doing quite well, so it would be a very good business decision if you’re trying to get a bigger audience.
But the amount of work that would have to be done on the game makes it not a very easy decision. At this point in time, there are no… (laughs) There is nothing to announce.
The History Of Tekken And Nintendo
Older gamers will remember that Tekken is a lynchpin of the PlayStation platform, even if Sony never owned the game itself. Namco made the games for arcade and PlayStation consoles.
Originally, this was for Namco and Sony to compete with Sega and their 3D fighting game, Virtua Fighter. In time, Namco would bring Tekken games to Xbox, Nintendo, and PC. But fans saw that it took longer than necessary, and it could have hurt the game’s chances outside PlayStation.
Harada’s Frustration With Tekken On Nintendo
There’s a handful of Tekken games that came to Nintendo platforms, on the Game Boy Advance, 3DS, and the Wii U. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was reportedly particularly costly for Bandai Namco, as a Wii U launch title.
But then, Bandai Namco’s developers have a successful fighting game on Nintendo’s platforms. Their staff have been making the modern Super Smash Bros. games. Masahiro Sakurai and Nintendo tapped Bandai Namco staff to help make the games with them.
Harada himself was involved in some capacity. Sakurai’s relationship with Super Smash Bros. is the same as Harada’s relationship with Tekken. Beyond the business side of it, you can understand why Harada would be personally invested.
Bandai Namco would eventually bounce back on Wii U and Switch with Pokken, a Tekken-like 3D fighter using the Pokémon license. Pokken was a decent success, but no new Pokken games are planned or announced right now.
Bandai Namco had an even bigger and more recent fighting game success on the Switch: Dragon Ball FighterZ. This game was a huge commercial and critical success. That extended to Nintendo’s best-selling console as well.
Harada focused on the technical concerns of bringing Tekken 8 to the Switch 2. But the cost and effort to port the game isn’t really the biggest issue. The real issue is how do they get Nintendo fans to embrace this PlayStation-coded franchise?
But then again, Street Fighter 6 seems to have been highly successful as a Switch 2 launch game. Sega also announced they would bring Tekken’s old rival, Virtua Fighter, to the Switch 2. It will be the franchise’s groundbreaking first entry to a Nintendo platform. Maybe Bandai Namco just needs to see clearer evidence that Tekken 8 will be successful so they can greenlight that Switch 2 port. The Tekken team could definitely use a boost from finding a new playerbase.
