Where are we going from here?
Tekken 7 ended its fourth season of content this week with the release of Lidia Sobieska, which now makes players wonder what the future of the fighting game holds.
One fan in particular decided to go to the source to try to find an answer if Tekken 7 or Soul Calibur 6 will receive additional DLC, and Katsuhiro Harada gave an answer on the matter.
Since he obviously is not going to announce the 5th season of Tekken on Twitter by himself, the head of Bandai Namco gives a very open answer about how they are handling the game.
“Hello. First of all, our plan was to finish it in season 2, but it didn’t end in season 2 (the whole market has changed to tend to play the title longer than it used to be),” wrote Harada on Twitter. “… so I don’t know about the future.”
Hi.
First of all, our plan was to complete it in season 2, but it didn’t end in season 2 (the whole market has changed and tends to play the title longer than it used to be).
… So, I don’t know about the future.https: //t.co/gCVi9flSSS– Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) March 27, 2021
With the release of Lidia just a few days ago, it would be credible that a potential Season 5 would not have the green light yet for the superiors, although Harada certainly has a game plan for both scenarios.
Many felt since the start of the 4th season announcement that this last pass could be the last, as it featured fewer characters and content compared to the others with just two fighters, stages and technically the updated network code.
Whatever the Tekken team’s next project, it is almost certainly well under way in the development phase, especially considering how relatively small Season 4 was, although it all comes down when Bamco decides to pull the trigger.
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are now available, so we are completely open to the next generation of fighting games that will enter the scene, although so far there have only been versions.
Harada specifically said in the past that the arrival of new hardware is perhaps the best opportunity to sell more fighting games, as most major developers have just released one new entry per console generation.
There is a good point to be made, however, to continue to support Tekken 7 with more content for now, as the game has managed to reach 7 million copies sold with the last million coming in the last 6 months or more.
People are still playing Tekken 7. People are still buying Tekken 7, so it would make sense if Bandai Namco wanted to come out in an end-of-season explosion like Street Fighter 5 is currently running.
Soul Calibur 6’s prospects of receiving a third season are less likely to happen for some reasons.
Unlike Tekken and Dragon Ball FighterZ, Bandai Namco never said exactly how much SC6 managed to sell even two and a half years later, which is not exactly the most promising sign.
We are currently almost four months removed from Hwang’s release as the most recent, without much talking about the game. Bandai Namco previously said that Hwang would be the last character before portraying that statement
All of Bandai Namco’s main fighting games have nothing announced on the horizon, so we are completely in the dark whether the publisher is ready to move on or continue to support what is here now.
Dragon Ball FighterZ was specifically mentioned to be planned for more balance updates this year, although they didn’t say anything about the content for that either.
It also points to other things that Harada has been talking about recently, including the difficulties of developing fighting games on the modern scene and how he thinks no one can make a great fighting game for $ 10 million anymore.