Katsuhiro Harada planned to end Tekken 7 support after Season 2, here's how the community changed that
Tekken 7 launched in arcades clear back in 2015, but despite being nearly six years old, it still boasts a surprising amount of momentum. The game dropped on consoles a whole two years later, has seen three seasons of DLC content with a fourth on the horizon, and recently crossed the 6 million units sold mark.
During his recent interview with 876TV, Bandai Namco General Manager, Katsuhiro Harada, admitted that he didn't originally have plans to support the game beyond its second season.
"I was thinking of just ending it at Season 2," the producer says from behind his ever present black sunglasses. "I didn't have a business plan or strategy for it. I had nothing backing it. I had no funds, too."
Obviously, success is going to factor in greatly when it comes to the much more dynamic, modern approach to fighting games "as a service." Not only did fans continue to fork over cash for new content, but also wound up holding a plethora of tournaments that helped massively bolster the more viewer-centric eSports entertainment side of Tekken.
While Bandai Namco's Tekken World Tour was nothing to scoff at to begin with, the decision in 2019 to add "Dojo events" wound up being an incredibly good call. Said events could be held wherever there was a local scene large enough to form a 16-player bracket, and exploded across the globe with more than 100 scheduled shortly after the 2019 World Tour was announced.
"It was introduced with the concept of making up to only Season 2," continues Harada. "But when it was released, the sales increased with it, the number of tournaments increased exponentially."
He goes on to note how there was much chatter about whether or not support would continue, often with specific regard to new characters and moves. Said chatter evolved more from question to assumption, however, and with the number of active users holding strong, the choice to keep going became obvious.
There's plenty more to the interview with 876TV, with the bit about continuing support beyond Season 2 starting around the 8:17 mark.
