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It’s no secret that games are getting more expensive, and Katsuhiro Harada says that Tekken 8 costs three times as much to develop as its predecessor. The Tekken 8 Executive Producer brought this up in defense of the game’s live-service elements.
Tekken 8 Executive Producer Katsuhiro Harada defends microtransactions
Micro-transactions are a well-established practice that never stopped being controversial. It’s therefore unsurprising that Tekken 8’s live-service features created a lot of discourse online.
While some fans are highly critical of the practice, the conversation prompted Executive Producer Katsuhiro Harada to chime in with his own arguments. According to Harada, who‘s worked on the franchise since its inception, microtransactions are necessary in modern game development. He says they are the only way Bandai Namco and Arika can afford to support the game post-release.
“Development costs are now 10 times more expensive than in the 90s and more than double or nearly triple the cost of Tekken 7.”
He pointed out that Tekkan 8 is the first game to feature online play, which costs money to maintain. Harada also explained that the company needs microtransactions to pay for Tekken 8’s patches and updates.
However, he also had some choice words for one of Tekken 8’s critics.
“The economic situation and everything else is changing,” said Harada. “If we simply do nothing as he suggests, the game will simply stop running in a few months. I think that is what he wants. So there is no point in talking to him about these realities. He wants us to stop economic activity and stop updating and supporting the game.”
While Harada may speak for many publishers, there are a few recent counterexamples. Baldur’s Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 both saw multiple and extensive post-launch updates, and neither incorporated live-service elements. Granted, there is room for debate about how comparable those situations are to Tekken 8s. However, it’s understandable if some might feel like Harada is making excuses.