Last month Tekken 8 added a store. Now the game is ploughing further into microtransaction with the introduction of a Tekken Fight Pass feature. The tiered feature allows players to obtain more items by completing daily and weekly missions and online matches.
The coming of Tekken Fight Pass was revealed by the game’s developer in a recent Tekken Talk stream. Tekken Fight Pass is highly similar to Battle Passes in live service games. There will be a free tier and a paid Premium tier whose “items are even more luxurious” including the chance to earn Tekken coins which can be spent in Tekken Shop.
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Some players who already paid $70 for the base game are not happy with the development. Live service games with microtransactions are usually priced below the $70 tag for standard editions. After the launch of the game on January 26, Bandai Namco added microtransactions to it about a month later including a Shop where players spend real money to purchase items.
“Disappointed,” said a YouTube user k3kskuchen under the Tekken Talk stream. “Would have never bought the Collector’s Edition had I known that you guys would patch in a microtransaction shop AND Battle Passes. At least Street Fighter 6 had the decency to say this upfront. You should be ashamed.”
In a subreddit titled “A f2p model in a full priced game is beyond scummy”, Odd-Parking6571 wrote, “I personally purchased/pre-ordered ultimate edition believing I would get all the DLC content with the season pass. They were dishonest and lied, they always knew there was going to be a Tekken shop and battle pass but yet spoon-fed it to the community because they knew there would have been a backlash if they told us from the beginning.”
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Interestingly, not everyone thinks microtransactions in games are a bad thing. Under the YouTube stream, a user with the handle @AfroDominus thinks microtransaction is the only way for developers to keep offering fresh content to a game and that no game with constant updates can survive without microtransactions.
“Without micro transactions or battle pass it’s very difficult for a game to survive in these modern days as long as they don’t keep making fireworks that are gone after 10 uses then I guess I will decide with my wallet,” wrote @AfroDominus.
Tekken is not the only fighting game that has received backlash for microtransactions. Virtually all the major fighting games have gotten new installments since last year including Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 6. However, they have all been criticized for the same problem; microtransactions.
Mortal Kombat 1 was criticized after it launched a seasonal Halloween fatality update that cost $12 to unlock. Street Fighter 6 was also criticized for its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover event that cost around $100 to unlock all its content which includes cosmetics, emotes, accessories, stamps, and more.
Tekken is getting a flurry of updates
Bandai Namco continues to reveal new characters for Tekken 8. Eddy Gordo is the first DLC character that will be added to the roster on April 1 for season pass subscribers while everyone else will get the character on April 4.
Three more characters are scheduled to be added in summer, autumn, and winter to complete the game’s Season 1 character update. Gordo is a popular character in the franchise and first appeared in Tekken 3.
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Tekken 7 launched on consoles with 36 characters but 14 more were added over four DLC seasons including guest fighters like Geese Howard from Fatal Fury, Noctis from Final Fantasy 15, and Nean from The Walking Dead. More characters will likely be added to the Tekken 8 roster as the season progresses.
It was also reported that Tekken 8 is adding a feature that will punish those who disconnect mid-match, a technique that some players often use to avoid defeat. The update was praised by those who felt irritated by the behavior.
