Several issues have constantly been pointed out since Tekken 8’s launch. Why and how have they affected the viewership of streams and tournaments?

To begin with, a game selling 2 million copies in three weeks is not really something that happens if it’s a bad game. There is no doubt that this new instalment of the Tekken series is one of the best, if not the best, versions by far. Its Metascore is a whopping 90, which classifies it as a “universally acclaimed” game, and over 80 percent of Steam users have rated the game as very positive. 

“Tekken was definitely at its peak in the first few months of its release. I had never seen the game been so popular in my 10 years of experience,” says Ulsan, a Korean Tekken streamer and pro player playing for Kwangdong Freecs. “It’s always exciting to see so many beginners learning the game. Streamers and pro players like me were really occupied in the early days making content for beginners and coaching fellow streamers.” 

According to Ulsan, there was a dramatic increase of beginner players and the overall viewership of his streams and national tournaments, compared to Tekken 7. This was mainly due to the new instalment’s enhanced graphics, more vivid scene production and the addition of the ‘Heat’ system which made the game more aggressive and fast paced.  

“The introduction of the heat system has made the game more entertaining because of the fast pace of each round and its vivid animations,” Ulsan says. “Tekken 7 was all about guarding, and a round usually lasted the whole 60 seconds. Where’s the fun in that? On the other hand, Tekken 8 definitely has a fast and satisfying taste with each round closing quickly because people focus more on hitting their moves first rather than trying to block the opponent’s.”

Moreover, Tekken 8 introduced newbie-friendly features within the game, playing a big part in solving the entry barrier. Such features include the Tekken lounge, the practice mode and replay functions which have been enhanced from the previous versions.  

“It’s really difficult to make the new version of a game distinct to the older one and not make too many changes at the same time. I think Bandai Namco did a successful job on this, and they also made the game generally fun to play,” Meo-IL, who is also a Korean streamer and pro, says.  “There’s so much content to make from the new features of the instalment. So it’s better for not only the players but for content creators as well.”

Overall, yes Tekken 8 is a great game that lived up to its expectations. Well, almost. Unfortunately, anything quoted or said above praising the game are remarks that do not take into account the issues faced by Tekken 8 users. “There are so many things that need improvement in Tekken 8,” Ulsan says. “These issues are why people are starting to not play or watch Tekken. It’s heartbreaking when I see streams showing less than half of the viewers they used to have.” 

Some of the most annoying problems with Tekken 8 are its netcode and glitches. A netcode is the communication between the player and the server. As Wi-Fi is usually unstable or weaker compared to the ethernet, Wi-Fi users will likely experience lag or input drops. The people who are against these users will also experience lag. The problem with Tekken’s netcode is that the degree of this lag is out of control. Players in that game will experience extreme lag and the game will be played in slow motion or in the worst-case scenario, just unplayable. 

Chanel, a Tekken pro player for DRX, says this has been a bigger issue than it was in the previous version: “Tekken’s netcode has constantly been an issue, but it’s even worse than Tekken 7. It’s definitely something that needs work on ASAP.” 

Another problem that makes the Tekken experience unpleasant are bugs and glitches. And yes, bugs are not something unique to Tekken; in fact, they can probably be found in just any other game. However, there is an excessive number of bugs in Tekken 8, big or small; some are actually game-breaking and can be abused to earn ranks. 

The most infamous bug that used to be an issue ever since the launch of the game was the horrible glitch in Victor’s grab. The normal grab would give you about 0.33 seconds to react and push your buttons, but Victor’s grab only gave you 0.23 seconds. Considering that the human reaction is limited to 0.2 seconds, it’s basically impossible to break free without reading your opponent’s mind.

Despite being a famous issue since the release of the game, it was not dealt with for over a month. By the time it got fixed, it was only after numerous non-Victor players had already suffered from people spamming it. “We sometimes joke about Tekken 8 currently being in early access mode, because there are just so many glitches that Bandai does not attend to as soon as possible,” Ulsan says.  

Surprisingly, the problems mentioned above do not even come close to the seriousness of the final issue, which is character balancing. Until just a few weeks ago, two characters dominated the entire Tekken scene, whether that be a casual amateur game or a pro-level match: Azucena and Dragunov. 

Meo-IL says, “Azucena and Dragunov were almost the only characters ever picked in the professional scene for a long time. Viewers will get bored if that’s all they are going to see on their screens.” 

Both characters simultaneously showed both high pick rates and win rates, which is pretty mind-blowing considering that a lot of new players will also have played the characters and must have contributed to a lot of their losses. Also, when asked on the top 3 characters that are overpowered in the current meta, every interviewee included these two specific characters in their list.  

“There were so many days where I found myself against Azucena in the majority of my games, and it sometimes stressed me out,” Meo-IL says. “To be fair, any other game with a competitive element also suffers from the unequal balances, but they usually try to mediate this with regular patches every two weeks or so.” 

There is a reason Meo-IL is saying this, because Tekken 8’s first big balancing patch took place on May 8th, which is over three months after its release, and this is not something that usually happens in the majority of other games with competitive elements.  

As a result of the issues above, especially character balancing, the viewership of tournaments almost halved and the concurrent player statistics on Steam quartered from almost 50k users to an average of 12k.  

So the question would now be: did the patch even change anything? To make a long story short, it was successful in dethroning the two most overpowered characters and managed to make some of the weakest characters, such as Leroy and Zafina, strong enough to compete with the others. “I’m relieved to see that Bandai actually seems to care about the game now, because I remember them patching once or twice in a year back in Tekken 7,” says Meo-IL. 

He is also seeing a lot of people returning to the game after the patch was shipped. He says, “Since the patch, I’ve seen a noticeable number of viewers increasing in my stream and other streams, not to mention the tournament viewership slowly recovering as well. I’m glad a lot of people are considering coming back and that’s what really motivates me to do my job.”

Ulsan agrees that Azucena and Dragunov are no longer ridiculously out of control. However, he thinks the balancing issue still has a way to go before it becomes satisfactory. “Although not as OP as the previous Azucena or Dragunov, there are still a few characters that are way too powerful, like Lili, Yoshimitsu, Nina or Victor. Even when Dragunov has been nerfed, it’s still better than most characters. 

“It’s understandable because it’s almost impossible to perfectly balance characters in fighting games. But I would still like to see less of a power gap than how it is now, and I strongly believe that doing this will bring back the Tekken scene to the popularity it had in the early months of the release.” 

As such, the potential that Tekken 8 holds as a video game is definitely unparalleled to any other instalment in the franchise, but there is certainly still a way to go. Although Bandai did release a recent patch, we will have to wait and see if it will be enough to bring the game back.