Few gaming franchises can hold a candle to the Tekken series. It has lasted several consoles and stretched across four decades. However, with so many installments and storylines across this franchise, many avid fans wonder what to expect from the next chapter, which will be released in 2024. It’ll have been nearly a decade since Tekken 7 when Tekken 8 hits our screens. There have been startling innovations and growth within this period. This doesn’t just apply to console gaming like Tekken but gaming across the board, where players can go online and head-to-head in tournaments.
Tekken 8 will feature heavily in many eSports tournaments upon its release. It is immensely popular and one of the best one-to-one games you can play in terms of pure competition. As poker fans, for example, have the ability to check out the upcoming tournaments with just one click, the same way eSports brings interconnectivity to the gaming community.
The Origin of Tekken
Namco first penciled up the idea of Tekken in 1994. Astonishingly, Tekken 8 will signal the thirtieth anniversary of the incredible fighting game. It has seen many changes and shipped tens of millions of units, making it one of the top-selling games ever. Not many games have the longevity or mass appeal of Tekken. Although the first installment was well received, the second and third installments became highly acclaimed, breaking the gaming series into the mainstream. Gamers who preferred other genres were purchasing Tekken to find out what all the hype was about, and they were not disappointed.
With 25 years passing since Tekken 2, the fact that the game has remained so popular is a testament to how well the games are constructed. Given the hype around Tekken 8, we imagine this will be yet another incredibly successful chapter.
Tekken 8 – A Landmark Release
As discussed in our last section, it’ll be 30 years since Tekken first hit the shelves of gaming stores worldwide. Unreal Engine is one of the most innovative companies anywhere in gaming, so much so that it has expanded across film and television. Unreal Engine 5 came out in 2020 to widespread acclaim. With such incredible, lifelike graphics, many gaming companies are desperate to have Unreal Engine design their game. Tekken 8 will be the first fighting game that utilizes Unreal Engine 5, and this is a cause for serious excitement.
It is set for release across several gaming consoles, notably the PlayStation 5 and XBOX Series X. Tekken has traveled a long way since the early days of Namco. However, the core of the game and the story have remained linear and consistent. Characters like Jack and King, Paul Phoenix, Kazuya Mishima, and Nina Williams are constants throughout the Tekken franchise, which remains the same for Tekken 8. However, given the incredible advances in computer graphics and gaming design, expect enhancements in the character’s appearance and movement.
Is Hype Justified?
We would say so, yes. When an established, highly reputable, and revered gaming company has another franchise installment lined up after an almost ten-year layoff, this is a cause for excitement. The utilization of Unreal Engine’s latest technology, combined with the original characters and an exciting storyline that will see updated and revamped versions of Tekken stalwarts like Jack, has plenty of reason to be excited. However, if you don’t believe us, look at the recently released trailer, which provides a scintillating taste of what is to come.
Although there has been limited news about what new characters to expect or what the online battleground will look like since eSports is a multi-billion-dollar sector and has expanded massively since Tekken 7, the game has a key focus on online battlegrounds and eSports tournaments. Before we see snippets or teasers of more advanced gameplay, there’s still a long way to go, and these huge games take time to perfect. Namco will be working hard to keep this under wraps, given that the recent Grand Theft Auto leak caused so much damage to the brand and has set the project back immeasurably.
Perhaps a similar leak wouldn’t damage the Tekken brand too much, as we know what we are getting and how the game generally works. However, Namco will be very keen to avoid this eventuality regardless.
With so many big games projected for release in 2024, it can be easy to lose track of the smaller ones on the horizon. However, Tekken 8 falls outside that category. Instead, it is a franchise that is so dominant in the gaming industry that people worldwide will keep a close eye on any news. As we get closer to the release date, the anticipation of one of the greatest fighting games of all time finally returning to our screens will be news that will begin to gain momentum.
