‘Tekken 7’ Update: Developers Taking eSports Scene Into Account For Home Version Release

The team behind the "Tekken" franchise at Bandai Namco are apparently ramping up the development of the home version of "Tekken 7," with the game being developed with plans to enter it into the swiftly booming eSports scene.

Michael Murray, the usual translator for "Tekken" producer Katsuhiro Harada and a game designer for Bandai Namco's Tekken Project team, recently spoke with Tekken Gamer, as reported by Attack Of The Fanboy. In the interview, Murray revealed some details coming to the enhanced version of "Tekken 7" for the consoles and the PC.

When the subject of tournaments was brought up, Murray was asked about the prospect of a closer relationship between eSports and "Tekken" with the upcoming "Tekken 7." Despite fighting games being one of the most longstanding examples of competitive playing in video games, the genre has only actually entered the official eSports industry recently.

Although fighting game tournaments have been going on for decades already, with this year's EVO 2016 being held just last July, the concept as a whole has remained relatively disconnected. As one of the most iconic franchises in the genre, "Tekken" is surprisingly late to the scene, although the home version of "Tekken 7" might change that.

Murray explained that the Tekken Project team have actually taken "quite a lot" of influence from eSports into designing some aspects and mechanics of "Tekken 7." Explaining that although the only ones who can actually go and visit competitions like EVO are him and Harada, they always try to "take back ideas about how to improve the game to make it more exciting" for its presence during those types of events.

Some of the "Tekken 7" mechanics that resulted from incorporating the idea of eSports into the development process are "Critical Arts, the dynamic camera work, and slow motion when trading blows." Murray said this is because while playing "Tekken" is great for those actually at the controller or holding the stick, spectators "are often left out of the excitement" and so the developers essentially increased the wow-factor for "Tekken 7."

Already released to arcades in Japan, an updated version of "Tekken 7" titled "Tekken 7: Fated Retribution" will be released for the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4, and the PC in 2017.