Posted Jul 02, 2009 at 06:41PM by Mabie A. Listed in: News, Games, Opinions & Analysis, Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion Tags: Tekken, Katsuhiro Harada, Europe, Namco Bandai
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Tekken 6 arcade - Image 1"Outdated" would be how the director of the famed classic, Tekken, would describe the feature of unlockable characters in fighting games. Said Katsuhiro Harada, online play makes this "no longer useful."

"Why we locked the characters originally was that in the arcades, it was kind of to extend the life of the game by gradually unlocking characters," said Harada. "And also with the home versions as well, because you can rent games or whatever; it was to protect us against that.

"That's kind of outdated now though, especially with online play. If we were to have locked characters it would irritate a lot of people, to be playing against others online and to not have all the characters available. So I think it's no longer useful."

These comments were made at a Namco Bandai Europe event this week, in an interview with Videogamer.com.

Harada's latest fighting game offering, Tekken 6 (PlayStation 3,Xbox 360, and PSP), is coming out in October 27, 2009 for the home consoles, and will feature 40 fighters in all -- all available right from the start.



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6 Comments


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   by slackbabbath - 2009-07-02
 » uhm, no?

Yeah, that's a shame. I completely disagree. Unlocking a new character after you beat the game with another was one of the most satisfying things in Tekken. It increases longevity, and makes you want to play through it even more. "Hey, let's beat it with so-and-so-lame-character to see what we can unlock THIS time!" It was great. Now there's going to be no extra replay value aside from what fighting games already bring you...

   by rollypoly - 2009-07-02
 » i call bull*****

it wasn't about longevity of the game itself, it was about getting people to spend more by pumping in quarters... so longevity of the revenue stream maybe...

now DLC has replaced "more quarters" as the money maker.

if unlockables were outdated... whats with all this pre-order crap huh? i'm sure it annoys more than just me... so why don't they stop doing it? oh yeah, MONEY! b/c they don't want me picking up the game for a reasonable price used and still enjoying it fully...

   by TheRockness - 2009-07-02
 » Its great!

I always thought it was a pain in the ass to beat the arcade mode 20+ times. There's no fun in that. Playing against real people is where its at.

Unlocking characters isn't only outdated, its lame. It would be better to just unlock costumes for pulling off x number of combo's in an online vs match, or other predetermined actions specific to each character.

   by NarooN - 2009-07-02
 » ?

I didn't beat Arcade mode 50 times to unlock characters, I did it too see all of the character's endings. Before you ever even got half-way done with all the endings, you'd have everyone unlocked anyway, so longevity my ass. The fun out of fighting games, for me, came from playing against my friends/family as well as complete strangers. Hell, there will probably still be *some* secret characters to unlock./

   by victorinox - 2009-07-02
 » well...

i dont think anything in the article is true, as per the reasons, but i do feel Unlocking has just evolved... and its a sad evolution

it was originally, do ____ get ____
then it was cheat codes for secret/special fights whom are locked *like akuma in children of the atom*
now a days, their still locked, but the key is Downloadable content... and the JUST DEPRESSING preorder at ___ get this, or go here for ____, etc

since just about every game with DLC, uses them as a key to unlock this or that, thats either on the disc, or in a patch... reguardless its there... though i dont believe DLC is really a scam, i do believe its becoming the Developers way to "even the field" and its getting tiring, supporting them to be screwed by DLC =


   Re: TheRockness - 2009-07-03
 » I believe its a scam when...

You purchase a game with content they make you pay to unlock. Not a DLC, but really not having access to code that already exists on the disc, without paying more money. That really irritates me. Any time I buy some DLC for a game and its 100k I feel conned.


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