BandaiNamco enlists Arika to handle Tekken 8 Online Development

During the Tekken World Tour Finals, Executive Director Katsuhiro Harada and Community Manager Michael Murray took to the stage to drop a brand new video showcasing the new mechanics and gameplay for Tekken 8. It was a pretty lengthy video clocking just under 40 minutes. Harada along with Game Director Kohei Ikeda went over the finer points of gameplay and their design philosophy for Tekken 8.

Before leaving the stage, they dropped the character trailer for the original femme fatale herself, Nina Williams. Sporting a new redesign, Nina has some new tricks in her arsenal. Her moveset now has some gunplay injected into the mix.

After the presentation was over, one thing that was omitted or at least not mentioned was online. Harada has been notoriously anti-rollback. His stance has been Rollback Netcode would not work for Tekken. However, it looks like he has changed his stance. BandaiNamco reported that Arika (Fighting EX Layer) has been hired to work on Tekken 8’s online infrastructure and Tekken 7’s ongoing maintenance (bug fixes, balancing, etc.)

https://www.bandainamcostudios.com/news/3343

Hopefully this partnership will improve the quality of Tekken 7 overall into the future and Tekken 8. It’s great that Tekken 8 will have better online support which is imperative for current gen fighting games.