« GameSpot Interview with Tekken Producer Katsuhiro Harada »

Maxwell McGee over at GameSpot put together a solid interview with Tekken Producer Katsuhiro Harada, picking his brain on a number of different topics. Harada has many insightful things to say when it comes to DLC, the future of fighting games in eSports and of course the Tekken franchise as a whole. There are also a few hints as to what to expect feature-wise with the console release of Tekken Tag Tournament 2. 

TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT 2 SCREENSHOTS

Check out a small excerpt after the break and read the entire interview by clicking here.

Do fighting games have a future in e-sports? Some feel this is a natural progression for the genre and the community, while others feel that they are unsuitable--because of the outspoken nature of the community--for professional tournaments and corporate sponsorship. How does Tekken Busters factor into this?

I think it is a natural progression for the players in the community who participate in tournaments. I also think that e-sports will continue to play a role, but it is hard to say with this specific genre whether it will increase or not. Unlike chess or actual sports, a game in an established series might change its rules at some point. The pace of the user base turnover (younger players coming in and older players going out) is quite different from genre to genre as well, so it's hard to say it will explode overnight. There are many aspects of e-sports that I am personally looking forward to, though.

Also, fighting games are thought of as hardcore, and that people who play them all participate in the tournament scene. However, looking at Tekken as an example shows this is not really the case. Tekken has sold 40 million copies to date, making it the top in its genre, but we learned that 70 percent of the player base doesn't participate in tournaments or events. If you look at SoulCalibur, 90 percent of people who bought the game have no interest in tournaments.