• News

Tekken 8 will be the first game in the series to feature crossplay

Katsuhiro Harada confirmed over the weekend that Tekken 8 will include crossplay at launch, which is a first for the franchise.

TJ Denzer

April 10, 2023 9:45 AM

Image via Bandai Namco

1

Tekken 8 is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious entries the franchise has ever seen, and added to that ambition is the inclusion of crossplay on Day One. Franchise director Katsuhiro Harada answered questions over the weekend related to the game, one of them being about crossplay in the new game. To this, Harada confirmed that crossplay would indeed be part of Tekken 8 at launch, allowing players to play against each other on Xbox, PC, or PlayStation without any qualms.

Harada dropped this detail during an impromptu AMA hosted on his personal Twitter on April 9, 2023. When asked if players could get crossplay in Tekken 8, Harada confirmed that was always going to be the case. In fact, it was something he wanted in the franchise before Tekken 8, but it sounds like he couldn’t get Sony and Microsoft on board to play nice:

“Crossplay? Of course it will,” Harada wrote. “By the way, when the previous generation consoles were released, I had already proposed crossplay between the two platforms. However, at that time, they were at odds with each other over their mutual interests (and P2P security issues), and repeatedly refused.”

We’ve certainly heard tales in the past of either Xbox or PlayStation (mostly PlayStation) not coming to the table with crossplay for one reason or another. However, sentiments have changed heavily in the last few years and now we regularly see crossplay as a feature between Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and even Nintendo Switch on games like Rocket League, Fortnite, and many more popular titles. Guilty Gear Strive also just got crossplay with its Xbox launch and Street Fighter 6 is said to be launching with it.

The times have certainly changed since Tekken 7 came out, but it looks like Tekken 8 should hardly have issues with Sony and Microsoft when it comes to bringing crossplay to the game. With so much left to learn before its launch in 2024, stay tuned for more details here at Shacknews.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.