It’s no secret that the budgets for AAA video games today are enormous compared to past titles, even ones released on the previous generation. Tekken 8 producer Katsuhiro Harada says that the budget for its latest fighting game cost at least twice as much as Tekken 7, even going as far as saying triple the cost.
Tekken 7 released in 2017 so it’s crazy to think that video game budgets have spiralled so far out of control in a matter of a few years. While Harada didn’t give an exact number for the budget of Tekken 8, he did estimate that it was around double or triple the cost of Tekken 7. “Development costs are now 10 times more expensive than in the 90’s and more than double or nearly triple the cost of Tekken 7. Even the Fight Lounge servers are costly to maintain,” said Harada on Twitter/X in response to a fan debating the addition of the Tekken Shop in the game.
Harada continued:
“In the past there weren’t so many specs and there wasn’t online. Plus they didn’t have such high resolution and high definition. Now, So many people want the game to run and be supported for a long time. It costs money to continually update the game for that reason. However, he probably only keeps good memories of the old games he experienced as a boy and does not pay attention to these changing times and increasing costs. The economic situation and everything else is changing. If we simply do nothing as he suggests, the game will simply stop running in a few months. I think that is what he wants. So there is no point in talking to him about these realities. He wants us to stop economic activity and stop updating and supporting the game.”
Tekken 8 is available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Source: Katsuhiro Harada
