Street Fighter 2 Designer Is Co-Developing Tekken 8

2023 is looking like a big year for fighting games. Both Street Fighter and Tekken are supposed to release new games this year, setting up an interesting battle between the two giants. As it turns out, Tekken has got some help from the opposing side in developing its upcoming mainline entry.

Street Fighter 2 designer Akira Nishitani is co-developing Tekken 8 through his Arika video game company. Producer Katsuhiro Harada announced this news at the Tekken World Tour 2022 Global Finals. Hence, the upcoming fighting game will have some serious firepower behind it.

本日未明に公開された情報ですが、詳細は本日11時頃にHPにてリリースさせていただきます。

This information was released earlier today, but more details will be released on our website around 11:00 today.

— 株式会社アリカ公式アカウント (@arika_co_jp) February 5, 2023

One genre that played a key role in popularising games in arcades was fighting. Since the earlier days of gaming, the genre has been one of the most popular forms of gaming. The two franchises that have played the biggest part in further popularising fighting games are Tekken and Street Fighter.

It doesn’t matter what era you played games in, these titles have been culturally significant in every generation. From Street Fighter 2 to Tekken 7, both of these franchises have ruled the fighting genre. And, this battle is continuing all the way into 2023, as each series is getting a new mainline release.

Street Fighter 6 is going to come out on June 2, 2023, with an arcade version launching later. Even though Tekken 8 has no release date yet, Bandai Namco plans to release it in 2023. The hype for the ninth-generation titles from the legendary franchises is through the roof.

Beta testing of Street Fighter 6 has resulted in an amazing response from the fans. And, we are also finally hearing some new details about Tekken 8, including new gameplay details. Producer Katsuhiro Harada announced the return of Nina Williams in the main game after she left out of Tekken 7’s base version.

However, he also dropped an interesting tidbit during this showcase at Tekken World Tour 2022 Finals which really caught our attention. Game designer Michael Murray, who translates for Harada, announced that Akira Nishitani will be co-developing Tekken 8. The designer will be working on the game through his Arika game studio.

If you know anything about Nishitani, you will know that this is something to get excited about. Due to his work on Street Fighter 2, he is a legendary figure in the gaming industry. Nishitani was the designer of the 1991 Street Fighter game, which was an unprecedented success.

Street Fighter 2 is one of the best-selling and most impactful video games of all time. The game was the most successful fighting game of all time for 28 years until 2019 when Super Smash Bros.

Ultimate overtook it. With more than 15 million copies sold worldwide, the fighting game was a success beyond Capcom‘s wildest imagination.

However, the sales weren’t even Street Fighter 2’s best feature, it was how revolutionary it was. Its success popularised the genre and its new game mechanics became the standard for the industry. And, one of the men responsible for this magnum opus of fighting games was Akira Nishitani.

So, Tekken 8 is being developed by the man responsible for designing one of the most influential games of all time. If that doesn’t hype you up for the upcoming title, we don’t know what will. Nishitani’s company Arika will also help Bandai Namco with Tekken 7, so it’s a full-on collaboration.

We didn’t get any details about which part of the game Arika will help develop. Arika tweeted about the announcement on its official page and said more details will be revealed later. But, we are sure they can only make things better with Nishitani’s amazing track record.

Tekken 8 comes out on PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S on an unspecified date. Do you think the game will be an improvement over Tekken 7? Tell us in the comments below.