Tekken director Harada: Unlockable characters worked for arcades, now outdated

“Outdated” would be how the director of the famed classic, Tekken, would describe the feature of unlockable characters in fighting games. Said Katsuhiro Harada, online play makes this “no longer useful.”

“Outdated” would be how the director of the famed classic, Tekken, would describe the feature of unlockable characters in fighting games. Said Katsuhiro Harada, online play makes this “no longer useful.”

“Why we locked the characters originally was that in the arcades, it was kind of to extend the life of the game by gradually unlocking characters,” said Harada. “And also with the home versions as well, because you can rent games or whatever; it was to protect us against that.

“That’s kind of outdated now though, especially with online play. If we were to have locked characters it would irritate a lot of people, to be playing against others online and to not have all the characters available. So I think it’s no longer useful.”

These comments were made at a Namco Bandai Europe event this week, in an interview with Videogamer.com.

Harada’s latest fighting game offering, Tekken 6 (PlayStation 3,Xbox 360, and PSP), is coming out in October 27, 2009 for the home consoles, and will feature 40 fighters in all — all available right from the start.

• Tekken 6: Exclusive Ganryu Trailer
• Tekken 6: Exclusive King Trailer
• Video interview: Katsuhiro Harada explains Tekken 6’s Scenario Campaign Mode
• Tekken 6 officially dated, pre-order goodies detailed
  

Via Videogamer