Tekken 8 Steam Reviews Drop to "Mostly Negative" Over Excessive Monetization
By this point, we all know how predatory sports games can be with their monetization. We also saw games like Diablo Immortal get their well-deserved turn in the pillory. But one genre that has somehow avoided widespread scrutiny are fighting games, despite often reaching the same heights of greed. With any luck, that’s about to change with the recent ire Tekken 8 has caused among its player base.
Tekken 8 Recent Steam Reviews Fall to Mostly Negative
It is now commonly accepted that new fighting games will have season passes, which commonly contain DLC characters, cosmetics and the like. I wish it wasn’t, because paying extra is often required to get legendary characters. In Tekken 8, for example, it’s the only way to play as fan-favorite Eddy Gordo. I feel like that would be bad enough. But then, well after launch, Bandai Namco have decided to also add a battle pass to the mix, as well as an in-game store. And they sneaked the announcement in the same live stream that introduced Eddy.
Mind you, this is for a full-priced game. The minimum you have to pay for entry is seventy dollars. That’s just for the base experience. Add to that the thirty-dollar season pass, and we’re up to a hundred bucks for a more complete experience. The battle pass (which, yes, also comes with a free version) was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The players have had enough. They’re expressing their anger the only way that’s really available to customers – by leaving bad reviews on Steam en masse.
At time of writing, the Recent Reviews category sits at Mostly Negative, with 37% positive reviews. All Reviews is still standing pretty at Mostly Positive, but that’s liable to change at this pace. Players are also organizing to lower Tekken 8’s score on PlayStation as well. Despite all this, the game is doing great as far as the player count goes. Which I understand, because it is a really good game mechanically. Crying shame it’s attached to all this baggage.
