Long interview: Harada looks back at the 5 years of Tekken 7

It's been a long time hasn't it? Tekken 7 saw it's initial gameplay debut back in the location tests of October 2014, but would eventually 'pre-launch' in February 2015 with an official launch a month later. In commemoration of Tekken 7's 5th anniversary, Dengeki Online talks to Katsuhiro Harada in this enormous single page interview on a wide range of topics. Subjects to expect; Post-launch support for the title, arcade adoption with the online network, collaborations, balancing characters, Tekken's low points, on spreading Tekken globally etc etc. He even explains why a Wing Chun character has finally arrived after all this time. This interview is huge so this page will run a machine translation on the entire thing so don't expect everything to be ad-verbatim, but I say this mostly came out decent so it's worth posting. In case of any inaccuracies, the original source in Japanese is here and prevails:

Dengeki Online Source ≫ https://dengekionline.com/articles/28096/

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Tekken 7 Dev Diary: Leroy Smith & Fahkumram

Tekken 7 Director Nakatsu and Producer Michael Murray sit down to discuss the two new faces of Tekken 7 in Season Pass 3. From the conception of the character designs to the motion capture of the real world martial arts, to even the music featured in the reveal trailers, the head figures behind Season 3 share all the interesting behind-the-scene details in bringing these characters to life. Check out the latest dev diary now available for viewing over on the Bandai Namco US YouTube channel:

Bandai Namco Entertainment America ≫ https://www.youtube.com/user/NamcoBandaiGames

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SoulCalibur VI Director and Producer talk Haohmaru, Season 2 and future updates

A SoulCalibur VI interview with the game's producer Motohiro Okubo and director Yoshinori Takahashi has recently been published on the SoulCalibur Community website. Kayane managed to ask them both a lot of questions during EVO Japan so the interview goes long on a number of topics like how Haohmaru plays in SC6, what upcoming updates are coming to the game, adding frame data to the game and even the possibility of a Nintendo Switch port. I'll have some snippets of the interview posted below but be sure to read the interview in full over at the SoulCalibur Community webpage:

Kayane's interview from EVO Japan 2020 ≫ https://soulcaliburcommunity.com/evo-japan-2020-kayane-interviews-soulcalibur-vi-producer-and-director/

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Tekken 7 Season Pass 3 does not include any guest characters

Sorry Kazuma Kiryu or Tifa Lockhart fans, come back next season. Talking with Shacknews/GamerHubTV, Tekken 7's producer Michael Murray explained that the remaining two characters (I don't know why they were talking like there was only one left) in Season Pass 3 are not guest characters. As Murray says, the end slate used in the Season 3 roadmap image doesn't have a specific slot with a custom effect which normally indicates the presence of a unique guest fighter. With that said, the Wing Chun fighter Leroy Smith is on his way and we get a small back-and-forth on what to expect from his fighting style. To hear more about the Season 3 DLC from Murray, check out the video interview over on the GamerHubTV YouTube page.

Shacknews ≫ https://www.shacknews.com/article/113984/tekken-7-interview-zafina-leroy-smith-and-season-3-dlc

GamerHubTV ≫ https://www.youtube.com/user/GamerHubVideos/

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What's next Harada: evolving the fighting game genre and Esports

It's that time of the year again where E3 takes place, and although there isn't anything new to present for the Tekken or SoulCalibur side of things, figureheads from Bandai Namco were in attendance once again to do an E3 coliseum panel with Geoff Keighley. The panel for this year is focused on the strengths of Fighting games in the Esports business, but similar to the interview from last year, Geoff is slightly awkward since he doesn't have a FG background and throws out his ideas on where they could go or evolve into that might not really resonate with those inside the community. Video archive of the 'Strength of Fighting Games in Esports' session is now available for people to catch up over on YouTube. I also have a written transcript of the panel added down below so feel free to read that if you want to skip most of the 'soooo, uhhh, anooo' air time.

• E3 Coliseum Host: Geoff Keighley
• Tekken Franchise Director: Katsuhiro Harada
• Tekken Franchise Producer: Michael Murray
• TEKKEN 7 & SOULCALIBUR VI Brand Manager: Mark Religioso
• Senior Esports Specialist BNEA: Cesar Solorio

The Strength of Fighting Games in Esports ≫ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkMEc-cIGdg

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