‘We apologize for not meeting the community’s expectations:’ Tekken 8 makes a rare acknowledgement of fan backlash after failing to include a $5 stage in its season pass Techy CEO

Tekken 8’s monetisation model has been landing Bandai Namco in hot water for a good chunk of this year. Sneaky cash shop introductions first drew fan ire back in February, with the more recent criticism coming as a result of the newest stage, Genmaji Temple, not being included with the game’s season pass. 

Instead, players were asked to cough up an additional $5 on top of the $40 Deluxe Edition Upgrade pack which includes the “Playable Character Year 1 Pass”. Note that you can’t actually buy this separately, only each character individually once the Deluxe Edition-specific 72-hour early access runs out.

After a slew of negative Steam reviews across both the stage’s DLC store page as well as for Tekken 8 itself—dragging the recent reviews down to a staggering Mostly Negative rating of 34%, while its all-time review rating sits at Mixed with 66% positive reviews—Bandai Namco is trying to make amends.

“We apologize for not meeting the community’s expectations for the “Playable Character Year 1 Pass” content and the “Genmaji Temple” DLC release method,” a tweet from the Tekken account reads. “After thoroughly discussing the feedback, the Tekken Project team has decided on the following measures:”

Folk who own the season pass will be given the upcoming winter stage for free. We don’t know what that stage will be yet as we’re still in the dark about the pass’ final character, though that’s something we’ll probably find out at the Tekken World Tour finals in early December. 

Anyone who logs in during October 29 and November 26 will also be given 500 Tekken coins regardless of whether they own the pass or Genmaji Temple. The coins are worth the same price as the stage—though you’ll still need to actually buy that with real money—but can also be put together with the 100 free coins from the fight pass to purchase the premium track, if you wanted to.

It’s a small win for fans who’ve been pushing back against some of the more egregious monetary decisions that have been implemented in Tekken 8 recently, though I presume the goodwill only extends as far as the upcoming stage. It’d be nice to see future stages bundled in with the pass, as they were in Tekken 7, but I’m not holding my breath.