Bandai Namco teases new ‘Tekken’ game with Evo 2022 clip

Bandai Namco has shared a brief teaser video at Evo 2022 which suggests a new Tekken game is on the way.

Tekken 8 hasn’t been officially announced, nor has it been named, but a short teaser shown at the event features the infamous cutscene of Kazuya launching Heihachi from a clifftop, which was originally from the 1994 PlayStation game.

Instead of ending in the usual spot, where Kazuya’s smile is the last thing we see, the screen is distorted by static and an aged, more blemished version of Kazuya appears, sporting the red eye he gained in Tekken 4 as a result of a run-in with the devil. “Get ready” appears on the screen to close the teaser.

Whilst suggestions of a remake have been circulating for some time, the aged Kazuya seems to put to bed those rumours.

With Tekken 7 being the best selling game in the series after releasing in 2015 and receiving a PC port in 2017, what Bandai Namco can do to top that with Tekken 8 remains to be seen.

Speaking to PC Gamer in 2017, series director Katsuhiro Harada touched on whether a new instalment in the series was inevitable. “If the game is released and the players really seem to like 7 and want to see more in the same vein perhaps [a continually updated live-service platform] could happen,” he said, before going on to state that “It could be that we release the game and at some point decide to change a lot of the game so much so that it warrants an 8 or a number change.”

This year’s Evolution Championship Series (Evo), which took place from August 5 to 7, featured several other fighting game announcements – including publisher SNK revealing a new Fatal Fury instalment at the event.

Capcom also used a spot at Evo 2022 to reveal two new additions to the Street Fighter 6 roster.