The community actively disagrees with the decision to sell fighting stages.
Heihachi Mishima returns to fighting action with TEKKEN 8 update 1.08, and the character arrives with some extra content. Players can experience a new story episode, Unforgotten Echoes, which explains the mystery of Heihachi’s disappearance. Also, Genmaji Temple is a new stage in TEKKEN 8. It's where Heihachi trained his new abilities. However, why are people unhappy about it?
While the stage itself is good enough to just play on it and have a lot of fun, the method of delivering Genmaji Temple disappointed the community. Even Katsuhiro Harada himself, the game director and “father” of TEKKEN, had to publicly apologize.
How good is Genmaji Temple in TEKKEN 8?
Nothing bad or specifically good can be said about this stage. Genmaji Temple in TEKKEN 8 looks visually great — like all the other stages do. Whether you like the aesthetics or not comes down to personal preference.
Genmaji Temple has some practical features. TEKKEN 8 is a 3D fighting game, and pressing opponents to the wall allows for a lot of damaging combos. The size of a game stage may vibe nicely with specific characters and individual playing styles. Only time spent on Genmaji Temple will show how good the stage is for your active roster and your fighting habits.
In general, there are no complaints about the stage itself. The Genmaji Temple controversy is strictly about the stage being a purchasable one. People want to have it for free, like it was with the previous TEKKEN 8 DLC stage, Sea Side Resort.
The cost of Genmaji Temple
Purchasable stages are not new to the fighting games industry. Usually, they come with character passes — for instance, Guilty Gear Strive Season Pass 4 includes two DLC stages. In Street Fighter 6, you can unlock stages for in-game currency, and it’s easy to earn it by just playing online. Pao Pao Cafe 6 is connected with the Street Fighter 6 Terry Bogard update, and it costs 5,000 Drive Tickets.
TEKKEN 8's Genmaji Temple stage costs $4.99 for everyone. This is the case even if a player owns the game’s Ultimate Edition and the Playable Character Year 1 Pass.
The community strongly disagrees with this decision. "I have the Ultimate Edition yet I have to pay for Genmaji Temple," a player stated on social media to emphasize the point.
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The previous DLC stage, Sea Side Resort, was free as part of the Lidia Sobieska update. The players expected the other TEKKEN 8 DLC stages to be free as well.
If you are interested in the community’s reaction, read the replies to the official post.
Katsuhiro Harada interferes to apologize
The wave of disappointment and disagreement turned out to be pretty massive. Even the game director, Katsuhiro Harada, decided to join the conversation. In his long post, he explained the situation and apologized to the community.
Harada stated that the situation with Genmaji Temple in TEKKEN 8 is a result of having two companies behind the project: a development one that directly creates the game and a publishing one that's responsible for sales. Katsuhiro Harada has to be a link between them, and he should make sure that the interests of the community are taken into account.
“I think I failed to create an organizational structure that would allow me to oversee things beyond my own position.
One of my roles was to listen to the opinions of the community and reflect them not only in the content but also in the out-game, but I was clearly becoming passive, worrying about the relationships between companies and not exercising my role.”
The decision: A free stage for Character Pass owners
After a while, Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. published a follow-up to the community's feedback. The community announced that TEKKEN 8 Character Year 1 Pass owners will get the winter Battle Stage DLC for free. Also, they will be able to claim 500 TEKKEN Coins.
Genmaji Temple is already available in the game alongside Heihachi Mishima and a new story episode. It is still unclear if the community’s feedback will affect the stage’s price and the future practices of adding DLCs to the game. Stick around on esports.gg for more TEKKEN 8 news and updates.
