Tekken Producer Says Namco Bandai Asking For Paid DLC, But He Will Resist

Tekken series producer, Katsuhiro Harada, maintains that he doesn’t plan to include paid character DLC in any future Tekken games. Speaking with Eurogamer, Harada states: "I’ve been saying that, at least for Tekken, regarding techniques, characters and stages, these three things won’t be charged for, even if they are DLC."

Harada said the same thing at Namco Bandai’s Gamers Day event back in April.

While some DLC may be on the disc in order to avoid issues related to download times, Harada says it shouldn’t matter if the DLC is free. However, Harada’s bosses at Namco Bandai do ask him about paid DLC frequently, he admits. For this reason, Harada says, paid DLC will likely be offered, but only in the form of extraneous items that aren’t vital to enjoying the game, such as music from previous Tekken soundtracks or past ending movies.

Back during Gamer Day, Harada mentioned another possible DLC item—costumes. “There are some, you know, very eccentric people out there on Twitter that are asking for bikini bottoms for Lee Chaolan or something like that,” he said at that event, in reference to Tekken Tag Tournament 2 requests. “That’s a very specific request that’s not originally in our plan. We might charge money for that.”

Harada feels rather strongly about the subject of paid DLC. What if he were forced to include paid characters, however? He states: "If I was given the choice to include paid DLC or quit Namco, I would maybe quit… Or maybe I would just say: "Get someone else to deal with this’."

Hr also reveals something interesting about Namco Bandai’s work policy, when asked if he ever feels overworked like his friend, Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono, who recently suffered a collapse under his workload.

"We have a company policy called Refresh Week," Harada shares. "It’s four weeks throughout the year when we have to go home early. And I’m feeling stressed out just trying to do that! As far as vacation days go, I can only take one or two off all year. Having four weeks throughout the year where I can’t do any overtime is quite difficult."

"So I’m kind of worried I’ll be next,” Harada says, referring to Ono’s collapse.