Bandai Namco apologizes after a Tekken 8 character was leaked by Bandai Namco itself

Tekken 8
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Bandai Namco has apologized for a video that prematurely revealed a new character slated to come to Tekken 8.

The developer/publisher has been carefully and routinely revealing roster additions ever since the fighting sequel was announced, but it seems as though a gameplay video starring Bryan Fury accidentally went live over the weekend. 

Although the publisher moved quickly to take the video down, it was already too late – the new reveal had been posted and shared right across the internet. 

"I apologize to the fans who saw that particular thing in not the way [director Katsuhiro Harada] and I had wanted it to happen," producer Michael Murray tweeted earlier today (thanks, TheGamer).

"I feel bad for all you guys and also the dev team who gave up weekends to work on it."

See more

Harada's tweet wasn't quite as measured, though. Though it, too, has since been deleted, the tweet was promptly screenshotted and shared online.

"What the xxxx Bandai Namco Euro," the director tweeted. "That's why I warned you years ago not to post on a timer.

"Well, I'm going home now thanks! Hahaha."

Welp, someone's getting fired from r/Tekken

Tekken 8's director recently confirmed a slew of new gameplay details, including rollback netcode, character numbers, and cross-play.

Creative lead Katsuhiro Harada answered the curious questions of followers about Tekken 8, including confirmation that Tekken 8 will have cross-play, a feature he's been after since Tekken 7 was released but wasn't able to see the light of day.

Harada also recently compared the new fighting game sequel to Dark Souls. Disputing the notion that fighting games are complex and complicated, he revealed that Tekken 8 feels like a natural evolution of the series in the way that Dark Souls players feel like they want to improve and get better, saying, "people who keep dying over and over are having fun with the game".

Here are all the new games of 2023 (and beyond).

Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.