Tekken 8 lead promises all the essential fighting game staples, tells everyone to "shut up and sit the hell down"

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

Tekken series creative lead Katsuhiro Harada has been a chatty Cathy on Twitter of late, answering a slate of questions from followers surrounding Tekken 8. Harada confirms 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.

Crossplay? Of course I will.BTWWhen the previous generation consoles were released, I had already proposed crossplay between the two platformers. However, at that time, they were at odds with each other over their mutual interests (and P2P security issue) & repeatedly refused. https://t.co/I8b38YfePhApril 9, 2023

This means Tekken 8 players across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S can punch each other to their delight. Keep in mind Bandai Namco's new fighting game won't be launching on last-gen consoles, so we won't find PS4 players going up against new-gen PS5 players.

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Elsewhere, Harada also confirmed rollback netcode, a staple of modern fighting games that helps negate input lag when playing online, would feature in Tekken 8. This is fantastic news to hardcore fighting game fans and Tekken followers alike, but it's packaged with a message to "shut up and sit the hell down" from Harada to the Twitter user who asked the question.

already installed it, and it already has what you want. The reason WHY we don't make big announcements like cross-play is Cuz even if we make big announcements, people like you will only say things like, "waaaa! That's normal in this day and age." So shut up & sit the hell down. https://t.co/ZA1ZKMV9gCApril 9, 2023

Finally, Harada bragged that Tekken 8 would have more playable characters than "Capcom-san." The series lead probably refers to the forthcoming Street Fighter 6 here, which features an impressive 18 playable fighters at launch. If this claim holds up, Tekken 8 players could get ready to play as storied fighters from across the series' history.

I think it's a lot more than Capcom-san.Of course, character modeling, rigging, and costume design are all new assets, so it's hard work.That's why we're trying to increase the number of launches. https://t.co/d4BOZYxRBMApril 9, 2023

Tekken 8 was first teased with a chaotic and confusing trailer, bundled in with a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance from Harada at EVO 2022, so these comments from Harada are really just par for the course at this point. A more recent trailer depicted the death of a long-standing character, and even Harada couldn't believe how dead Heihachi was.

Check out our huge Tekken 8 preview from our hands-on time with the new fighting game, as well as comments from Harada.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.