Harada: Tekken 7 Leaks Change Character Release Schedule
The director of Tekken 7 revealed that Bandai Namco is re-evaluating its announcement schedule after a number of characters coming to the game were leaked online.
We all appreciate a great reveal from a highly anticipated game, but sometimes those big announcements are leaked well before they were supposed to be shown to the world and the surprise loses its impact. Such was the case recently with Tekken 7 when three new characters were leaked online a week before their official announcement. Series director Katushiro Harada gave a small glimpse into how leaks are affecting his team via Twitter yesterday (via Shoryuken).
After Mark "MarkMan" Julio of MadCatz asked Harada about his plans for Japan's Golden Week (Golden Week, for those that don't know, is a week of successive Japanese holidays starting with Showa Day on April 29), Harada simply answered with this:
It seems that leaks have caused the team to re-evaluate their announcement release schedule, which has caused a change in the overall development cycle and forced Harada and his team to forego any time off for Golden Week. That's a bit disappointing, as we've all heard plenty of stories about how development can be a total drag on the people who make games, and we're sure many of them were looking forward to getting some Golden Week R+R.
Leaks are an inevitable part of the process nowadays, and many instances of what should have been earth-shaking announcements become little more than confirmations and spoiled surprises. We suspect Ed Boon and the Mortal Kombat X team can feel Harada's pain after Predator rumors turned a potentially awesome surprise into a "yeah, here it is" moment weeks before the official reveal. We hope that somehow the plumbing gets fixed over at Tekken HQ so their schedule can return to normal as soon as possible.