"Please tell me your business track record."
What started as a jokey retweet, when Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada told a fan to buy 50 copies of Tekken 8 if they wanted Anna Williams to be added to the game, ended with a lengthy argument, a stern talking to, and some business advice.
Harada is known for being pretty vocal on subjects that he holds dear. Last week, he lamented the fall of Soulcalibur, summing the situation up with a response that felt like an academic essay. But this time, Harada weighed in on the discussion around whether certain Tekken developer-favourite characters are prioritised over others..
After sharing a video of Anna Williams, one fan asked Harada why he hated her so much: "You always make her lose to Nina, and she's treated as inferior to her even though she's clearly loved and popular." And to this Harada responded with a lengthy explanation which can be boiled down to: There are no favourites.
"I don't remember how many times I've written here since I started Twitter, but there is no way I hate certain characters," Harada says. "If I seem to like or dislike them, that is just your misunderstanding because they are all like my children." He goes on to say that these perceptions are likely influenced by players' own preferences and "distorted by your assumptions."
Harada also admits that he's actually not a fan of "the popularity pecking order" that fans seem to have for certain fighters. "On top of that, I'll say it again: Your love for the characters is distorting the way you look at things, and it's so absurd that you unilaterally think negatively about my point of view because of it." Ouch.
But it didn't end there. It turns out that Harada was actually fighting a battle on two fronts, as someone else took issue with a different part of his tweet about having no favourites. This time the issue seemed to be adding new characters every release, as apparently it didn't make sense from a "business standpoint."
"What's wrong? What," Harada responds. "Do you need me to explain that to you from every perspective now? Then, from here on out, I'm going to charge you tuition for lectures on 'what video games are,' 'what game development is,' 'what the game market is,' 'what the game business is,' and so on. Also, before we talk about your business perspective, please tell me your business track record."
Now the smoke has cleared, I think we can safely say that Harada doesn't actually have preferences and isn't out to get your favourite fighters just because they're weak right now—although it may sometimes feel like it.
