Tekken 8 Giving Away $5 Amid DLC Controversy Review Bombing

The Tekken 8 community has been on fire this month after players learned a new stage coming to the acclaimed fighting game wouldn’t be included in the $110 Deluxe version they purchased at launch. Instead, the DLC level would be sold separately for $5. A Steam review bombing campaign ensued, and now Bandai Namco is giving players $5 worth of free Tekken coins to try to get everyone to chill out.

“We apologize for not meeting the community’s expectations for the ‘Playable Character Year 1 Pass’ content and the “Genmaji Temple’ DLC release method,” the Tekken account shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday. “After thoroughly discussing the feedback, the Tekken Project team has decided on the following measures.”

To placate angry fans, those who purchased the year 1 character pass will get an upcoming winter battle stage for free, while everyone who logs onto the game between October 29 and November 26 will get 500 Tekken coins (which is equivalent to $5 of in-game currency) to spend on other microtransactions. And it seems to be working. “This is a W for Tekken! Thanks for listening to feedback,” reads the first comment on the post.

While there was never an explicit promise that future DLC stages would be included in the $3 character pass, Event Hubs reports that recent fighting game microtransaction trends in Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken have conditioned fans to expect certain things will be included in annual passes. It didn’t help that the Genmaji Temple stage was released alongside the latest DLC character, Heichachi Mishima, who was included in the character pass. Even those who already spent $110 on the most expensive version of Tekken 8 still needed to pay more to access the new level.

In a now-deleted statement, director Katsuhiro Harada addressed the outrage earlier this month:

Harada said he would review how Bandai Namco communicates with players and structures DLC releases in the future to make sure players are on the same page, but days later Tekken 8 was thrust into a new controversy when Chinese pro player Essence|XCC was disqualified from a recent tournament for residing in an ineligible country. “We understand that this decision has cause disappointment among some members of the community, and we will consider adjusting the official rules for future seasons,” the Tekken esports organizers wrote earlier this month. Harada was once again also apparently confused about the situation.

But a second, even more severe round of negative Steam reviews hit Tekken 8 anyway due to the player’s ban. Things have evened out in recent days, but the game’s Steam rating has still been hurt. It’s currently at “mixed” despite praise for the underlying game and its PC performance. We’ll see if the latest giveaway helps at all. Harada also previously announced that Tekken would “make every effort to increase the number of participating countries in the future” to avoid situations like what happened to Essence|XCC.