Tekken game director and producer Katsuhiro Harada has confirmed that the upcoming Tekken 8 will support cross-platform play.

　　Harada said a much on Twitter when asked about Tekken 8 crossplay. In addition to confirming that the game will support crossplay between the different platforms, the game director also explained the lack of cross-platform play in 2017's Tekken 7. We're pretty sure that fans will be delighted by this news as this confirms that PC and console (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S) players will be able to fight against each other. "Crossplay? Of course, I will", Harada wrote on Twitter.

　　As said, in the same tweet, Harada also mentioned the absence of crossplay on Tekken 7 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. According to the game director, he actually proposed crossplay between the "two" platforms (likely mentioning PS4 and Xbox One), but Sony and Microsoft did not agree with each other about crossplay at that time.

　　Crossplay? Of course I will.

　　BTW

　　When 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/I8b38YfePh

　　— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) April 9, 2023

　　In a follow-up tweet, Harada further explained that, some years ago, although Sony and Microsoft said to be open to supporting cross-play, this wasn't really made easy for third-party games. As of now, cross-platform play is made easier between PlayStation and Xbox, although there are still some fences left.

　　"Remember when they announced they were open to crossplay a few years ago?", the producer wrote. "But in reality, they didn't actively support third parties at the time, and the hurdles were actually quite high. There are still some problems left, but it will be possible."

　　Announced in 2018 for the next-gen consoles and PC, Tekken 8 is being "built from the ground up for next-gen platforms", and will be using Epic's Unreal Engine 5. A release date has yet to be announced, but as can be read in our preview article, an imminent release seems far off at this point.

　　"The changes to visual design aren’t the only major ones coming to Tekken 8 (Paul Phoenix’s change in hairstyle remains another obvious change)", Kai Powell wrote in his preview. "All new comeback mechanics and ways to press the advantage are coming to Tekken 8 by way of a system that evolved from the Rage system introduced in Tekken 6. The addition of recoverable or white gauge health may be new to mainline Tekken (not counting the red health from the Tekken Tag Tournament spinoff) but has been a common feature in Street Fighter titles for more than two decades among other signature fighting game entries."