So, while he didn’t rule out the possibility of a port, it sounds like Bandai Namco would only be willing to do so if there were sufficient interest — and therefore profit — to be had.
A Tekken 8 port for the Nintendo Switch 2 is possible, but far from certain at this point. Katsuhiro Harada, the game’s director, revealed the news during the recent Evo event in an interview with Eurogamer: “It’s an interesting option and not totally off the table. But it would require a lot of work to get the game running on that hardware. From a business standpoint, the Switch 2 is doing quite well, so it would be a very good business decision to try to reach a larger audience. However, the amount of work that would need to be done on the game makes it a difficult decision. At this point in time, there are no… (laughs) There is nothing to announce.”
This is a surprising statement from Harada. Tekken 8 isn’t a complex open-world game but a fighting title powered by Unreal Engine 5. Epic Games’ technology fully supports Nintendo’s latest console. Even more technically demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 have already been successfully ported to the next-gen Nintendo hardware.
Perhaps the real reason is that Bandai Namco doesn’t see a big enough audience on the console to justify the costs. Meanwhile, Japanese rival Capcom thinks differently: it launched Street Fighter 6 on the Switch 2’s release day, June 5, and the port has been well received. Capcom was ready to be part of the launch lineup — Bandai Namco wasn’t. That’s the difference.
In any case, Tekken 8 will continue expanding. During Evo, Bandai Namco announced a new DLC character, Armor King, arriving on October 13 for Season 2 Character Pass holders, and on October 16 for all players. Also coming this winter is a new fighter from Madagascar, Miary Zo, along with a new stage called Baobab Horizon.
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