News on Tekken 6 – looks like arcade version is superior

The Tokyo Game Show is in full swing right now and there is some arcade-related news to come out of it. Direct from the Stinger Report comes some interesting news about Namco’s Tekken 6 – a delay in the console release along with the consoles being inferior to the arcade version is certainly something to make arcade operators who have T6 already happy (console version pictures to the right):

Just as the report was going to the wire confirmation from the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) revealed that the home version of ‘Tekken 6’ will not be launched in 2008, but in 2009 in September (fall) in Japan, with expectations of a Christmas launch for the rest of the world. This is considerably longer than any consumer web site or magazine speculated – makes questionable amusement executive decisions in the States and UK not to buy and operate T6 as they would not have enough time to recoup the greater

expense of the game. The Stinger questioned when first stated at ATEI’08 the futility of this move – now we see that a major opportunity has been squandered, especially as the game had major player appeal as seen by the crowds that caused the ‘Tekken incident’ at the London show.

Another issue that was revealed at the TGS launch of the first images of the game was that rather than being a Sony Playstation 3 exclusive, Namco Bandai Games would also be launching a Microsoft Xbox 360 version of the game at the same time – the home version would also include the characters and features from the AM-Show’08 launched update. This marks the first time that Namco has allowed the brawler series to be launched on another platform. The success of the Xbox LIVE network – and the failure for Sony to achieve momentum of their broadband network fuelling this move; however sources revealed that though the latest version of ‘Tekken 6’ would be launched on the next-generation consoles – the actual functionality of the games will only be 85 per cent exact to the arcade version! The performance of the arcade System 357 Hardware and ALL.Net functionality seeming to surpass that achievable on the home platforms; this fact has been downplayed on many blogs and consumer news sites, but has fuelled heated debate on a number of forums towards the reality of getting an arcade ‘exact’ version of the game for home players.

With the launch of the new arcade ‘Tekken 6’ update at AM-Show’08, the question will once again be raised that now there will be a definite 14 months till the consumer game release, would it not be wise to build on the player clamber for the ‘exact’ arcade version of the game, by reversing the decision not to import the title?

Interesting news for sure, especially in lue of some talk about how much better the console version of SFIV will be to it’s arcade counterpart.

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