Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Tekken 8 will kick off 2024; January release date revealed

By
Summer Gaming Marathon Feature Image
This story is part of our Summer Gaming Marathon series.

During this year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live, Bandai Namco announced that Tekken 8 will launch on January 26, 2024, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Tekken 8 Arcade Quest Official Trailer gamescom 2023

Bandai Namco showed off a brand new trailer for the upcoming fighting game that introduced some newly revealed features. That includes a new single-player story, as well as Arcade Quest, which is an area that looks similar to Street Fighter 6‘s Battle Hub. Here, players can customize their own avatars to look family-friendly like Nintendo’s Miis.

Recommended Videos

As for Tekken 8‘s playable roster of characters, Nina Williams and Paul Phoenix continue to be the only two characters who are playable in all main Tekken installments. Two new characters have been revealed so far, Azuscena Castillo and Jack-8. Azuscena is a Peruvian mixed martial artist who proudly promotes her family’s coffee company any chance she gets, and Jack-8 is the latest model of Jack, with a new voice and look.

Jin in Tekken 8
Bandai Namco Entertainment

Fighting games have seen a resurgence lately, with Street Fighter 6 receiving commercial and critical acclaim. Mortal Kombat 1 is also set to launch in September, and Iron Galaxy confirmed that Rare’s Killer Instinct would be getting a 10th-anniversary update later this year. Even Riot Games, best known for League of Legends and Valorant, is developing its own fighting game based on the League of Legends IP called Project L.

So far, the 2024 video game release calendar is incredibly light, with the only other confirmed January launch being Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League launches on February 2, shortly afterTekken 8‘s planned release.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
George Yang
George Yang
George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…
From Lara Croft to Bayonetta, these are our favorite Tekken 8 custom characters
tekken 8 custom characters raven customized to look like scorpion in

The Tekken series isn't just known for its slick 3D fighting. Like the Soul Calibur series, Tekken has become just as celebrated for its excellent character customizer over the years. As seen with Street Fighter 6's create-a-character, if you give players access to a tool this powerful, then you can expect tons of designs ranging from jaw-droppingly impressive to just plain weird.

In Tekken 8's case, players immediately began creating their own dream guest characters using the customization mode once it launched. It's almost scary how official some of the custom creations we've seen so far are, bringing characters from entirely different games into the ring. So many have blown me away already, so I'm taking a break from the grind to share some highlights. Who knows? Maybe it'll inspire you to create something of your own.
Tifa

Read more
How to unlock Alternate Outfit 3 in Tekken 8
Azucena holding a coffee mug in Tekken 8.

Everyone who's been playing Tekken since Tekken 5 knows that the game is secretly a fashion show. With a fun customization mode that allows you to change up your favorite fighter's style, it's hard for it not to be.

This returns in Tekken 8 and, as always, players can spend earned in-game currency in the shop to unlock more accessories and cosmetics. However, one outfit has to be unlocked instead of bought, and that's Alternate Outfit 3. This style is a variation of each character's main look that usually removes something from that ensemble such as a hoodie or overshirt.
How to unlock Alternate Outfit 3

Read more
Tekken 8 brings back the lost spirit of ’90s arcade culture
Jin battles the Devil in Tekken 8.

The fighting game genre has always had some barriers to entry, with top-level play requiring hundreds of hours of practice to master combos, positioning, and character matchups. The high skill ceiling has often pushed away more casual players from participating, sometimes making them feel inadequate compared to more seasoned comprtitors. However, the past year has seen developers implementing mechanics that better help rookie players ease into their games. Street Fighter 6 introduced a Modern Control scheme aimed at simplifying things. There have also been more calls for accessibility, and in response, Mortal Kombat 1 utilized “Extra Audio,” which helped sightless players use audio cues in order to play.

That trend is continuing next year with Tekken 8. The upcoming fighting game makes several tweaks to the brawling formula, including some major changes to how controls work and a social mode that captures the lost spirit of the Japanese arcade scene. After spending three hours with it, Tekken 8 already seems like the most approachable entry in the series to date.
Feeling special
Earlier this year, Bandai Namco revealed that Tekken 8 would include Special Style, which simplifies inputs and controls needed to pull off more complicated combos. In practice, the difference between playing with the normal style and Special Style is staggering. An opening battle between Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima exemplified this. I started off with just using the normal control scheme. As someone who isn’t an expert at fighting games, all I managed were weak punches and kicks. I didn’t have time, nor the dedication, to execute anything fancy.

Read more