Earlier this week, we talked about the negative reactions Bandai Namco Games received after revealing Tekken 7’s Lucky Chloe at a celebration of the series’ twentieth anniversary. We also touched on director Katsuhiro Harada’s reaction to that reaction, which was to state she would be exclusive to Japan and Europe, essentially barring her from the North American release.
Of course, we didn’t spend too much time on that last point because it was very obviously a joke. But now that the story has been picked up by major video game outlets of being as if its an absolute truth, here we are again.
Now, more than ever before, fighting game developers mingle with their core, competitive audience. Where once this kind of support was only a pipedream, we now have major backing at events like the Evolution Championship Series and even tournaments like Capcom Cup and Arc Revolution Cup ran by the companies themselves.
While I would be remiss for not mentioning the draw exclusive characters can be on the casual crowd, we’ve begun to see signs that they are a thing of the past; mostly recently, NetherRealm Studios executive producer Shaun Himmerick mentioned that Mortal Kombat X will not feature platform-exclusive fighters, signalling a shift away from practices seen in the previous title.
It should also be noted that in no prior Tekken titles have Bandai Namco made any characters region-exclusive and have only implemented platform exclusivity in Tekken Tag Tournament 2, which featured fighters in the console versions that never appeared in arcades. Doing so now would effectively bar Chloe from ever being used in competitive play, which means no exposure during tournaments streams, exhibitions, tutorials–nothing.
But, besides all that, this entire discussion can be finalized with a single tweet from Michael Murray, a senior game designer at Bandai Namco who frequently acts as Harada’s translator during public events. “It’s amusing how many [people] are [taking] Harada’s trolling about Chloe seriously,” he mentioned on Twitter shortly after word began to spread. “He’s good at getting free publicity.”
So, there you have it! Like her or hate her, Lucky Chloe will be coming to North America. Tell your friends.
Source: Michael Murray