Travesty that Tekken doesn't get more industry recognition compared to other fighting games

[MajulaDream]

Really a shame imo. What else does this franchise need to do for industry recognition?? Over 47 MILLION units of games sold since 1994. The latest installment has sold nearly 4 million. Tekken was at the forefront of graphics capability in the early days, and has been influential both in the Arcade scene and in the 3D fighting genre. As of Tekken 7 the series is still innovating. Slow-Mo has been a boon for the spectacle of the fight. Characters from around the world are designed with their traditions in mind and even speak in their Native language.

idk, thoughts? Seems like whenever awards season comes around MK and SF get their props, but Tekken stays under rated and appreciated despite its ENORMOUS success and influence.

 

[Papercuts]

Do the others really get props outside of a niched out “best fighter” award? The genre always seems to fall in with racers as basically having no real shot at goty awards.

 

[DrArchon]

Fighting games in general aren't a genre that gets awarded.

All they can hope for is "Best Fighting Game", and every single one released that year is a nominee.

 

[Syril]

Fighting games seem to get mainstream award recognition the same way animation gets Academy Award recognition.

 

[Eolz]

I'm sorry but...
Smash is the best selling franchise now.

 

[IDontBeatGames]

Injustice gets recognized cause it has famous Comic Book Heroes most people grew up or are at least aware of because of comic books.
Dragon Ball FighterZ gets recognized cause it has Dragon Ball Characters and has amazing gameplay overall.
Mortal Kombat gets recognized cause it has the bloodiest combat, has characters that became well known over time like Scorpion and Sub Zero plus the combat.
Street Fighter gets recognized cause most people who have seen or haven't played it at least know who Ryu is.
Soul Calibur gets recognized cause most people who owned a GameCube or bought future versions have fond memories playing with special console specific characters like Link etc.
Smash gets recognized cause almost everyone who was a gamer as a kid played Melee, Brawl, Smash 64 and you know, Nintendo Characters.
Tekken gets recognized cause... of Yoshimitsu? lmao

 

[Valdega]

Fighting games are pretty niche and if they do get any awards, the most mainstream games will always win (like Injustice 2).

 

[FrostyLemon]

I have to say it is a bit weird. Smash, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat have a lot more buzz around them.

 

[jonjonaug]

Didn't Smash Ultimate make Smash shoot past Tekken?

 

[Ehoavash]

Injustice gets recognized cause it has famous Comic Book Heroes most people grew up or are at least aware of because of comic books.
Dragon Ball FighterZ gets recognized cause it has Dragon Ball Characters and has amazing gameplay overall.
Mortal Kombat gets recognized cause it has the bloodiest combat, has characters that became well known over time like Scorpion and Sub Zero plus the combat.
Street Fighter gets recognized cause most people who have seen or haven't played it at least know who Ryu is.
Soul Calibur gets recognized cause most people who owned a GameCube or bought future versions have fond memories playing with special console specific characters like Link etc.
Smash gets recognized cause almost everyone who was a gamer as a kid played Melee, Brawl, Smash 64 and you know, Nintendo Characters.
Tekken gets recognized cause... of Yoshimitsu? lmao

.


This is me sadly lmaoooo

 

[mazi]

I'm sorry but...
Smash is the best selling franchise now.

i was gonna say

Didn't Smash Ultimate make Smash shoot past Tekken?

it didn't just happen with ultimate. has any tekken game outsold brawl?

 

[Lant_War]

Sadly the industry as a whole is quite immature. A fighting, sports or racing game has no chance at winning. Hell, other genres like SRPGs or JRPGs have no real chance as well.

 

[Eolz]

i was gonna say


it didn't just happen with ultimate. has any tekken game outsold melee or brawl?

No, but the franchise total is the point here. Not per single game.

 

[Phediuk]

Sadly the industry as a whole is quite immature. A fighting, sports or racing game has no chance at winning. Hell, other genres like SRPGs or JRPGs have no real chance as well.

or anything PC-exclusive.

 

[Luke88]

Smash has now over 52M units sold, and Ultimate will have legs for years

 

[mazi]

No, but the franchise total is the point here. Not per single game.

oh, gotcha

 

[IDontBeatGames]

.


This is me sadly lmaoooo

I'm just telling it like it is lmfao

 

[ArjanN]

Smash has now over 52M units sold, and Ultimate will have legs for years

Didn't Smash Ultimate make Smash shoot past Tekken?

Op said fighting games.

Spoiler

only half kidding

 

[DrArchon]

or anything PC-exclusive.

Handheld exclusive too (though the Switch is blurring the line there).

But even then, don't expect to see any Mobile games winning a lot of GOTY awards.

 

[capitalCORN]

Tekken probably has the greatest global arcade market share right now, and probably had it since the nineties but gotta suck that NA dick.

 

[nicolasacmf]

Thread title made me think this would be about Smash Bros.

 

[Sandfox]

The problem with Tekken 7 award-wise is that it came out on console the same year as Injustice 2.

The series has declined in popularity quite a bit though.

 

[dennett316]

Wow...I'm just surprised that Street Fighter and it's eleventy billion variations of SF 2 alone haven't sold the most. Tekken's sold so much, yet for me it just kind of ceased to be a thing to get remotely excited about after Tekken 3 on PS1...weird.

 

[Namtox]

On our top ten game of the year list I included 3 fighting games and Forza Horizon 4 and had many fellow writers on the team tell me straight up that fighting games and racing games CAN’T be game of the year candidates. It’s baffling as hell to me.

 

[Eolz]

Sadly the industry as a whole is quite immature. A fighting, sports or racing game has no chance at winning. Hell, other genres like SRPGs or JRPGs have no real chance as well.

or anything PC-exclusive.

Handheld exclusive too (though the Switch is blurring the line there).

But even then, don't expect to see any Mobile games winning a lot of GOTY awards.

Yeah, sadly.

 

[BeaconofTruth]

Fighting games in general don’t get the props they deserve. Gameplay depth isn’t nearly as celebrated as it should be in a fucking medium about play.

 

[mazi]

Yeah, sadly.

basically anything that isn't a console-centeric third person action adventure doesn't stand much of a chance

 

[SmileBrandon]

Oops

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

basically anything that isn't a console-centeric third person action adventure doesn't stand much of a chance

Basically. GOTY means nothing. It's the equivalent of winning Prom King/Queen. It's a popularity, mass appeal contest and it shouldn't be viewed as any metric of quality other than "this was very popular this year". At least Tekken has stayed at a pretty consistent high bar for quality over it's lifetime, which is a metric not many other franchises, even other prolific fighting series, can claim. That's what's actually important.

 

[entremet]

You need a more robust single player mode.

 

[mazi]

Basically. GOTY means nothing. It's the equivalent of winning Prom King/Queen. It's a popularity, mass appeal contest and it shouldn't be viewed as any metric of quality other than "this was very popular this year". At least Tekken has stayed at a pretty consistent high bar for quality over it's lifetime, which is a metric not many other franchises, even other prolific fighting series, can claim. That's what's actually important.

true. winning goty awards from random websites doesn't necessarily guarantee lasting popularity, success and relevance.

 

[compbros]

Tekken 7 came out the same year as injustice 2, NRS games are basically gonna mop so that's a lost cause.

Tekken Tag 2 came out 2012 and this was Tekken's best chance. But if you wanted a more technically sound fighter it released the same year as Virtua Fighter 5: Showdown and if you wanted a better video game then Persona 4 Arena was the choice. Plus TTT2 wasn't great.

Tekken 6 came out the same year as Street Fighter IV, no hope.

That's the stuff over the past decade. Tekken is just usually overshadowed.

 

[Platy]

Overwatch was a completely anomaly in game awards ... awards are usually related to big cinematic experiences. Fighting games are pure mechanical even if some try to have some cinematic stuff.

Op said fighting games.

Spoiler

only half kidding

 

[HockeyBird]

No industry awards and it's not even the best selling fighting game franchise anymore. Tekken sure does have it rough.

 

[DmckPower]

Because Tekken is not as good or inspired as it used to be.

T7 is a game that caters only to the established fanbase. It can't compete with the likes of NRS or even capcom stuff in terms of appeal.

 

[Aaronrules380]

No, but the franchise total is the point here. Not per single game.

Total franchise sales are a pretty useless metric, and if you want to gauge the popularity of a franchise as a whole then average sales per game will always be a better metric (although even that doesn't give the whole picture since popularity can change with time)

And it would still be smash regardless

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Because Tekken is not as good or inspired as it used to be.

T7 is a game that caters only to the established fanbase. It can't compete with the likes of NRS or even capcom stuff in terms of appeal.

Every time a major Tekken 7 tournament ends I hear casuals talk about maybe playing more of the game. Tekken is still standing strong with other fighting games.

 

[KtotheRoc]

Op said fighting games.

Spoiler

only half kidding

 

[ArjanN]

salt

Thought it was pretty obvious that's why OP excluded it. Quality aside, it's enough of it's own thing that it's basically a different (sub)genre.

 

[tazmin]

Really a shame imo. What else does this franchise need to do for industry recognition?? Over 47 MILLION units of games sold since 1994. The latest installment has sold nearly 4 million. Tekken was at the forefront of graphics capability in the early days, and has been influential both in the Arcade scene and in the 3D fighting genre. As of Tekken 7 the series is still innovating. Slow-Mo has been a boon for the spectacle of the fight. Characters from around the world are designed with their traditions in mind and even speak in their Native language.

idk, thoughts? Seems like whenever awards season comes around MK and SF get their props, but Tekken stays under rated and appreciated despite its ENORMOUS success and influence.

Isn’t Smash the best selling?

 

[Futaleufu]

The truth is that most people can't tell the difference between an excellent, a good or a mediocre fighting game.

 

[Unknownlight]

Wow...I'm just surprised that Street Fighter and it's eleventy billion variations of SF 2 alone haven't sold the most.

There are 26 Tekken games compared to 34 Street Fighter games. It's roughly comparable.

Spoiler

Compared to 6 Smash games.

 

[DrArchon]

No industry awards and it's not even the best selling fighting game franchise anymore. Tekken sure does have it rough.

At least people are still playing it competitively in good numbers, which is more than a lot of fighters can say.

 

[HockeyBird]

At least people are still playing it competitively in good numbers, which is more than a lot of fighters can say.

Well I was being a little sarcastic. I think Tekken is actually in a good place.

 

[Platy]

Thought it was pretty obvious that's why OP excluded it. Quality aside, it's enough of it's own thing that it's basically a different (sub)genre.

A subgenre that has a game that sold as much as Street Fighter 2 on the SNES.
The last time a fighting game sold that much we were flooded in copycats by budget devs.

At least Tekken has lots of games in it's subgenre.

 

[Unknownlight]

A subgenre that has a game that sold as much as Street Fighter 2 on the SNES.
The last time a fighting game sold that much we were flooded in copycats by budget devs.

At least Tekken has lots of games in it's subgenre.

I admit it's always been baffling to me how few attempts have been made to copy Smash, especially since it's a platform exclusive series.

 

[Parthenios]

I admit it's always been baffling to me how few attempts have been made to copy Smash, especially since it's a platform exclusive series.

The time to have done that would have been after SSB64 or Melee when Smash Bros' feature set and roster were much more modest. Smash Bros has like a 20 year head start on competitors. There's no way any clone could come out and match up to an 80 character roster lol.

 

[srtrestre]

Thread title made me think this would be about Smash Bros.

Yup

 

[Platy]

The time to have done that would have been after SSB64 or Melee when Smash Bros' feature set and roster were much more modest. Smash Bros has like a 20 year head start on competitors. There's no way any clone could come out and match up to an 80 character roster lol.

You don't need to match .... you only need to release on PC, XBox and PS4 xD

and on switch because people who like it would totally play something else too for variety.
Hell if they copy Meele you might even steal some switch smash players

 

[Korigama]

The truth is that most people can't tell the difference between an excellent, a good or a mediocre fighting game.

Pretty much this.