Harada Shuts Down Talk of Paid Tekken Streams

Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada has pushed back against claims that he is considering a paid streaming model for Tekken 8 tournaments, following Capcom’s controversial move to explore PPV for Capcom Cup 12.

Capcom made waves when it announced plans to introduce a pay per view structure for the later stages of Capcom Cup 12 and the Street Fighter League World Championship. The reaction was immediate and harsh, with fans criticizing the move as tone deaf to community needs and regional accessibility. Capcom later stated that it will review the pricing model and reveal its final decision at a later date.

This week, an article from VGC suggested that Harada, in light of Capcom’s decision, appeared open to considering a similar approach for Tekken 8. The story spread quickly, prompting a direct response from the director himself.

In a series of posts on social media, Harada clarified that his comments had been taken out of context and that he has no intention of introducing any paid model for official Tekken 8 streams.

Harada wrote:
“I have never said that I wanted to make streaming a paid service, nor have I ever even considered doing so. I did not make it paid afterward, and the fact that I never did so until the end will become clear in the near future.”

Replying directly to the VGC post, he added:

“The interview this article is based on is probably the one at this link, right?
I never said a single word about wanting to turn it into paid content. I only said ‘I wonder or interest how that could be achieved.’ I am not even positive about monetization. The context and interpretation may have been created by the article, but you would have to interpret it extremely negatively to think I was trying to make streaming paid.”

He also emphasized that Tekken World Tour operations and streaming have never fallen under Bandai Namco’s primary Japanese business entity, due to regulations involving prize money, making monetization unlikely from the very beginning.

From Harada’s clarification, it appears his comments were purely curiosity about Capcom’s approach and how it might function, not any intention to mirror the model.

This comes at a delicate moment for Tekken 8, which is still recovering from a turbulent Season 2 launch that frustrated players with sweeping mechanical changes. A controversy around stream pricing would have only deepened concerns during an already sensitive period for the game.