Players who send "silly threats" to Harada about Tekken 8's roster have a bigger impact than you think

Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada has spoken up the impact of trolling, revealing that even "silly threats" affect "everyone" in the fighting game community.

In a lengthy tweet earlier this week, Harada expressed his frustration at some of the messages he receives, appending an image of one which threatened to "hit [him] with a burning hammer" if Eddy isn't in Tekken 8.

TEKKEN 8 Azucena Reveal Gameplay Trailer

"When people make these silly threats, I and everyone at FGC suffer the following losses," Harada said, and then detailed the impact "silly" threats have.

"The event operator overreacts and increases security, which increases operating costs and increases the burden on the players attending the event. In the worst case, the event management will request me to cancel my attendance at the event," he explained.

"Company founders, board members, and lawyers 'don't like to be intimidated', so they ask me to cancel [that character's] inclusion in the game, even though, for example, the specification or character under threat 'should have been included in the game in the first place'.

"If the person making these threats uses the word 'we' instead of 'I' to represent the fans, the probability of the two aforementioned disadvantages occurring is increased," he continued, highlighting that those who use the term "we" are not speaking for an entire community. He then added a tongue-in-cheek example, saying that just because a troll insists "everyone around me says so", that probably translates to just a handful of people, making their opinion "irrelevant".

"By enthusiasts behaving excessively, repeating these words and actions, or fake information and hoaxes, or threats, the motivation of the development staff will decrease rapidly, and as a result, the requests of enthusiasts will be far from being realised," he concluded.

When someone decided this was the perfect time to take umbrage with this perspective, saying that they were going to "spend their money elsewhere", Harada had an equally nonplussed response to that, too.

"Thank you for POINTLESS reply," he said. "I've never seen anyone as unreadable as you. You 'seriously' need to study up. Farewell."

Two new Tekken characters were formally announced at Evo 2023. Azucena, known as the "Coffee Queen", is the latest heir in the Ortiz family line who's entered The King of Iron Fist Tournament to promote their coffee plantation. UN secret intelligence agent Raven is also returning after appearing in Tekken 5 and Tekken 6.

Both characters leaked ahead of the esports tournament, having been prematurely posted to the Bandai Namco Europe website.

Tekken 8 is yet to receive a release date, but recently held a closed network test (CNT). Since then, its roster has partially leaked and Bandai Namco has requested players stop playing the cracked beta.