Tekken 8 has been rated in South Korea, approved for sale to players aged 15 and above. This has fans hoping that a release date announcement isn't far behind, perhaps revealing that the game will be with us much sooner than anticipated.
This comes just after Tekken 8's successful closed network test, letting players try the latest instalment out early. However, some fans were quick to crack the early build, letting them play it offline and out of the approved times set out by Bandai Namco. Now, players might not have to wait much longer to play it legitimately, with the age rating suggesting that the final product is in a pretty playable state right now.
This development was spotted by ResetEra user Xenosaga, revealing that enough of Tekken 8 is complete that it was able to get an age rating in at least one region. Despite this, Tekken 8 still doesn't have an official release date, with it largely assumed that it will be coming sometime in 2024.
However, in light of the age rating news, many hope that Tekken 8 will launch earlier in the new year, rather than be a summer release. This would still give it plenty of breathing room from the other big fighting game instalments, with Street Fighter 6 launching two months ago, and Mortal Kombat 1 coming on September 19 of this year.
The age rating itself doesn't really tell us anything about the game that we didn't know already. Surprise surprise, it's pretty violent. It doesn't seem that there are any leaks to be had here, other than the indication that Bandai Namco might be ready to give us a release date sooner rather than later.
That being said, releasing later into 2024 might not necessarily be the worst idea ever. The latter half of 2023 is a mess of game releases, with so many big titles being thrown at us that our backlogs will easily take us into the new year. September is the worst offender, with the aforementioned Mortal Kombat 1, but also Starfield, Cyberpunk: Phantom Liberty, Payday 3, Lies of P, and perhaps the most time-intensive of all, the console launch of Baldur's Gate 3. Hope you've got plenty of holiday time at work left over, you're going to need it.
Bandai Namco hasn't commented on these most recent rumours just yet. Regardless, news of the age rating bodes well for fans. There's still plenty of time in the year for the studio to announce an early 2024 release, so we'll have to wait and see if Tekken 8 is ready to be released to the world sometime soon.