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“Multiversus” is the video game that best encapsulates the way companies see their audience: as insatiable consumers

For years we have been seeing that the crossover trend is endless in the world of video games: ‘Fortnite’ has mixed with all imaginable franchises, ‘Call of Duty’ is on it, and ‘Super Smash Bros’ has long ceased to be a simple experiment to build an empire of franchises, the crazier the better. And that’s how they see us: as a group of kids who want to know who would win in a fight between Goku and Super Mario and are willing to spend whatever it takes to find out.

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The Multiverse of Madness

The perfect example is ‘MultiVersus’, a free-to-play fighting game that will be released on May 28th and has announced a roster of franchises ranging from ‘Adventure Time’ to ‘Batman’ including ‘Steven Universe’, ‘Rick and Morty’ or ‘Friday the 13th’. In other words: if a Warner franchise has fans, even if they are niche, it will appear here.

It is up to us, as consumers, to resist the obvious sirens’ songs that will come, as usual, in the form of season passes, variants, characters, costumes, skins, and more. And their new trailer is the perfect example of how they intend to hook us: Do you want to see Agent Smith from The Matrix face off against Arya Stark from ‘Game of Thrones’? Or Batman going up against Tom and Jerry? Congratulations: your dream has come true. It coincides with my nightmare.

It is curious that among the characters there are only three from Looney Tunes (Taz, Marvin the Martian and Bugs Bunny) compared to seven from the DC universe, for example. As an experiment, it serves to see which franchises Warner trusts and what they want to promote in the future, but this kind of Smash Bros, fun as it may be, is a constant reminder that we are only consumers and numbers in the investors’ bank account. And increasingly, sadly, more so.

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The producer of Tekken comments on how it has been to create one of the new characters of the franchise

The producer of Tekken comments on how creating one of the new characters in the franchise has been, going into very specific details about it.

There was a time when Japanese creators were hermetic, practically unreachable. Even if people like Miyamoto gave interviews from time to time, it was a rare occurrence. Fortunately, this happens less and less. Japanese creatives are becoming more open, more willing to talk, and that gives us a greater perspective on a side of the industry that has always been more opaque. Something that gives us an interesting perspective on some of our favorite video games.

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Katsuhiro Harada, producer of Tekken, has always been a prominent figure within the Japanese industry, but even more so since he has his own Youtube channel, Harada’s Bar. And in one of his latest videos, he has explained how the creation of one of the new characters of Tekken 8, the Peruvian Azucena, has been.

One of the most interesting things about the character is that she was created in response to the popularity of the Tekken franchise in South America. While being aware of their huge fan base in Brazil, they also noticed that there were many game lovers in Peru, particularly of Kazuya Mishima. That, along with their interest in the Nazca lines, made them want to develop a character from those lands.

Another interesting thing that this video has shown us is a glimpse into how the characters are developed. The team usually starts with a fighting style and then creates a personality around it, but with Azucena it has been the opposite. It has been the other way around.

Harada explains that he was reading anthropological studies about the Peruvian character, which led him to conceive a very specific character. A happy girl, who was always dancing, and that led him to conceive her fighting style. Very flexible and lively, like Azucena herself. Something in contrast to the initial idea of the team, who wanted the character to practice a type of boxing typical of the country.

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This has not only shed light on how Tekken characters are designed, but it has also served to show how grateful Harada is to create characters from different parts of the world. Highlighting how characters from generally overlooked ethnic backgrounds have been warmly received by those communities.

Tekken 8 will be released on January 26th on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. And if you want to know more, Harada has a lot more to say about Azucena in the video itself.