It appears Tekken 7 won’t be getting anymore guest characters from the Street Fighter universe.

Speaking with senior game designer Michael Murray, PlayStation Lifestyle reports Akuma is the only planned character to crossover from Street Fighter into Tekken 7, but the door is always open for more at a later time.


“Harada [Game Producer Katsuhiro Harada] and I have always been against guest characters because it kinda throws off the Tekken world and setting,” Murray said. “But Akuma fits the bill, and we wanted to tie him into the story so that the crossover is not some cheesy gimmick. The feedback is really positive. But no plans at the moment for additional crossovers, though we are open to the possibility in the future.

Akuma was recently revealed in a trailer for the arcade release of Tekken 7: Fated Retribution. In it, the series’ long-time antagonist Heihachi Mishima’s wife, Kazumi, appears to call on Akuma, or Gouki as he is known in Japan, to repay a debt he owes her.

The trailer shows Akuma performing his classic Street Fighter movies, including throwing fireballs, dragon punching, and demon rushing. It could also serve as a preview of things to come if Tekken x Street Fighter is actually released someday.


One interesting note, Tekken has traditionally not included guest characters, as mentioned in Murray’s statement about his and Harada’s propensity to avoid them. Gon, a licensed character from a Japanese manga of the same name, appearing in Tekken 3, is one of the few guest characters to appear in the series.

Tekken 7 has been in Japanese arcades since February 2015. A console release is forthcoming, with exclusive content for PlayStation 4, but Bandai Namco has not revealed a release date yet. A version of the game will also come to PlayStation VR.

Meanwhile, Tekken x Street Fighter is reportedly still in the works but little in the way of details have been released, other than an update by Harada stating the game is pretty far in development.