It looks like Tekken fans might be able to get their hands on Tekken 8 some time soon, with a Playtest build appearing on Steam.
According to SteamDB (via VG247), a new branch for Tekken 8 has popped up on Steam- one titled Tekken 8 Playtest.
This doesn’t mean the build itself playable, however- it just means that on the back end, Bandai Namco Entertainment is making room for a separate version of the game.
It should be noted that there’s a lot of possibilities for what this could actually be- while the most obvious would be a public beta for the game, it could also be referring to a closed beta or a preview build for media and/or influencers.
That being said, the fact the image on the site mentions CNT most likely means a Closed Network Test.
At the time of writing, Bandai Namco Entertainment has not commented on the rumors of any beta.
The Playtest branch showing up on Steam also isn’t a sign that it’s coming any time soon- Combo Breaker just ended, and considering the size of the event if they’d planned to have a beta this month it would have made sense to announce it there.
Instead, it seems more likely that any news related to this Playtest build would come around EVO in August, since the discovery of a beta branch for Blazblue CentralFiction and its own rollback Beta was on the scale of months apart from each other.
Tekken 8’s release has been a bit of a mystery- first announced last year, the game has had a flurry of trailers introducing its cast, as well as playable builds at events with no release date in sight for the game.
The game sports a more aggressive playstyle compared to its predecessor, revolving largely around the new Heat system, which we got to try out for ourselves months prior.