Tekken 8’s pluggers will now be matched against each other, spiraling into plugger prison 

During the “TEKKEN Talk Live” stream held by Bandai Namco Entertainment on March 29, countermeasures against accounts involved in unauthorized activities in Tekken 8 were announced. It seems that players who repeatedly engage in plugging will be matched up with each other from now on. 

On March 28, Bandai Namco announced measures including temporary and indefinite bans against users who violated the End User License Agreement, i.e. engaged in unauthorized play (as listed above) in Tekken 8. In the livestream following the announcement, further details about the measures were explained, and it was revealed that thousands of accounts have received bans for the violations defined. The Tekken Talk Live also detailed Tekken 8’s future policy regarding players who intentionally disconnect from matches when they’re about to lose, a.k.a. pluggers.  

According to Tekken 8 director Kohei Ikeda and series’ executive producer Katsuhiro Harada, Tekken 8’s system for detecting intentional disconnections will be reviewed and improved in an update scheduled for April 2. The update will apparently include a new proprietary server and a system that can reliably detect and act against pluggers. 

With the update on April 2, the disconnection rate for all players will be reset to 0%. Users who repeatedly and intentionally disconnect from matches will be preferentially matched with users who also have a high disconnection rate. The development team refers to this penalty as “prison matches/plugger prison.” On the other hand, if a user repeatedly engages in plugging and is reported by others, they will eventually have their account suspended. 

Equivalents of this prison match system exist in games such as EverQuest II, CoD: Warzone, Apex Legends, Titanfall, and Outriders, where cheaters are preferentially put up against each other. Tekken 8’s developers are introducing this measure with hopes of deterring users from plugging and creating a better playing experience for normal players. 

In the livestream, it was also announced that the issue of users’ disconnection rates not displaying properly will be addressed. Harada assured players there is no need to worry about unintentional disconnections, as they can find out if it was on purpose. 

Tekken 8 is available for the PC (Steam), PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.  The new playable character Eddy Gordo will be available from April 5. Those who own a Deluxe or Ultimate Edition of the game will have early access starting April 2. 

Written by. Amber V based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2024-03-29 18:53 JST)