Although it all started from a joke, Tekken 8 fans have grown unironically hopeful for the US breakfast chain Waffle House to appear as an in-game stage. These requests have naturally been directed to Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada, known for his constant and frank communication with fans over on X. It turns out he’s been doing his homework – or at least, trying to.
In a viral post from March last year, Harada decided to sit down and address all the crossover memes and ask fans, okay, what’s all this Waffle House stuff? Although fans were thrilled to see Harada even acknowledge their requests in the first place, it seems the Tekken lead has since then not only fully understood the players’ dream of being thrown out of a Waffle House window, but has also been working on making late night restaurant brawls a reality.
In a new update from May 13, Harada reveals that over the past year, he has actually been trying to contact Waffle House “through several different channels.” The sad news is – he’s yet to receive any kind of response, which, according to Harada, is a very rare occurrence. He speculates that the lack of response is due to Tekken, somewhat obviously, being heavily associated with fighting.
There is some good news too, however. Harada seems open to the possibility of adding a kind of parody stage to Tekken 8 that will “maintain the core message” of Waffle House while swapping out names and other aspects that could infringe on the chain’s rights. If his attempts to receive a license from Waffle House end up failing, he suggests going for a stage named “Hustle House.”
