BitSnark

In an interview with videogamer.com, Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada claimed that the mechanic of players having to unlock characters with multiple playthroughs is “outdated” and “no longer useful,”.

He goes on to say:

“Why we locked the characters originally was that in the arcades, it was kind of to extend the life of the game by gradually unlocking characters. And also with the home versions as well, because you can rent games or whatever, it was to protect us against that.

“That’s kind of outdated now though, especially with online play. If we were to have locked characters it would irritate a lot of people, to be playing against others online and to not have all the characters available. So I think it’s no longer useful.”

As a result of this the latest instalment in Namco’s popular fighting series will have all forty of its combatants unlocked from the get go.

Personally I actually quite liked the original mechanic of playing through the single player mode to unlock characters, as not only did it provide added incentive for repeat single player gaming, but there was always a sense of achievement when you unlocked an uber-powerful secret character who was difficult to unlock (see Gouken in Street Fighter IV).