Xenosaga fans may be unhappy to hear that the remaster project for Xenosaga Episode I has officially been canceled. According to a Twitter post by Katsuhiro Harada, a director/producer for Bandai Namco and the producer of the Tekken series, the project was canceled based on a failed market analysis. According to Gamespot, Harada stated back in 2014 that he was unable to “find the necessary market size” so he released a Tweet asking fans to show their support for the game series in the hopes of getting the project started, and it appears as though fan support was enough to start the project initially. However, it wasn’t enough to make the game appear marketable or profitable. In the Tweet, Harada states that the project did become a potential plan, however, it fell through after the market analysis showed poor projections. He then apologizes in the Tweet and states that it is very unlikely that the plan will resurface.
For those unfamiliar with the series, Xenosaga was an RPG series that was the spiritual successor to Square Enix’s Xenogears, a popular JRPG for the PlayStation One. The episodic Xenosaga saw six games released from 2002 to 2006–three primary titles for the PlayStation 2, prequel-content mobile title that was Japan-exclusive, and a remake of the first two episodes for the Nintendo DS. The series has seen no new installments since, as the planned six-installment arc of Xenosaga ended prematurely and developer Monolith Soft has moved on with the Xenoblade games. The Xenosaga games had a large fan following with four of the games acquiring scores of over 30 out of 40 on Famitsu.
While the Xenosaga Remaster project has fallen through, Katsuhiro Harada has been hard at work on Tekken 7 which is currently in its third competitive season. Players can duke it out right now with Leroy Smith, Ganryu, and Zafina who are part of the Season 3 Pass. Gamers can also look forward to the upcoming Tekken World Tour 2020, with the first wave of the tour starting in April. Little more is known about Tekken World Tour 2020 at the moment but more information will be revealed in the Spring. Tekken 7 and Season 3 DLC are available now for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.