'Tekken 7: Fated Retribution' news update: Game on hold, Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada speaks on the company's decision

Since Tekken 7 was announced to be available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox consoles, fans have been ardently waiting for its release date. However, Bandai Namco Entertainment broke the unfortunate news over the weekend, stating that the game production  is now officially on hold.

Tekken game director Katsuhiro Harada recently caught up with GameSpot to discuss "Tekken x Street Fighter" being on hold as well. There he mentioned that a lot of people have been waiting on Tekken 7 for a while now, and releasing the crossover game might be a cause of divide among fans.

"When we develop fighting games, we try to keep the core community in mind as well as the wider audience that wants to play these games. But currently the situation is with fighting games, you have Street Fighter V that just released – a lot of people are playing that fervently – and there's a large crowd out there waiting or Tekken 7. We don't want to split these communities, so a good window in which to release Tekken X Street Fighter is something that's become difficult recently. So it's on hold for the moment," Harada said.

Previous reports about Tekken 7 includes an unexpected announcement for fans when it was confirmed that legendary Street Fighter boss Akuma will be in the game. The trailer starts off with an innocent and usual introduction, with Tekken boss Heihachi being "dramatic." But to the fans' surprise Akuma shows up making them even more excited for the game. According to Cinemablend, Akuma seems to be like his "old self" in certain action sequences. 

Bandai Namco worked on several titles last year, including a collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokemon Company called "Pokken Tournament." It had an arcade debut last year in Japan, and it was then launched on Wii U a month ago.