Players and accessibility advocates have raised concerns about the colorblind options in the upcoming release of Tekken 8. After videos and screenshots of the game’s accessibility modes went viral, colorblind players and accessibility advisers reached out to the Tekken team on social media. According to their claims, some players experienced vertigo and migraines after using the alternative modes.
“You urgently need to remove one of your filters (the striped one), it cannot be present at launch as it may hospitalize players (or worse), in the same way as the infamous Pokémon episode,” said accessibility specialist, Ian Hamilton.
The approach with the filters in general would benefit from rework, they generally don’t help. The intent was good and the technology is good, but the focus should be on players with low vision, not colorblindness, filters aren’t a fix for colorblindness.
— Ian Hamilton (@ianhamilton_) December 27, 2023
Director Katsuhiro Harada responded by stating that the game offers “multiple types of color vision options” for players with different color vision. He emphasized that the team has never claimed that these options cover all players’ color vision and acknowledged that the color vision options are a rare part of the fighting game genre, but they are still being researched.
it’s an apt example of our current society where actual colorblind people all know colorblind options are bad, but this legit might be one of the worst implementations ever
then you have non-colorblind people giving applause for how inclusive and amazing this is for everyone https://t.co/sXK2v8SnjE
— Larry DeVito (@jkinoa) December 27, 2023
“As a colorblind person, most color-blind options suck, and this is no different. Idk if games will get it right (there have been a few that were good). But these options for me at least are ****,” said Tiaygo on Twitter/X.
I have not “misunderstood the accessibility options we are trying, or have only seen the video without actually trying them out in the demo play”. I understand very well, and have tried them in demo play. I’m trying to help you avoid harming players and provide a good experience.
— Ian Hamilton (@ianhamilton_) December 28, 2023
“At 100% it can literally kill people. That’s not up for debate, people with photosensitive epilepsy have confirmed the seizure risk, every seizure risk comes with a % chance of death (Google SUDEP), and the way you find out you’re seizure-prove is by having one,” added Ian Hamilton.