The American restaurant chain Waffle House has garnered a reputation for being a dangerous place to eat and work. The internet is littered with videos of fights breaking out between customers and its employees, which sparked a plethora of memes regarding the chain’s violent nature. As more of these videos began to pop up, fans of the hit fighting game Tekken 8 had taken to social media to ask its game director, Katsuhiro Harada, to turn the restaurant into a stage. It seems there was a plan in motion to actually do that.
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On the social media website X (formerly Twitter), user @AndresL_1997 quote-tweeted one of these Waffle House fight videos, jokingly saying they were waiting for the Waffle House stage, and mentioned Harada in the tweet. The game director replied, suggesting that they use the name “Hustle House” if they could not get the license to use the name. This initial reply seemed to confirm they had, at the very least, thought about bringing the restaurant chain, or a version of it, to Tekken 8.
However, in a second reply from X user @MartyParty12xYT where they commend Harada with the fitting stage name, the Tekken 8 director confirms they tried to contact Waffle House to bring the stage to life, but were met with no response from the restaurant chain. It does seem that Harada may attempt to bring something similar to a Waffle House to the game, as fans seem accepting of a name change if that means they can fight in something that remotely resembles the restaurant.
“To be honest, within the bounds of what I can say, I fully understand your (you guys) request—that’s precisely why I had considered taking on this challenge,” said Harada in a tweet. “In fact, I had already been thinking about it quite a while ago.”
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“Over the past year or more, I’ve actually tried to make contact through several different channels,” continues Harada. “However, and this is purely my own speculation, I suspect that the lack of response may be due to the fact that the project I’m known for revolves around ‘fighting-themed video games’.”
“That said, if—like I suggested earlier—using a different name or format is acceptable as long as the core message is maintained, then I would be willing to seriously reconsider and explore this again,” Harada continued.
It does seem Waffle House’s inclusion in Tekken 8 is unlikely. However, the last portion of Harada’s response brings some hope that a new restaurant stage will be added to the latest entry in the beloved fighting game franchise.
Although the certainty of a Waffle House stage coming to Tekken 8 is unknown, it is known that its community typically dictates what gets implemented in future updates. A shining example of this notion is Bandai Namco’s recent balance adjustments, which include sweeping changes to the game after the overwhelmingly negative feedback from its players. One of those updates just went live, and also includes new skins and the Ghost Showdown feature alongside the balance adjustments.
