The Esports World Cup Foundation announced Thursday that Namco Bandai’s popular fighting game TEKKEN 8 will be a key title at the Esports World Cup, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July.
Financial terms of this deal were not publicly disclosed.
Like its previous announcements for Street Fighter 6 and EA Sports FC 24 earlier this month, this news isn’t much of a surprise, as TEKKEN 7 had a presence at the 2023 Gamers8 event (the predecessor to the Esports World Cup) with a “Nations Cup” competition that offered a $1M USD total prize pool.
Further details on the competition format, dates, and prizing are to be announced, though we imagine the prize pool and format will be in line with 2023’s numbers.
TEKKEN 8 joins a growing list of titles that are going to be a part of the Esports World Cup in 2024 including Street Fighter 6, EA Sports FC 24, Rocket League, Fortnite, Free Fire, PUBG, PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Brawl Stars, StarCraft II, Overwatch 2, Counter-Strike 2, Honor of Kings, and Dota 2, among others.
The Esports World Cup is a multi-week gaming festival and multi-title esports competition funded by the Saudi Arabian government-run sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF). Esports World Cup competitions are being facilitated by ESL FACEIT Group (in conjunction with the Saudi Esports Federation), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Savvy Games Group. Savvy is also owned by the Saudi government. EFG is home to tournament organizer ESL, tournament platform FACEIT, and esports and gaming festival company DreamHack.