Fans and accessibility advocates alike have reached out to Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada in a bid to have its colourblind options revised ahead of the game's release next month.
After videos and screenshots showcasing the fighting game's accessibility modes went viral over the festive period, colourblind players and accessibility advisers reached out to the Tekken team on social media alleging they fell ill with
vertigo and migraines after testing the alternative modes.
"You urgently need to remove one of your filters (the striped one), it cannot be present at launch as it may hospitalise 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 colourblindness, filters aren't a fix for colourblindness."
"At the very least, it should be deleted, the way that people find out they're prone to seizures, which can be fatal (SUDEP), is by having one," Hamilton warned.
In response to Harada's statement, Hamilton
said: "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.
"Maybe they will improve, I hope so. But so far, the only reaction has been the game director tweeting that anyone who says anything less than positive about it either doesn't understand the features or has not played the demo. Which is not true and not cool.
"At 100 per cent, 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."
www.eurogamer.net
