Tekken 8 closed beta kicks off next month with 19 playable characters

Kazuya Mishima in Tekken 8
(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

Tekken 8 is getting a closed beta test next month that will allow players to try out 19 playable characters, including the newly announced Feng Wei. 

The beta test will be available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5, and it’ll kick off on Friday, October 20 at 4am ET. It’s worth noting that that’s also the release date of both Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, so gamers are going to be rather busy that weekend. Tekken 8’s closed beta is a much more limited-time affair, though - it’ll run until Monday, October 23 at 3am ET.

Prospective players can register now on the official Tekken 8 website, but not everyone who registers will be given access. According to the general rules of participation document, codes will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Around 182,000 codes will be distributed, with around 80,000 allocated for PS5 owners, 85,000 for PC users, and 17,000 for Xbox Series X|S users. Everyone who participated in July’s closed network test will automatically be granted access, however, and won't need to apply again.

Those who get into the closed beta will be able to try out online play (including cross-platform play), and the Tekken Fight Lounge, in which they can check out the Battle Area and Customization Shop areas. As for the playable characters, the full list is as follows: Claudio, Azucena, Raven, Feng, Jin, Kazuya, Jun, Paul, Law, King, Lars, Jack-8, Xiaoyu, Nina, Leroy, Lili, Asuka, Hwoarang, and Bryan. 

Registration is open from today (Tuesday, September 19), and will run until Wednesday, October 11 at 3am ET. Applicants can only enter once, and those who get to play won’t be able to transfer any progress to the full version of the game when it releases on January 26, 2024.

For more games like Tekken, be sure to take a look at our recommendations of the best fighting games. You can also see more future game releases with our roundup of upcoming games. 

Catherine Lewis
News Writer, TechRadar Gaming

Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.