MANILA: Tekken chief producer and director Katsuhiro Harada has threatened to delete Filipino character Josie Rizal from the ninth installment of the popular game series.
In a series of posts on his official Twitter account, Harada said he might delete the character from the game if the Philippine government will complain about the character’s name, which was based on the name of the Philippines’ national hero, Jose Rizal.
”If Josie can’t get supported in the Philippines, we give her up anytime. TEKKEN7 arcade board has a network update system. We can change plan and change characters anytime & quickly,” Harada said.
Harada noted that while there are many Tekken fans in the Philippines, ”the Philippine console market is very small (Arcade market too). We can’t recoup development costs at the Philippines market.”
”I visited the Philippines several times in the past and felt a potential from fighting game community. And sometime, Access to TEKKEN community site (example TEKKEN FACEBOOK, Official etc…) was often the top from the Philippines.”
Harada said Josie is for the entire fighting game community, but he acknowledged that she is very special for the Philippine gaming community.
Several of Harada’s Twitter followers asked him to ignore the negative comments on the Josie Rizal character. He, however, said he will be forced to delete the character ”if something happens.”
He also rejected a request by one Twitter user to change the name ”Josie Rizal”.
”No. Because we got already tons of positive feedbacks about her. You are minority,” Harada told the Twitter user.
NCCA: No comment yet
The Philippines’ National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) said it is still studying what actions it may take on the issue of the name “Josie Rizal”. It said it has not yet issued any statement on the matter.
The NCCA also clarified that a certain Dr. Leodenito Cañete, who was quoted in an online news report as saying that Josie Rizal may give a wrong impression about the country’s national hero and the Philippines, is a not an NCCA official nor a member of any of its national committees.
”The Commission shall issue an official statement soon on what actions it will take upon studying the legal aspect of this matter, in coordination with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines,” the NCCA said.
