'Tekken' director Katsuhiro Harada has urged fans to stop sending him character ideas.
Tekken 8
The gaming chief has explained the legal difficulties around accepting pitches and concepts from fans, and noted that "a certain percentage of people" will take legal action if the team does take influence.
He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "Many people send game companies letters, character ideas, and game scenario ideas via social networking sites and contact forums.
"Basically, the more specific and detailed the idea is, the less likely we are to adopt it, and the further away from it we are from being influenced by it.
"Why? Because a certain percentage of people will file a lawsuit in the form of 'you used my proposal without permission' or 'you stole my proposal' or 'that was my proposal.'"
Harada noted that someone people who haven't even sent an idea have still "protested vehemently" that they came up with an idea.
He continued: "In the past, several of our titles have solicited user ideas and naming rights in magazines as 'campaigns'.
"However, many game companies stopped such initiatives and campaigns after such troubles, including lawsuits claiming rights despite having signed all kinds of consent forms in advance.
"It's not a question of whether we can win the lawsuit or not, but the fact that these kinds of troubles arise is a burden for us.
"I'll always refer to and listen to the opinions of fans/users in my case, and don't get me wrong, opinions and ideas are two different things."
While fans have indeed helped with the creation of characters, such collaboration can still be a "risk".
He added: "It is basically a risk in this day and age to receive details of specific ideas from fans, and it should be noted that we try to avoid trouble as much as possible."