Tekken 7 has only been released in Japan for now but players from the West can experience the game hands-on in various events across the US. Such event is the NorCal Regions 2015 where Tekken 7 matches were held and facilitated by Mad Catz. The next stop for Tekken 7 was supposedly the Northwest Majors in Des Moines but unfortunately, Mad Catz personnel fell victim to a car break-in and theft.
Bandai Namco had originally planned to bring Tekken 7 arcade machines in major events across US including the EVO 2015 but the burglary appears to have caused some drastic change in plans. Mad Catz's Community and Sponsorship Manager, Mark Julio, revealed the car break-in and the following series of events himself on Twitter. Along with a number of personal belongings and work-related items, the Tekken 7 keys were stolen. Because of this, it seems that the exposure of Tekken 7 in other upcoming events could be in jeopardy.
"My work stuff is all gone and some of my friends' stuff. The key for T7 is gone too, so sorry future events," Julio tweeted. "I'm really really sorry in advance if this hiccup prevents us from showcasing TEKKEN 7 or bringing Mad Catz to upcoming events."
Julio then sent an apology tweet to Game Director Katsuhiro Harada, assuring him that the boards are safe but needs new keys. After Harada mentioned that they are holding an emergency meeting, he replied to Julio saying that the new keys wouldn't work with the existing board and that the board must be replaced. "New key doesn't work for your board. The Board (HDD& secure chip) is useless now. We should build new board & secure key USB." Harada then acknowledged that the break-in was "lucky" since Julio was safe. "It's Japanese thinking," he said.
A while later, Julio tweeted that some of the items that had been stolen started showing up on Craigslist, which he then reported to the Seattle Police Department. Julio also said that they are working hard in order to still bring Tekken 7 arcade machines to other future events and assured fans that the situation is looking "positive" at the moment.
Mark Julio and his team were in Seattle as they head to Des Moines for the Northwest Majors. He said that they were less than 100 yards away from the car for less than 10 minutes when the theft happened. Fortunately, they were all safe. No confirmations were made yet regarding Tekken 7's exposure in other upcoming events as Mad Catz and Bandai Namco are still trying to figure it out.
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