Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo seem to want to pull a EA and DICE when it comes to the marketing of Dead or Alive 6 by talking down to the fans and trying to promote the message that the SJWs, feminists, and e-sports players are the majority of who will support the game at release. This is quite evident with a recent interview that Koei Tecmo Europe had with EVO 2018 Dead or Alive 5: Last Round champ, Erik “Rikuto” Argetsinger.

The interview was published via a Facebook note, where Rikuto talked about his travel troubles, and pulling out a clutch win at this year’s EVO 2018 for Dead or Alive 5: Last Round.

The community manager also asked about the very apparent controversy surrounding the player push-back regarding the drastic changes made to Dead or Alive 6 — which has toned down the fan-service, removed the Soft Engine, removed the jiggle physics (so far), reduced the boob sizes, and modified the female costumes so that they’re based on Marvel’s female comic book designs — Rikuto downplayed the community chatter, stating that it was just “internet activists” trying to stir the pot, saying…

”I’m a guy who’s been playing DOA since the early 2000’s. My first tournament was in 2002, my first tournament win was in 2003. I’m 31 this year, so this tells you I’ve been going at this franchise since I was in my young teens. And I see, and have been involved in, a LOT of fighting game on over social media and the like about DOA’s current direction. “My personal opinion is that its current direction is just fine. Team Ninja are extremely talented individuals and they know how to make good games. Ninja Gaiden did not require overdone sex factor to sell, Nioh did not either. I don’t see why DOA should have to focus so hard on that either. “DOA is….. kind of like a Bond movie. It has its sexy moments, but a lot of it is based on coolness and action. I think right now, you have a vocal number of people who are more interested in the former. But among those, I think you’re going to find a lot of them are just internet activists trying their hardest to blare their megaphone, regardless of the cause.”

Many longtime fans have admitted that the only thing that has helped separate Dead or Alive in recent iterations from the competition is the fan-service.

While Rikuto might think that diminishing the fan-service and focusing the game on being like a “Bond movie” might appeal to some segment of the market, the problem is that the game has effectively turned itself into a less interesting version of Tekken. And I doubt the millions of Tekken fans are going to give up Namco’s 3D fighter to play Team Ninja’s 3D fighter.

Also, Rikuto’s example of Ninja Gaiden 3 isn’t a very good one. He obviously hasn’t been keeping track of sales, because when Ninja Gaiden 3 came out back in 2012 it may have looked like it was off to a strong start, according to Gamespot, but the game came up short, selling nearly half-a-million fewer copies than Ninja Gaiden 2, as reported by Eurogamer.

The formula for the game had changed due to the original series’ director Tomonobu Itagaki being replaced with two other creative heads. Thus, Ninja Gaiden 3 was not as critically nor as commercially well received as its predecessor. Like many other series that fail to live up to sales expectations, Ninja Gaiden was put on ice after its 2012 outing, and hasn’t been seen since.

Dead or Alive 6 is following down a very similar path, with a change in gameplay and in its presentation compared to Dead or Alive 5: Last Round. The push-back from the community is steadily growing; gamers are disappointed with the complete absence of jiggle physics, the reduced fan-service, and are less-than-thrilled with the combat mechanics so far.

While Erik “Rikuto” Argetsinger may be fine with the changes, we’ll see if enough people agree with him to prevent Dead or Alive 6 from going broke and being put on ice alongside many other game franchises that have attempted to cater to SJWs.

(Thanks for the news tip Ebicentre)