Which company began the Tekken series in 1994?

Namco began the Tekken series in 1994.

The Japanese video-game company released the original Tekken as an arcade fighting game in December 1994. It was developed under Namco’s direction and became the starting point for a franchise built around the King of Iron Fist Tournament and the long-running Mishima family conflict.

Tekken emerged during the rapid growth of 3D fighting games. Its director, Seiichi Ishii, had previously worked on Sega’s Virtua Fighter, and Namco designed Tekken partly as a response to that game’s success. The first Tekken also ran on Namco System 11 arcade hardware, which was based closely on the PlayStation’s architecture.

Players sometimes answer Bandai Namco because that is the company’s modern name. However, the quiz asks who began the series in 1994, when the company was Namco. Namco later became part of the corporate history that led to Bandai Namco Entertainment, but “Namco” is the historically precise answer for the original release.