Katsuhiro Harada is the man mostly associated with Tekken. The community loves him, and he’s the type to mingle and joke around with everyone. He has that popular phrase “DON’T ASK ME FOR SH%T”. It’s a sad day when he left Bandai Namco, thus ending his tenure with the Tekken series.
Brief history of Harada in Tekken
Katsuhiro Harada is one of the most influential figures in the history of fighting games. He joined Namco in the early 1990s and became closely associated with the Tekken franchise shortly after its debut. Although the original Tekken was created under the leadership of Seiichi Ishii, Harada steadily rose through the development team and eventually became the series’ best-known director and producer.
Over the course of more than three decades, Harada helped shape the identity of Tekken through its gameplay systems, competitive focus, and memorable characters. He worked on numerous entries in the series, including Tekken 3, Tekken 4, Tekken 5, Tekken 6, Tekken 7, and Tekken 8, while also contributing to projects involving other Bandai Namco franchises and becoming a highly recognizable public representative for the company. His active communication with fans on social media made him one of the most visible personalities in the gaming industry.
Why and when did Harada leave Tekken?
At the end of 2025, Harada officially announced that he was leaving Bandai Namco after more than 30 years with the company, bringing his direct involvement with the Tekken series to a close. According to his own statement, the decision was not the result of controversy or conflict but rather a personal milestone. With Tekken reaching its 30th anniversary, he felt it was the right time to end that chapter of his career.
Harada also explained that the deaths of close friends and the retirement or passing of respected colleagues led him to reflect on his own future and remaining creative ambitions. After discussions with longtime industry associates, including former PlayStation executive Ken Kutaragi, he decided it was time to move on and pursue new opportunities.
Importantly, Harada’s public statements emphasized gratitude toward the Tekken community rather than dissatisfaction with the franchise. He described his early experiences promoting Tekken in arcades and local tournaments as defining moments in his career and thanked fans around the world for supporting him throughout the series’ history.
Harada founded a new studio with SNK
Following his departure from Bandai Namco, Harada did not retire from the video game industry. Instead, he moved on to lead a new venture, becoming involved with a new studio backed by SNK called VS Studio SNK. The move signaled that he intended to continue creating games rather than leave development altogether, marking the start of a new phase in a career that has already had a lasting impact on the fighting game genre.
Ikeda the director also leaves Bandai
Aside from Harada, Kohei Ikeda, widely known in the fighting game community as “Nakatsu,” officially left Bandai Namco in June 2026 after spending 20 years with the company. During his career, he worked on several major titles, including Soulcalibur IV, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken 7, and eventually served as the game director and chief producer of Tekken 8. It seems Bandai Namco heads are having problems with this issue where their top people are leaving for other studios.
