Katsuhiro Harada did not leave Bandai Namco because of one blowup. The longtime Tekken director told GamesIndustry.biz that turning 50 forced a simpler math problem: with Japanese retirement norms around 60 and modern games taking years, he might only have time to make one more title — so he wanted that title to be something new.
That something is VS Studio, bankrolled by SNK after Harada’s December departure announcement. He says the studio has complete autonomy and decision-making authority. SNK’s Saudi ownership is controversial in some circles; Harada says the conversations that closed the deal were almost entirely about games, reminding him of Namco founder Masaya Nakamura’s passion more than a spreadsheet pitch.
The hiring pitch is unusually age-forward. Harada says he was thrilled that people wanting to join were over 45, arguing experience matters more in game development than in a sport like soccer. Tekken 8 director Kohei Ikeda joined as a game designer in August, part of a core that started around 10 veterans and grew through their own networks.
Harada contrasts big-publisher opacity with a small room where artists, engineers and designers all argue the narrative together — “It feels like we’ve gone back to the ’90s” — while admitting majors still crush indies on marketing muscle. On AI, he separates fighting-game CPU and matchmaking uses from generative tools, citing Tekken’s ghost feature that once let a player face a deceased brother’s data.
He will not detail the project beyond one joke: “We’re not making a puzzle game.” Esports, in his view, still matter less as instant publisher profit than as the arcade-culture successor that keeps a fighting game alive through communities, streams and locals.
The interview lands in a year when mid-size studios keep vanishing from payrolls, including simulation publisher Astragon’s shutdown of Astragon Development and 40-plus jobs. Harada’s bet is the opposite direction: a veteran-heavy fighting-game house with SNK money, no puzzle game on the whiteboard, and one more shot before the clock he set for himself runs out.
