Full Statement:
I’d like to share that I’ll be leaving Bandai Namco at the end of 2025. With the TEKKEN series reaching its 30th anniversary—an important milestone for a project I’ve devoted much of my life to—I felt this was the most fitting moment to bring one chapter to a close.
My roots lie in the days when I supported small local tournaments in Japanese arcades and in small halls and community centers overseas. I still remember carrying arcade cabinets by myself, encouraging people to “Please try TEKKEN,” and directly facing the players right in front of me.
The conversations and atmosphere we shared in those places became the core of who I am as a developer and game creator.Even as the times changed, those experiences have remained at the center of my identity.
And even after the tournament scene grew much larger, many of you continued to treat me like an old friend—challenging me at venues, inviting me out for drinks at bars.
Those memories are also deeply precious to me.
In recent years, I experienced the loss of several close friends in my personal life, and in my professional life I witnessed the retirement or passing of many senior colleagues whom I deeply respect. Those accumulated events made me reflect on the “time I have left as a creator.”
During that period, I sought advice from Ken Kutaragi—whom I respect as though he were another father—and received invaluable encouragement and guidance.
His words quietly supported me in making this decision.Over the past four to five years, I’ve gradually handed over all of my responsibilities, as well as the stories and worldbuilding I oversaw, to the team, bringing me to the present day.
Looking back, I was fortunate to work on an extraordinary variety of projects—VR titles (such as Summer Lesson), Pokkén Tournament, the SoulCalibur series, and many others, both inside and outside the company.
Each project was full of new discoveries and learning, and every one of them became an irreplaceable experience for me.
To everyone who has supported me, to communities around the world, and to all the colleagues who have walked alongside me for so many years, I offer my deepest gratitude.
I’ll share more about my next steps at a later date.
Thank you very much for everything.【Postscript】
Although I will be leaving the company at the end of 2025, Bandai Namco has asked me to appear at the TWT Finals at the end of January 2026, so I expect to attend as a guest.
For 30 years I kept saying, “I’ll do it someday,” and never once performed as a DJ at a tournament event.
So instead, I will be releasing—for the first and last time—a 60-minute TEKKEN DJ-style nonstop mix (DJ mix), personally edited by myself, together with this announcement.
Listening to it brings back many memories.
Thank you again, sincerely, for all these years.‘TEKKEN: A 30-Year Journey – Harada’s Final Mix’ by Katsuhiro Harada 1 is on #SoundCloud https://on.soundcloud.com/pEYofA4yXOwyC7lj0O December 8, 2025 - The Final Day of TEKKEN’s 30th Anniversary - Katsuhiro Harada
Guessing the death of his best friend did light that fire he needed to do what he truly wants.
… Life sucks sometimes yeah.
Man Harada leaving is the end of an era for Tekken His passion and connection to the community were always evident Im curious to see what his next chapter looks like but its going to feel weird not having him at the helm
Hard respect to the man. Though he leaves the series at a time where you can say that the story of Tekken feels complete. So that whoever takes over from him will have a clean slate to work with.
I wish the same could be said of Soul Calibur.
At this point in time Soul Calibur is lying dead in a ditch out the back of the Namco Bandai offices.
he did not sugarcoat it :/
I hope this is just a break to recharge.
Its not. As mentioned he has already gradually shifted his responsibilities over the last 5 years. I mean he's spent 30 years on his career. So its time he finally does something different, its time for him to move on.
So what is he going to do next?
Dude was always close to the community.
That’s real respect right there.
As a fighting game player, honestly, I feel bad for Harada for the unpopularity of Tekken 8. He really did do even more community outreach than he usually does towards the later half. I think he really did accept that some design decisions they made weren't working out.
He may be the public face of the series but it's hard to say how much leeway he himself had to change plans that were probably established several months beforehand to actually implement changes though.
I don't think anyone can deny that he was the biggest advocate for the success of Tekken, and he can't work on it forever. He will be missed.
i dunno man, it sounds like bad faith but i do blame him (and michael murray) for the T7 (started from season pass 3-4 or something) and T8 problems.
everything from balance direction, art/model direction, monetizing direction was a straight unchanged pattern from mid tekken 7 onward. hell, some of it like the customizations direction was the same thing from tekken 5 onward (same shirt/puffer jacket for everyone), investing heavily into the "cinematic" that by Tekken 8 it affected directly into the gameplay.
The man will be missed but his prime was a long while ago. Things needs to change like when Ono left Street Fighter.
Yeah, I mean Harada isn't without fault for the unpopularity.
For context, this is a little bit like Yoshi P or Nomura leaving Square. They weren’t the start of Final Fantasy, but were big driving factors in recent entries.
Guy’s been a big part of Tekken for a long time, you can even fight “him” in 8.
Edit: Better analogy, it’s like replacing Nolan making Batman films. Wasn’t the first, but highly influential.
Its not even like Nolan leaving. Batman existed 60 years before Nolan directed an already existing franchise.
Harada was around since the conception of the game. That would be more akin to stan Lee creating marvel heros and then stepping away from the company once the first xmen/ Toby McGuire spider man came out.
It'd be like Todd Howard leaving Bethesda
That is a better analogy. Todd did not create Fallout or Elder Scrolls but he has been the face of these franchises for a long time.
Or cliffy b leaving gears of war.
Oh so a Levelord leaving 3D Realms type of situation
Go on
Batman was big before Nolan wtf is this analogy, it doesn't make sense
I mea, use an example within the fgc, it is like when Ono left street fighter.
It is up to Namco to now pick a suitable replacement that can bring Tekken forward successfully.
No way is this comparable to when Ono left.
For one, Ono was basically forced out. He didn't retire willingly. Too many screw ups.
And second, while Ono was hugely influential for a period, and is primarily responsible for bringing SF back from the dead with SFIV, he wasn't there since SF's inception like Harada was with Tekken, nor was he especially influential (no, I'm not counting his involvement in 3S's soundtrack) for the first 18 years of the franchise's existence. While Ono was at Capcom for nearly 30 years, his time holding the reigns for SF was between 2008 - 2018, roughly. Ten years is no slouch, but it's nowhere near the ballpark of Harada's 30 year Tekken run.
Nolan leaving batman is nothing like this
Yoshi p had nothing to do with final fantasy until 14 lol. He's much much newer to the fans than Harada is.
shhh, don't bring up reality to the yoshi-p fan cult, they think yoshida is the only thing of worth in FF and anything he does is the bestest ever.
OP saying yoshida leaving would be comparable, yet the only thing of any good on his resume at Square Enix is FF14 and even that game has been having real issues for a while now, FF16 was a dud so most FF wouldn't care if he left.
I am not into fighting games, but Katsuhiro Harada for me is face of Tekken.
I mean I would not mind if Yoshi P takes a break. Not sure if he has any hands in jobs and quests design but there have to be some change. Its getting kinda ridiculous.
Wasn't him the inventor of tekken? Who was it then?
Seiichi Ishii led the first few. Hararda was always on the team but rose to influence more starting with 3.
Yoshi P is not nearly as prolific as those other guys lol
oh yeah how about you talk to my DORYA
Yoshi p didn't leave square he stepped down from the chairman board
Hes executive director for FFXIV so it's not like it's doomed but he wants to focus on the game rather than the direction of the company
I'd love if Yoshida stepped down.
Leaving your office job and saying "you can follow me on my Soundcloud" is such a corporate career move.
He posted a final mix earlier today with some of the best OSTs from the series
He’s always going to be my favourite fighting game personality in terms of developers, not sure I have faith anyone can ever be like him again
It’s been such a trend with developers lately and I’m a fan of it
It's so funny for a long heartfelt announcement from a dude in his 50s to end with a DJ set
He seems like the kind of person who never stopped being a kid (in a good way).
He’s about to moonlight as a DJ playing only Tekken bangers, and I’m all here for it
Damn he even looks like a Tekken Boss.
Wow that’s quite some big news, funny if he went on the dead or alive or virtua fighter series 😂
End of an era.
I'm glad for him life is too short. Not that he didn't have an amazing time working on Tekken but sometimes people have to move on from things to persue what they want even if it would be hard to leave. I doubt he regrets staying for so long it was just his time to move on to another stage of his life.
End of an era.
Oh huh, he is listed as the producer of that game. It is certainly something different. I guess not to be confused with VR Kanojo, the nsfw game inspired by this game.
The fighting games developer shuffle has been pretty crazy with Ono leaving Capcom, Sakurai semi-retiring, Yoshinori(Soul Calibur series) leaving Bandai Namco, and now Harada doing the same.
Wonder what he will do next.
Shit, you're right. I was confusing Summer Lesson for VR Kanojo.
Tekken 3 was really the only game in the franchise that i played a lot. Remembering those memories is bittersweet, i was in my teens with a PS1, playing for hours against my siblings, cousins, and friends, those carefree days will never come back, but i'm so grateful for the memories.
Thank you Mr Harada for making those moments possible.
For several years, Tekken was my life. Grinding just-frames and backdash cancels, studying frame data, meeting up with the local community and setting up multiple t.v.'s and consoles all throughout the house when someone's parents were out of town, getting pulled over by the cops on the way to out-of-state tournaments and having to explain why everyone has anime characters on their big-ass fight sticks, sessions that seemed to last entire weekends.
Good memories. Good friends.
T5:DR is still my favorite of the series. Perfect fucking game.
Thank you for your service
End of an era
This truly is the end of an era for the Tekken series. I guess Itagaki's death may have had a part to play in it.
Hope he starts his own... I'm thinking something like sleeping dogs vibe... But Tekken...
Imagine he joins Sakurai at Sora Ltd.
I hope he gets recruited by koei to revive DOA
Now wouldn't that be a twist!
Bandai Namco has been going through major financial restructuring and cancelling games, so he sees no future for himself there. Not sure about the future of Tekken 8 and TWT as well.
Harada, you sir, are a true gentleman. All the best to you and all your future endeavours.
Holy shit that’s a huge huge blow to fighting game communities
Dropping a mix before signing off what a king
I am thankful for all his work and the fun he brought to the franchise.
Best of luck to him on whatever he goes to in the future
If Tekken 8 Season 3 doesn’t drastically change things then the game is cooked.
I wonder if he'll continue wearing sunglasses indoors.
Damn so there really is never going to be another Pokken or Soulcalibur game huh
Harada has no involvement with Soul Calibur, if anything it has a better chance of coming back now since Tekken is crapping out and Harada is leaving.
REDDIT CENSORSHIP IS TRASH WTF
That man is the exact opposite of Kojima
Well, godspeed to the guy. Not a fan of the series and don't know the man but the stuff he is dealing with (people passing or moving on, aging, doing the things you never got around to doing) are things I can empathise with.
Crazy, but not surprising. Hope to see some more cool stuff from him in the future. This also sadly means soul caliber is dead. Feelsbad
RIP Tekken
guy was a legend for the gaming world, tekken is forever goated.
Either Tekken is gonna die from this, or it is going to give the series a much needed shot in the arm.
It's over for the Tekken series now. Both Tekken and Soul Calibur gone now.
when will murray leave?
Harada's contributions to Tekken are legendary but this has been coming for a long, long, long time. In many ways his outreach to the community has been little more than platitudes and corpo-speak for ages now, and the last few Tekken titles have been met with more and more controversy and less and less success because of the broken mechanics and design decisions that have constantly alienated both new and veteran players.
Tekken 3, Tag 1, and Tekken 5 along with Dark Resurrection remain all time high watermarks for absolute excellence and leaps forward in fighting games. Eminently approachable, infinitely engaging, impossible to master. All the hallmarks of generation defining titles, and something Harada's focus for the series should have continued evolving upon to continue that unwavering success. Instead Harada began Tekken’s trend to shifting that excellence toward unfocused and lukewarm attempts at watering down game mechanics or widening the series scope in increasing efforts to appeal and cater to a purely casual customer base. Tekken has since become known as a fighting game with a once sharp edge that has been continually dulled by gimmicks intended to chase meaningless sales numbers from people who were never likely to stick around, buy DLC, or even engage with the game and community past a few minutes in the first place.
Harada is also the principal reason we haven't gotten a proper retro Tekken game compilation despite that once having been included for free within Tekken 5 on the PS2. His stance on any prior release being "obsolete" and his views that somehow those titles are primitive and inferior purely due to their graphical and technical limits, and not addressing the way they are beloved for how they play and feel says a lot when the series high watermarks are almost universally considered to have been in the past at this point.
Ah good ol "Sit the hell down, and don't ask me for shit." Guy
Isnt bandai namco the same corporation that caused one punch man season 3 to be what it is?
Its good that hes leaving. I hope he starts something new thats for the fans, not money.
So what’s the latest news for tekken 8? I know season 2 was an absolute disaster that made things worse and was essentially the dev team lying to the face of all players since they added even more mixups instead of defense
Did season 3 turn things around?
> Over the past four to five years, I’ve gradually handed over all of my responsibilities, as well as the stories and worldbuilding I oversaw, to the team, bringing me to the present day.
And that's why tekken 8 gone to shit, Harada. Don't ask as to play your shit next time)
Holy fuck. C'mon people, "Don't ask me for shit".
Maybe now Bamco will finally focus on Soul Calibur and put Tekken on ice. One can hope.
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Redditors are pathetic.