In his farewell message Katsuhiro Harada says that celebrating 30 years of the Tekken saga is an important milestone for a project to which he has dedicated a large part of his life, and that once this achievement was reached «I felt it was the most appropriate time to put an end to this chapter.» The producer remembers his early days, when he would go to small local tournaments in Japanese arcades and he himself would bring the arcade machines and encourage people to try Tekken. That was in 1994, when the first Tekken installment developed by Namco hit arcades and a year later debuted on PlayStation.
Harada goes on to explain that in recent years he has lost close friends in his personal life, and professionally he has witnessed the retirement or death of many friends he respected. One of the last to leave was Tomonobu Itagaki, whose memorial service was held a couple of weeks ago. These events led him to reflect on the time he has left as a creator, and this thought led him to seek the advice of Ken Kutaragi, «whom I respect as if he were another father.»
It is unknown who will take the reins of the Tekken saga now that Katsuhiro Harada leaves Bandai Namco. He only comments that «over the last four or five years, I have been gradually relinquishing all my responsibilities […]».
In addition to working on the Tekken saga from the first to the last installment including the spin-offsHarada has participated in other games such as SoulCalibur, Ace Combat, Project X Zone, Street Fighter X Tekken and Pokkén Tournament. He still owes us Tekken X Street Fighter, a project that has been in limbo for 15 years. The last time Harada spoke about this game was in 2021, when he said that its development was «paused.» If by then there was already little hope that Tekken
Regarding Tekken 8, the second season pass closed this week, so it is up to Bandai Namco to announce its future. For now, the company has thanked Harada all his dedication to Tekken, assured that he will continue supporting the saga and commented that he intends to continue working on content for Tekken 8.