Katsuhiro Harada — the public face of Tekken for three decades — has announced he will leave Bandai Namco at the end of 2025. In a short, reflective statement on social media he said the series' 30th anniversary felt like "the most fitting moment to bring one chapter to a close," and that recent losses among friends and colleagues had made him "reflect on the 'time I have left as a creator.'"
Harada, 55, rose from junior staff in Namco's arcade days to become Tekken's director, producer and de facto ambassador. He helped shepherd landmark entries like Tekken 3 and, more recently, Tekken 8 — a title that sold quickly but also polarized parts of the community due to aggressive DLC strategies and balance controversies. Harada acknowledged those tensions publicly in the past, admitting organizational faults and promising to improve how the team listens to players.
Why this matters
Harada wasn't just a producer; he was the bridge between the dev team and the broader fighting-game community. He carried arcade cabinets to small halls early in his career, turned up at EVO and other tournaments in sunglasses and a fist-pose, and made Tekken's backstage culture public-facing. That kind of personality matters in niche communities where trust and continuity shape how players view a franchise.
Bandai Namco says Tekken's development team remains committed to future content and that the series' legacy will continue under the studio. Harada himself noted that "over the past four to five years" he has been handing responsibilities, stories and worldbuilding over to the team — which should ease the transition — and he hasn’t said he’s retiring from games outright. He also promised to share his next steps later.
A complicated farewell
This isn't an abrupt exit: Harada stressed the decision was considered and influenced by advice from industry veteran Ken Kutaragi, whom Harada called "another father." He released a personal, hour-long DJ mix to mark his departure — a small, human touch that hints he’s leaving the company but not the passions that defined his career.
For players and tournament organizers, there are practical questions. Will Tekken 8 continue to receive steady DLC and balance support? Who will become the public steward of the franchise? Harada's recent candor about internal division between development and publishing — and his admission that he hadn't always been able to act as an effective bridge — suggests the company may need to fix structure as well as personnel.
What the community can expect next
Bandai Namco's stated commitment to Tekken 8 and future projects is reassuring on paper, but the real test will be how the studio handles communication and content cadence without the series' longtime mouthpiece. History shows fighting-game franchises can survive and even thrive after the departure of a marquee figure — Street Fighter 6 continued after Yoshinori Ono's exit — but transitions are rarely seamless.
Harada will still make a public appearance at least once more: he’s scheduled to appear at the Tekken World Tour finals early next year. After that, we should expect a slower rhythm of announcements about leadership and creative direction rather than an overnight overhaul.
If you play Tekken on console or PC, the game’s reach will continue to depend on platform support and where players go to compete. For people who prefer playing on handheld or remote devices, recent platform developments make it easier to keep playing Tekken titles away from the living room — for example, Sony's recent update lets a portable device stream your PS5 library, which can be handy for long practice sessions away from your console stream Tekken 8 from your PS5. And for PC players who take Tekken on the go, improvements to handheld PC systems' power and download handling are making portable fighting-game sessions more convenient than before Steam Deck gets a low-power download mode.
If you’re eyeing new hardware this moment of change may be a nudge — Tekken has always been tied closely to console generations. For anyone thinking about an upgrade, the PlayStation 5 Pro remains the natural home for next-gen Tekken sessions and big tournament streams.
Harada's career is woven into Tekken's DNA: the late-night arcade runs, the global tournament stops, the stubborn insistence that a fighting game has to be both precise and approachable. He leaves behind a franchise in good technical shape but in the middle of a conversation about monetization, community trust and public stewardship. Whether that conversation evolves into structural change, or simply continues under new faces, will be one of the more interesting storylines in fighting games over the next few years.