Katsushiro Harada, a General Manager at Bandai Namco and the man everyone identifies the Tekken series with, is leaving the company at the end of the year.
Truth be told, we already had an inkling earlier this year, when Harada shared on his LinkedIn page that he was 'open to work' and interested in roles such as Executive Producer, Executive Game Director, Vice President, Business Development, Business Development Executive, and Marketing.
When Tekken fans panicked, he replied on X not to worry about it, that he just wanted to 'meet more people' and 'expand his horizons in the future'. Now, though, there's no uncertainty in his LinkedIn message:
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. [...]
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. [...] I’ll share more about my next steps at a later date. Thank you very much for everything.
Katsuhiro Harada has been involved with the Tekken franchise since the beginning of his nearly 32-year career at Bandai Namco. For the first two installments, he was credited as the voice actor for characters Marshall Law and Yoshimitsu; however, he was promoted to Game Director starting with Tekken 3 in 1997. As he mentioned in the message, he also worked on other games, like SoulCalibur IV, Ace Combat Infinity, and Pokkén Tournament. More recently, he was also listed as a producer for games published by Bandai Namco, such as The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, Code Vein, and Tales of Arise.
Of course, his final major project was Tekken 8, which received widespread critical acclaim (earning a 9/10 on Wccftech) and sold exceptionally well. The publisher would later announce that the game sold two million units in its launch month and then reached three million units one year after its release, outselling its predecessor in the same timeframe.
As a final parting gift for fans, Harada released an hour-long TEKKEN DJ-style nonstop mix (DJ mix), something he always wanted to do but never got the time for. It is available on SoundCloud.
Harada will appear as a guest at the TWT Finals at the end of January 2026, having been invited by Bandai Namco. As for what's next for him, he said he'll let the fans know at a later date.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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