Katsuhiro Harada, the longtime leader of the Tekken series, says he’s leaving Bandai Namco this month

Katsuhiro Harada publicly announced via X that he will leave Bandai Namco at the end of 2025, thus concluding an almost 30-year career with the Tekken series. He stated that this coming year will mark the 30th anniversary of Tekken and, therefore, a fitting time for him to step away from it.

Harada has been involved in the development of Tekken since the very beginning; he was heavily involved with game balance on the original title, and then became a key designer/director on the 3rd game. He reminisced about his early days where he helped support local/gaming arcade events and how those opportunities helped mold him into what is now considered one of the foremost video game creators. He also mentioned that several recent personal losses, coupled with the guidance of Ken Kutaragi, helped him to come to this conclusion.

He has been delegating many of his responsibilities, such as the storyline/writing and worldbuilding for the Tekken games, to the internal staff at Bandai Namco in the past few years.

Bandai Namco has assured fans of the series that they will continue to provide updates for Tekken 8 and that they are dedicated and committed to upholding and continuing Harada’s vision. Harada’s last event as an employee of Bandai Namco will be at the Tekken World Tour 2025 Global Finals in Malmö, Sweden, sometime early next year (2026).