Tekken Legends Harada is Leaving Bandai After 30 Years

Katsuhiro Harada, the longtime Tekken boss, will leave Bandai Namco at the end of 2025 after 30 years with the series. Here’s what his exit means for Tekken 8 and the fighting game community.

Tekken Boss Katsuhiro Harada Is Leaving Bandai Namco

Tekken’s most recognisable face is stepping off the Bandai Namco stage.

Katsuhiro Harada, the man who’s been attached to Tekken for basically its entire 30-year life span, has announced he’ll leave Bandai Namco at the end of 2025. In a long statement posted on X, he frames the move as closing one chapter rather than disappearing from games for good.

Katsuhiro Harada will leave Bandai Namco at the end of 2025 after three decades on Tekken
He timed his exit with Tekken's 30th anniversary and says recent personal losses pushed him to rethink his future
Harada has already handed most Tekken responsibilities to the current team over the last 4-5 years

For Tekken 8 players in the UAE and everywhere else, this doesn’t mean the series is done. Harada says he’s been handing the reins to his team for years, and Bandai Namco is already signalling that Tekken will carry on.

Here’s what actually happened, why now, and what it could mean for the future of the King of Iron Fist Tournament.

Harada’s 30-year Tekken journey

Harada isn’t just “a” Tekken dev – he is Tekken to a lot of players.

Joined the original Tekken project back in the mid-90s and stayed on through every mainline entry up to Tekken 8.
Became the public face of the series, fronting tournaments, trailers and interviews worldwide.
Also worked on other Bandai Namco projects like SoulCalibur, Pokkén Tournament and VR title Summer Lesson.

Across three decades, Harada went from lugging arcade cabs into tiny tournament venues to steering a franchise that now headlines global esports events and launches straight on to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, as Tekken 8 did in January 2024.

For many UAE players, Tekken was the mall arcade staple long before online lobbies and 120 Hz TVs became normal. Today you can still feel that legacy – Tekken 3 is even back via the PS Plus Classics line-up, complete with rewind and save states. If you missed that drop, we covered it in our PS Plus October 2025 round-up.

Why Harada is leaving now

The timing isn’t random. Harada says Tekken hitting 30 felt like the right “end of chapter” moment – but there’s a heavier reason under that.

He’s leaving at the end of 2025, the year Tekken marks its 30th anniversary.
Recent deaths and retirements of close friends and senior colleagues made him think about “the time I have left as a creator”.
He took advice from Ken Kutaragi – the original “father of PlayStation” – before making the call.

In his statement, Harada talks about starting out in tiny arcade tournaments, personally asking people to “please try Tekken” and carrying machines around on his own. Those grassroots experiences, he says, shaped how he thinks about game design and the community.

After losing friends and watching older colleagues step away or pass on, he clearly doesn’t want to wait until he’s burnt out. The sense is: better to leave while he still has energy for something new, rather than cling to the same job forever.

What happens to Tekken 8 now?

Good news: this does not sound like a panic moment for Tekken 8.

Harada says he’s spent the last four to five years handing Tekken responsibilities, story and worldbuilding over to the wider team.
Tekken 8 is already out on current-gen consoles and PC with ongoing patches and DLC plans.
Bandai Namco comms and reporting from Japanese and Western outlets all stress that the series will continue without him.

So the day-to-day reality for players in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah doesn’t change much. Your ranked grind, character DLC, and online events are still on the roadmap. If anything, Harada’s slow hand-off means Tekken 8 has already been running on “post-Harada” energy behind the scenes.

If you’re still catching up on big current-gen releases around Tekken’s level of polish, we’ve been reviewing heavy hitters like Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 on PS5 and Xbox – Tekken sits comfortably in that same “looks absurd on a 120 Hz TV” club.

A farewell letter to the FGC – and a final Tekken mix

Harada’s exit isn’t a cold corporate press note. It reads like a long thank-you to the fighting game community.

He thanks local arcade communities and global tournament crowds for treating him “like an old friend”.
He’ll still attend the Tekken World Tour Finals in early 2026 as a guest, even after leaving the company.
To go with the announcement, he released a 60-minute SoundCloud set called Tekken: A 30-Year Journey – Harada’s Final Mix.

It’s very on-brand: for 30 years he joked about wanting to DJ at a Tekken event, never actually did it… so he dropped an hour-long mix instead as a parting gift. It’s equal parts sentimental and slightly chaotic, which is also how you could describe half the Tekken roster.

Importantly, he also says he’ll “share more about my next steps at a later date”.
So this isn’t framed as retirement from game development, just from Bandai Namco and from being “Mr. Tekken” full-time.

When is Katsuhiro Harada actually leaving Bandai Namco?

He says he’ll leave Bandai Namco at the end of 2025, timed with Tekken’s 30th anniversary year.

Is Tekken 8 in trouble because Harada is leaving?

Right now, no. Harada explains that he has gradually handed over story, worldbuilding and leadership duties over the last four–five years, so the current Tekken 8 team is already running things. Bandai Namco and other reports are clear that Tekken will continue.

Is Harada retiring from making games?

He doesn’t call this a full retirement. His statement talks about reflecting on his remaining time “as a creator” and ends by saying he’ll share his next steps later. That strongly suggests he still plans to work in games or related projects, just not inside Bandai Namco.