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Katsuhiro Harada, former leader of the Tekken franchise, is finally revealing some details about his next game currently in the works at his independent development house, VS Studio.
Harada famously exited Bandai Namco earlier this year, leaving his decades-long post at the company as Tekken’s guiding force to make his own studio. A subsidiary of SNK, VS Studio has been slowly building its ranks over the last few months, snagging several former members of Tekken’s key development staff.
And while he’s been pretty quiet about what exactly VS Studio is cooking up, he shed some light on its current projects in a September 2026 interview with VideoGamesChronicle, and it’s tentatively looking like good news for fans of his previous games.
When asked if VS Studio’s next game would be a fighting game, or if the development house aims to be a “genre-agnostic” company, Harada had this to say: “What I can say is that there are some members who I have worked with in the past who have joined the company, but this is purely voluntary.
“...the title that we are creating has not been disclosed, but as I said earlier, I don’t want to betray our fans’ expectations. The game that we’re developing will be some kind of surprise, but rest assured, it is not something that is outside of expectations,” he answered.
While this statement doesn’t affirm anything, it does point to the fact that Harada is making something that is at least somewhat in the realm of what fans are expecting — and that, to us, sounds a lot like a fighting game. (It's also worth noting that Harada himself said he wanted to develop a new fighting game in an interview with Den-fami Nico Gamer after the news of VS Studio was first announced.) Whether it’s a totally new IP or a new installment of an existing franchise remains to be seen, but SNK’s chief publishing officer, Ozan Kocoglu, says VS Studio isn’t opposed to both making original titles and expanding on their previous works.
“I think it can be both. I don’t think we should be limited to one road or the other. I think Harada-san can bring a wealth of experience into supporting our existing IPs in growing in a different way, or going to the next stage alongside people like Oda-san. But at the same time, as SNK is growing to become much bigger and a new company, we also need fresh ideas,” he said.
“We also need to build new IP pillars that, you know, he could be working on, so that they can actually enrich the SNK portfolio beyond what we have. I definitely see Harada-san being able to do both, and it will depend on what he wants to do and how, and especially on which IP he could collaborate on with some of our development leads in the future.”
Kocoglu revealed that SNK is in a period of “aggressive growth,” saying the company needs a “fresh perspective” in order to keep moving forward. He also sees “no reason” why VS Studio should be a “one-off” for SNK, calling Harada a “great addition in terms of DNA with what we’ve been building so far.”
“But do we want to stop at only VS Studio? I don’t think that’s the idea. I think it’s going to be, okay, what are the new opportunities we can find in the market? How do we want to grow as a company? Personally, I think SNK has a strong DNA in action-related games. So anyone who makes an action-related project could potentially join us in the future on a case-by-case basis,” he added.
Harada went on to say that VS Studio has a “very high level of freedom,” and that while the team can “create anything we want,” they’re still beholden to what fans and players expect of them.
“What I want to protect is what I’m good at, as well as meet the expectations that my fans have. On top of that, I also want to collaborate with SNK. We can share the video game expertise that we have and enhance our strengths for both of us in terms of the ways to create video games. So, focusing on what I’m good at, keeping in mind player expectations as well, and having close collaboration with SNK,” he said.
Harada also opened up about his thoughts on the future of the Tekken franchise now that he’s left Bandai Namco, revealing that he’s been mentoring existing members of its staff while he works to grow VS Studio.
“I have no knowledge of what Tekken has in store after my departure, so I think it would be great if you could all reach out to Bandai Namco. For now, I can only speculate, like how fans are speculating as well. But one thing I can say is that I have been working hard to mentor the team members of Tekken, and I can guarantee that the members who are still working on it have evolved and grown. So I’m looking forward to the future of Tekken as a fan.”
Tekken 8, it seems, is joining the ranks of other mainline fighting games who are adding wildcard guest characters to their rosters, with Baki's Yujiro Hanma set to join the fight in early 2027. We got the chance to interview Tekken series chief producer Naoya Yasuda about why the team chose this character and how in the world they plan on balancing the game around the 'strongest man on earth' when he finally drops next year.
Image Credits: SIA KAMBOU/AFP via Getty Images
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