Katsuhiro Harada | Code Like It's 198x

Katsuhiro Harada’s parents cried when he told them he had joined a games company. He had grown up forbidden a home console, sneaking into arcades until the local Parent Teacher Association dragged him out, and his first job at Namco was not making games at all but promoting them in one of its arcades. Within a year he had broken the arcade’s sales record two months running and won a commendation from Namco’s president, and he used it to ask for a move into development. Namco put him on the first Tekken. He stayed with Namco and the series for more than 30 years and became, in Edge’s words, “the creative face of Tekken”.

Fast facts

Born: 1970 or 1971, in Osaka; public sources differ on the year.
Education: a degree in psychology.
Joined: Namco, as an arcade promoter, in the early 1990s.
First game: Tekken (1994), balancing the game and working on its timing and frame data.
Tekken 3 (1997): one of the game’s two game designers, with Masahiro Kimoto.
Later roles: director, producer and executive producer of the Tekken series.
Left Bandai Namco: at the end of 2025.
Since 2026: representative director and CEO of VS Studio SNK, a new studio of SNK.

From the arcade floor to the first Tekken

Harada told Edge in 2013 that he had once tried to write a game himself, copying code out of a magazine in middle school, but “the results were no good. So I figured I’d find a job that allowed me to simply play games for a living instead.” At Namco he planned events and tournaments for Street Fighter and other games, and his psychology degree made him curious about the players: he moved cabinets around the arcade to see if they earned more in different spots, and tried to find out whether certain drinks made people play for longer. He spent a year, he said, “chatting to customers, finding out exactly what they liked or disliked”.

Towards the end of that first year he joined the Tekken team. The game’s director and lead designer was Seiichi Ishii, who had come from Sega’s Virtua Fighter. Harada’s job was “to balance the game, work on timing and frame data”. He was frank about how well that went: “there were certain moves that couldn’t be blocked. In truth, it wasn’t very well balanced at all.” He also lent the early games his voice. In 2024 he said he had voiced Marshall Law up to about Tekken 6, and that Yoshimitsu’s voice was a mixture of his own, the sound team’s and others’.

Tekken 3 and after

Ishii left Namco after Tekken 2. When Computer and Video Games visited the Tekken 3 team in 1998, Harada was one of its two game designers, with Masahiro Kimoto, under the producer Hajime Nakatani. Asked how to become a great player, he said: “First of all, practice each move 100 times before going to sleep. Also, always play with someone who is better than you.” Later credit lists also name him among the game’s directors.

From then on his title changed from game to game, but the series stayed his. Edge talked to “Tekken masters” Harada, Kimoto and Yuichi Yonemori about Tekken 4 in 2001, and in 2006 called him the “veteran Tekken director” when he explained why the PSP’s Tekken: Dark Resurrection had been rebuilt from scratch: “Had we called it Tekken Portable, it would be seen as a downsized Tekken.” In January 2010 Edge listed him as executive producer of Tekken 6. “I’ve been making Tekken for 15 years,” he said then. In 2011 he was producing Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and toured the world with Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono to promote the crossover Street Fighter X Tekken. Edge reported in 2013 that the series had sold some 44 million copies.

The public face

By 2013 Edge described him as a man who “straddles an awkward line between secretive developer and Twitter community manager, fielding requests and queries from players in (mostly) good spirits”. He did not always tell fans what they wanted to hear. In 2012, answering players who demanded the original voice actors, he said that “before whining, and complaining about everything, you need practice at taking a step back and analysing things objectively. And also at being an adult.” He also experimented with the business: Tekken Revolution, released for the PlayStation 3 in 2013, was free to play, and Harada led Namco Bandai’s wider trials of the model.

As director of Tekken 7 (2015) he brought in guest fighters from well beyond Namco. Capcom’s Akuma, SNK’s Geese Howard and Final Fantasy XV’s Noctis were followed in 2018 by Negan from The Walking Dead, whom Harada and the designer Michael Murray announced at the EVO tournament that August. He also ran a YouTube channel, Harada’s Bar.

Leaving Bandai Namco

On 8 December 2025 Harada announced that he would leave Bandai Namco at the end of the year, having handed his responsibilities to colleagues over the preceding years. Game Developer described him as the series’ executive game director and chief producer, and noted his other work at the company, including Pokkén Tournament, SoulCalibur and the VR title Summer Lesson. He said he would “share more about my next steps at a later date”. In May 2026 SNK announced that it had set up a new studio in Tokyo, VS Studio SNK, on 1 May, with Harada as its representative director and CEO. “From a free, open, and spacious environment,” he said, “we will generate new ideas and create memorable games.”

Sources

Edge issue 258, October 2013, “An Audience With… Katsuhiro Harada”, pp. 84–87: his childhood and the arcades, the psychology degree, the job as a promoter, the sales record and award, his parents’ reaction, his job on the first Tekken, Ishii as director and lead designer, and the sidebar on his Twitter role and the Street Fighter X Tekken tour.
Computer and Video Games issue 199, June 1998: “Tekken 3 team speaks” (the team list, Harada and Masahiro Kimoto as game designers, Hajime Nakatani as producer) and the Tekken 3 feature (Harada’s advice to players).
Edge issue 100, August 2001: Tekken 4 interview with Harada, Kimoto and Yuichi Yonemori.
Edge issue 165, August 2006: Tekken: Dark Resurrection on the PSP, with Harada as “veteran Tekken director”.
Edge issue 210, January 2010: Harada as executive producer of Tekken 6, “making Tekken for 15 years”.
Edge issue 231, September 2011: Harada as producer of Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
Edge issue 244, September 2012: Harada on fans demanding the original voice actors.
Edge issue 261, Christmas 2013: Tekken Revolution, Harada’s free-to-play work, and the series’ 44 million sales.
Game Developer, Chris Kerr, “Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada is leaving Bandai Namco”, 8 December 2025 (web, secondary): the announcement, his roles and other games. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/tekken-boss-katsuhiro-harada-is-leaving-bandai-namco
SNK Corporation, “Announcement of New Studio Establishment: Katsuhiro Harada Appointed as Representative”, press release, 13 May 2026 (web): VS Studio SNK, its founding date, Harada’s title and statement. https://www.snk-corp.co.jp/us/press/2026/announcement-of-new-studio-establishment-katsuhiro-harada-appointed-as-representative/
CBR, “Negan From The Walking Dead Will Join Tekken 7”, August 2018 (web, secondary): the EVO 2018 announcement by Harada and Michael Murray, and the earlier guests. https://www.cbr.com/tekken-7-negan-walking-dead/
EventHubs, “Early Tekken voice acting secrets…”, 7 September 2024 (web, secondary), reporting Harada on his Harada’s Bar YouTube channel: his voice work for Marshall Law and Yoshimitsu. https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2024/sep/07/tekken-secrets-balance-harada/ Harada also described his voice work for Marshall Law and Forest Law on X on 4 January 2024. https://x.com/Harada_TEKKEN/status/1742925171676348827
Wikipedia, “Katsuhiro Harada” and “Tekken 3” (web, secondary): born in Osaka, 10 June 1971 (the Japanese Wikipedia gives 1970); Harada among Tekken 3’s credited directors; Tekken 7 as a game he directed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsuhiro_Harada and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekken_3