Katsuhiro Harada joins SNK in a surprising turn of events, one that almost feels like treason towards his own creation. Tekken is a long running series, but without him a feel like there is a crucial element that won’t be there anymore. When a creative member of the team leaves his creation behind, then you sometimes run the risk of ending with an empty shell of what it once was, and I’m very certain that Tekken 9 if it ever comes out will suffer from this departure. At the same time, it does feel as if Harada switched sides, only to focus on other kinds of fighting games.
Katsuhiro Harada joins SNK
SNK announced a new studio division and it seems that Harada will take part on it, VS Studio from the SNK corporation will clearly be based around fighting games if we can just assume from the name alone. However, according to Katsuhiro Harada himself, it seems that this studio will be one that tries to define conventions in game development, to create something that is truly visionary. We still have zero idea of what any of these things mean but hopefully what we can have is some good quality games that we have never seen before.
The shift to SNK might feel like a backstab for fans of the Tekken series who have been following it for years, but for Harada this is a breath of fresh air in an industry that becomes more and more complicated with time. This is a smaller division financed by SNK, and Harada does consider it as some sort of indie studio where he can make games with friends he has worked with for years. Maybe this time we will get to see something truly original, and hopefully defying tradition means finding new ways to mix genres together rather than doing stuff soullessly.
