In an interview with VG247 about the past and future of the Tekken series on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, Tekken 8 executive producer Katsuhiro Harada, translated by producer Michael Murray, stated that the pair may only have one more Tekken in the lineup before handing the reins of the title to someone else to another.
This is the answer to Harada’s question about what his hopes are for the future of Tekken. You can read the full interview here for his thoughts on other topics, including how Tekken feels about being the last 3D fighter and why Tekken has survived for so long while other IPs have waned.
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“It’s really hard to say. Me and Murray can only have one more Tekken due to age, events in Japan, development and so on. 20-30 years is a long time, so you can have a different team, that’s just how companies work, right? It’s quite unique for the Tekken team, even if you take away the two of us, there’s still the director and the people who are the leaders in the team, we’re all in a difficult situation. It’s quite unique that everyone on the team has been playing for at least 20 years, in most cases, so it may look very different now that we’re gone. who knows? It could be like Smash Bros!”
Harada, through Murray, continues to express his concerns about the balance of power on the Tekken team as he and other senior staff who have been with us for decades leave.
“Honestly, I’m very worried because there are many factors that go into making a game. Of course, there are company management and finance people who have their own financial goals and other issues related to the game’s finances and its relationship to the company. They We are naturally quite powerful, as you can imagine. So it’s very vital to have a artistic side where people know the game All right and I know what it is requirements to be”.
If you’ve been a long-time Tekken fan, it’ll be tough to imagine a future without Harada, Murray, and many of the leading figures who have been the backbone of the growing Tekken franchise. The couple I interviewed are very much the faces and voices of the game, communicating directly with the community on matters both stern and lighthearted.
However, this is not an unknown problem, especially in Japanese games, where several key star developers have led various franchises over the years. Many of these legendary names were created in the early PlayStation era – or even earlier! It is natural that, over time, newer names and faces will take over. You only have to look at the younger, ambitious talent of Street Fighter 6 to see a successful example of what you would hope would happen with all great video game franchises.
