Longtime Tekken veteran producer Katsuhiro Harada has revealed that he is hoping to release two game projects this year. This information comes from 4Gamer’s year end interviews with Japanese devs.
Harada has actually had a busier 2013 than he let on. He talks about being involved in developing multiple free to play titles, as well as adapting the company to changes in the console industry in collaboration with Sony Computer Entertainment. (The free to play titles he is referring to are Tekken Revolution and the upcoming Soul Calibur: Lost Swords.)
Harada also comments that he’s actually been doing a lot of things outside of his primary role as Tekken’s showrunner, including some ‘mysterious jobs’ and non-paying holiday gigs. To sum he affirms that he has been working on other titles aside from Tekken and plans to focus on this vital game development work for the upcoming year.
Tekken’s importance to Namco Bandai historically is grossly underestimated. For years, the franchise was the company’s biggest gaming franchise moneymaker, only recently unseated from this position by the Demon’s Souls franchise. Likewise, Harada has been so irrevocably connected to Tekken it’s hard to imagine him making anything else, but of course, Harada has had a hand in many non-Tekken titles before and since it was conceived. Some of Harada’s notable non-Tekken projects include Soul Calibur 4, Soul Calibur Legends, Ace Combat Assault Horizon, and Urban Reign.
Looking at Tekken’s development history, the dev team focuses on one game at a time, and they’re busy working on Tekken Revolution now, so it’s highly unlikely these two new games are Tekken games. What kinds of games do you think he’ll be announcing?
Image from Twitter.
