In an interview, the Tekken creator revealed that the decision to leave Bandai Namco at age 55 was not solely due to criticism of Tekken 8. As he approached 50, Harada began thinking about how to spend the final ten years of his career: in Japan, the standard retirement age is around 60.
“We used to release one game a year, and now it can take five years to make one. When I turned 50, I realized that I might only have time left for one game, so I wanted to try something new.”
Katsuhiro Harada grew tired of the corporate model and wants to work in a small team where decisions are made collectively. This approach was instilled in him by Namco founder Masaya Nakamura. The initial team of ten people brought in familiar specialists, many of whom are over 45 years old.
Harada admits that VS Studio will have to compete with major publishers that have far greater resources for marketing and sales. Another challenge is that it is becoming increasingly difficult for players to discover worthy indie games, even when small teams create genuinely high-quality projects.
The studio has not yet disclosed details about its first game. Harada merely noted:
“I can't reveal details about the project we are currently working on, but I can say one thing: we are definitely not making a puzzle game.”