Katsuhiro Harada, the soul figure of the “Tekken” series who announced his departure from Bandai Namco at the end of last year, has finally officially announced his next move.
The producer, who has long been called the father of “Tekken” by players, has established a new game studio “VS Studio”. The most surprising thing is that the investor behind this studio is actually Saudi Arabian capital owning SNK, the veteran fighting game company of “Hungry Warriors”, “The King of Fighters” and “Samurai Shodown”.
As soon as the news came out, many fighting game players were instantly dumbfounded. After all, Harada Katsuhiro was almost synonymous with “Tekken” in the past, and now he suddenly joined the SNK camp. It does feel like the world of fighting games is out of order.
The name VS Studio itself is full of fighting flavor
At present, VS Studio has not officially disclosed what works it is developing, but just looking at the name, it is hard not to think of fighting games.
Katsuhiro Harada stated in the official press release that VS Studio’s philosophy is to “transcend tradition and pursue perfection.”
And “VS” itself actually has many meanings.
In addition to representing “Video game Soft”, it also symbolizes the fighting spirit of “Versus”. It also includes concepts such as “Visionary Standard”, “Volition Shift” and “Vanguard Spirit”, emphasizing innovation, challenge and breakthrough.
To put it bluntly, starting from the name, he is already very Harada Katsuhiro.
SNK has not yet fully acquired it, but it may directly become a subsidiary in the future.
SNK doesn’t fully own VS Studio at this stage.
At present, it is more like an investment partnership, but officials have revealed that there are plans to turn VS Studio into a subsidiary in the future, which means that the subsequent relationship may become deeper and deeper.
This also means that Harada Katsuhiro’s next new work is likely to receive a considerable degree of resource support from SNK.
Today’s SNK is no longer the SNK it used to be.
The article also specifically mentioned that SNK had actually been acquired by Saudi Arabian capital as early as 2022.
After a large amount of capital injection, SNK has begun to make frequent moves in recent years. It not only hired Cristiano Ronaldo as a guest star for “Hungry Wolf: City of Wolves”, but also vigorously organized high-prize e-sports events.
Now that Katsuhiro Harada has joined, the whole taste has indeed begun to look different.
Especially for old players, watching the representative figure of “Tekken” go to SNK to open a studio will really feel like a “big reshuffle in the fighting game industry.”
I wonder what the deceased Sulfur Face would say if he heard about this?