Katsuhiro Harada

CEO, VS Studio - Rooted in 1990s Video Game Soft R&D. Former TEKKEN / Soul Calibur Series Creator / Director.

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

I have launched VS Studio.
Built on the knowledge and passion we have cultivated over many years on the front lines of game development, we are now beginning a new challenge.

VS Studio を立ち上げました。
私たちは、長年ゲーム開発の現場で培ってきた知見と情熱をもとに、新しい挑戦を始めます。

https://t.co/js8uZH5O7N

[SNK GLOBAL @SNKPofficial]

[Press Release]
SNK Announces Establishment of New Studio Led by Katsuhiro Harada
Katsuhiro Harada Appointed as Representative
https://t.co/sTb4GHFcDH

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

ご視聴ありがとうございました❗️

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

第3回 野田クリスタル Presents ゲーム制作 初心者すぎ大会 https://t.co/E1VEPCiaWi @YouTubeより

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

第3回 野田クリスタル Presents ゲーム制作 初心者すぎ大会 https://t.co/E1VEPCiaWi @YouTubeより

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

17:00より出演

[【公式】野田ゲーシリーズ @nodaparty]

ゲーム制作初心者すぎ大会
本日9/5 17：00より生放送！！

出演🎮
野田クリスタル@nodacry
丹生明里 @nibuchan_staff
原田勝弘（VS Studio SNK） @Harada_TEKKEN
ズズ @zetyou2
三代川 正（ファミ通.com編集長）@tad_miyo
ヒロユキMc-Ⅱ @hiroyukiMc_2
MC 日下れいな @reina_kusaka

野田クリスタルYoutubeチャンネル
https://t.co/Vxpy3Q8K9A

[【公式】野田ゲーシリーズ @nodaparty]

ゲーム制作初心者すぎ大会
本日9/5 17：00より生放送！！

出演🎮
野田クリスタル@nodacry
丹生明里 @nibuchan_staff
原田勝弘（VS Studio SNK） @Harada_TEKKEN
ズズ @zetyou2
三代川 正（ファミ通.com編集長）@tad_miyo
ヒロユキMc-Ⅱ @hiroyukiMc_2
MC 日下れいな @reina_kusaka

野田クリスタルYoutubeチャンネル
https://t.co/Vxpy3Q8K9A

[【公式】野田ゲーシリーズ @nodaparty]

野田クリスタルPresents
第3回「ゲーム制作初心者すぎ大会」🎮✨

なんとゲストに 丹生明里さん の出演が決定！
皆さんの応募作品を丹生さんにもプレイしていただきます🙌

📅 日時
9月5日(土) 17:00 スタート

📺 配信チャンネル
野田クリスタル YouTube
https://t.co/9Day4a69Av

[【公式】野田ゲーシリーズ @nodaparty]

配信チャンネルは

https://t.co/xCmybnHmLQ

[【公式】野田ゲーシリーズ @nodaparty]

【遂に明日開催！】🔥
野田クリスタル Presents
第3回「ゲーム制作初心者すぎ大会」🎮✨

ラストを飾る超豪華ゲストのトリは…
VS Studio SNK 代表取締役 原田勝弘さん が参戦！👑💥

豪華ゲスト陣に皆さんの応募作品を全力でプレイしていただきます🙌
どんな展開になるのか、ぜひご期待ください！👀✨

⏰ 日時：9月5日(土) 17:00スタート！

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

I’ve visited France more times than I can count since I was in my twenties. And of course, not just Paris — Lyon, Toulouse, Montpellier, Caen, Bordeaux, Nice, Bayonne… and many, many other cities.

Over the course of several decades, I’ve traveled all over the country, and somewhere along the way, I developed my own entirely subjective image of what a “French character” was like. That image had always been sitting somewhere in the back of my mind, and eventually it became part of the inspiration for Victor Chevalier.

That stage on the Seine was influenced by a memory from my twenties. I had just arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport, headed straight into central Paris, and went on a cruise along the Seine. The Paris stage in TAG2 was influenced by that experience as well.

And when I asked the artist to work on Victor’s design, I actually included photos of Vincent Cassel in the reference materials.

At that point, we hadn’t even decided on the name “Victor” yet. But I had been thinking about what this French character might have been like when he was younger, and I wrote up a little character note that went something like this:

———

He gets to work at 9:00 a.m. and spends until around 10 chatting with his coworkers about things like, “That restaurant we went to last night was really good.”

Then sometime after 11, he starts getting restless and asking everyone, “So, where are we going for lunch today?”

Once they decide on a place, they leave work a little early, enjoy a lunch with wine that lasts well over two hours, and finally return to the office around 2:00 p.m.

By about 4:00, he starts getting restless again.

“So… where are we going tonight?”

He talks it over with his coworkers, leaves work at 5:30, walks through the city, looks at the same Paris scenery he sees every single day, and still mutters to himself:

“Quelle belle vue!”

Then he enjoys a long dinner with wine — made even longer by the fact that the food somehow takes forever to arrive.

The next morning, he comes back to work at 9:00 and spends until around 10 talking with his coworkers about things like, “That restaurant we went to yesterday was really good.”

And then, sometime after 11, he starts getting restless again…

———

That was basically the kind of life I imagined this French character living, and I sent that note around to everyone on the team.

Of course, there were plenty of twists and turns after that, and Victor eventually evolved into a much more original character that moved quite a bit away from that initial idea.

But looking back on it now, I realize Vincent Cassel had a pretty big influence on my personal image of what a French character looked and felt like.

And one more thing about Paris: for some reason, I absolutely love the city at dusk.

I’ve always had this completely personal feeling that Paris is a city that just looks exceptionally good in the fading light of evening.

[Mofix @mofix_mofix]

In all this “Victor is cheap” talk, I forgot how excited I was when he was announced. Vincent Cassel voicing a character in one of my favorite games meant so much to me . His charm is off the charts. Wonder if this holds some @Harada_TEKKEN story during the making of game

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

Oh wow!
now this is some good nostalgia.

By this point, arcades in Europe and North America were already on the verge of extinction, while Japan still had a living, breathing arcade scene. A lot of people from the Western fighting game community were coming to Japan back then as well, hoping to learn from TOGEKI, which at the time was the biggest multi-title fighting game tournament in the world.

It was also an era when senior management, including our founder, Masaya Nakamura, would actually come down to the development floor, see what we were creating with their own eyes, and judge its value for themselves.

Looking back, though, what came next was probably the real turning point.

The VS R&D division, responsible for titles like Tekken, Soulcalibur, and Taiko no Tatsujin, had consistently been one of the teams carrying the company. But then people with very little in the way of actual accomplishments started bringing in consultants and all sorts of mysterious “methodologies” from outside the company.

I suppose at some point, they stopped trusting their own creative instincts.

And after that, people who seemed far more interested in PowerPoint decks and numbers in Excel spreadsheets than in the actual game builds themselves started to——

Oh!??

That’s the doorbell.

Looks like someone’s at the door.

Perhaps we’ll continue this story another time.

[Mark Julio 『マークマン』 @MarkMan23]

Retro TEKKEN vid of the day No. 9

🕹️ TEKKEN 5: Dark Resurrection (ARC)
🇯🇵 Gunsou Cup ~ Battle for Pride ~
📽️ Originally published by Enterbrain/Arcadia. Edited by Nakatsu. English Subtitles by n0pants/MarkMan

In January of 2007, a battle between some of the world's greatest TEKKEN talent was held in Japan's game center Saitama POPY. This legendary battle would go down in history as one of the greatest days of competitive TEKKEN.

Watch the build up through earlier battles between S. Korea and Japan in TEKKEN 5's earlier revisions. The history, legacy and story from various players come full circle in an epic showdown between the strongest fighters at Gunsou Cup.

The Gunsou Cup featured a 5 VS 5 team tournament format in a new era of TEKKEN. At the time this coincided with the arcade version of Namco's TEKKEN 5: Dark Resurrection.

This story surrounds the best players from Japan's Kansai region, led by the fabled Mainstreet Ryu and his team, JAPANESE FINAL WEAPON. Mainstreet Ryu's sights were set on South Korea's strongest player at the time, Qudans. Qudans and 4 other S. Korean TEKKEN all-stars rounded out TEAM KOREA as the BATTLE FOR PRIDE was set.

In 2019, the latest entry in the series (at the time), TEKKEN 7 -- is beloved by many around the world. It is undoubtedly the most popular TEKKEN title in terms of viewership and competition. In 2017, ten years after the Gunsou Cup, Qudans, now a living legend is crowned TEKKEN World Tour Champion. This is a rare look into the legacy and legend of yesteryear that helped develop what global TEKKEN competition is today. Please enjoy it.

Originally recorded and distributed by Enterbrain's Tougeki Damashi MAX as a DVD release in 2007. This is a fan translation and not meant to be sold, reproduced or redistributed in any way. All rights reserved.

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

@kymg いやいやいやいやいや！最終的に子供は「なぜ残さなかったんだろう？」になっちゃうと思います！AI時代にこれは価値を持つ可能性も・・・

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

個人的にはひっそり個室で行いたい座談会ですが、告知協力をとの事でしたのでこちら。

"板垣伴信を偲ぶスペシャルトーク"

https://t.co/RQ7Gz3MrUG

ゲスト陣の中では唯一、元Team Ninjaではないです。
つまり唯一まともなゲスト、なはずです（以下略）

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

That was not a Bandai property. I think you’ll find, if you look into it, that it was a Namco IP from the very beginning.

https://t.co/C51kuKaTss

The original film project was also planned and produced by Namco.

Later, when we were working on Yoshimitsu’s design, Mr. Tsushima, who was an in-house artist at the time, and I talked about incorporating a bit of the flavor of Mirai Ninja (Cyber Ninja). Mr. Tsushima then took that idea and pushed it quite boldly, and the result was the Yoshimitsu design you see in Tekken 3.

So in that sense, there are certainly some elements of Cyber Ninja in Yoshimitsu. But those elements were simply carrying forward inspiration from Cyber Ninja, a project created under Namco founder Masaya Nakamura. Bandai had nothing to do with it.

[Roger | Jonin01 🇨🇦 @Rogerdodger73]

@Harada_TEKKEN was Yoshimitsu taken from/inspired by Bandai's "Cyber Ninja" (1988)? He looks quite similar!

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

No, the camera boat was on starboard, so it had right of way.
The USA boat that tacked was simply trying, from a tactical standpoint, to complete the tack in as advantageous a position as possible relative to the starboard-tack boat.

And I wouldn’t exactly call the situation perfectly controlled, either. If the camera boat protested that the USA boat tacked too late and forced it to luff up slightly to avoid a collision, there’s even a chance the USA boat could be penalized after a hearing.

Also, the USA crew seem a little slow shifting their weight onto the windward deck after the tack.

It’s hard to judge the exact degree of overlap between the two boats from this camera angle, but the loss of speed during the maneuver is probably just less obvious because it’s a catamaran. To me, it doesn’t really look like a particularly successful tack.

[Exotic Motion @MercedesLover01]

They ran to safety because their boat was about to collide into another boat on sea🤯. But the other Captain was far too experienced and controlled the situation perfectly and avoided the collision 🫡

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

In Paris with Kamiya-san.

We spent 40+ mins arguing over who’d play DiCaprio for a Titanic reenactment on our Seine cruise. By the time we settled it, the tour was over.

So this is the only photo we got.

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

You know, some people are still saying, “So, Yasuki Nakabayashi is the current director of TK,” but I think I more or less answered that in the post below a while ago. If you read it again, I’m sure you’ll understand what’s going on.

https://t.co/X4Eb4lX8UD

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

Just a small clarification regarding the facts.

The work behind the latest update had actually been in progress since last year, and what is currently being delivered is the result of that long-running effort. (Anyone who has worked in game development will probably understand this timeline—it’s not just about debugging and QA; there are also first-party certification and approval processes involved.)

About a year ago, I made this post –> ( https://t.co/0IH3lubaGB )

And yes, the direction of this patch update was naturally led by Nakatsu (Kohei Ikeda). At the same time, the other director you mentioned, Yasuki Nakabayashi, was also deeply involved in directing it. Mishimastar as well.

The reality is that they spent the past year working toward this release, and this update became the final work they delivered before leaving the company.

Also, this should go without saying, but not only for this update—these results are the product of many project members working incredibly hard, even if their names are not widely known. Because of that, I hope people will evaluate these achievements as the work of a team rather than focusing on individual names. (Personally, I don’t think there is much value in studying the credits and trying to attribute everything to specific individuals.)

I also see a variety of speculation and analysis from the community. Unfortunately, most of it is not accurate (and I don’t mean just this particular topic).

In fact, the directors whose names you mentioned, including Yasuki Nakabayashi, have already left the project and begun new journeys of their own.

There are also a small number of people who explain things based on their supposed knowledge of the game industry. Unfortunately, most of those explanations are not accurate either.

This is simply a factual clarification and nothing more. Nothing beyond that.

That will be all on this topic.

Now then, since we’re here, a quick personal update.

I recently considered changing my X account name, but the X team advised me against it. They warned that the current name could quickly be claimed by someone else and potentially used in a misleading way. Even the old trick of changing the name and immediately reclaiming it with another account apparently doesn’t work very well these days, because bots monitor these changes and can grab the name almost instantly. They did say X might lock the name, but there are no guarantees.

My heart remains with this community. It always has, and it always will. (Well, I do get angry from time to time, but I deliberately do that because I believe people expect honesty from me lol.)

So I’ve been thinking that perhaps I should leave this account here as a piece of history and simply create a new one. But there’s no rush. I have plenty of time to think about it.

For now, let’s keep talking here.

It turns out there is quite a bit of demand from younger generations for stories about the game industry in the 1990s and the early days of the 21st century. (Who would have thought? lol)

Anyway, today is guaranteed to be another incredibly fun day at VS Studio.

There is a shared environment, atmosphere,vision, and team here that genuinely feels like stepping back into the 1990s and the early 2000s.

Get Ready for the Next Creation!

[AUTOMATON（オートマトン） @AUTOMATONJapan]

【ニュース】バンダイナムコを退職した“ナカツ”こと池田幸平氏、VS Studio SNKに加入。共に『鉄拳』シリーズを手がけた原田勝弘氏らと合流して新作開発へ
https://t.co/FDtzoBbZsD

[Kohei Ikeda（Nakatsu） @nkt_dreamer]

【A Quick Update】
I’ve joined VS STUDIO as the next step in my journey.

Working on games again with two of my former bosses feels nostalgic in many ways, while at the same time, the excitement of creating something completely new makes every day incredibly fulfilling.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can create together!

⸻

【近況報告】
新たな挑戦の場として、VS STUDIOに加わりました。

かつての上司2人と再び一緒にゲーム開発に取り組む毎日は、どこか懐かしく、それと同時に新しいゲームを生み出していく刺激にも溢れていて、とても充実しています！

これからここで何を生み出していけるのか、私自身も楽しみです！

[Kohei Ikeda（Nakatsu） @nkt_dreamer]

【A Quick Update】
I’ve joined VS STUDIO as the next step in my journey.

Working on games again with two of my former bosses feels nostalgic in many ways, while at the same time, the excitement of creating something completely new makes every day incredibly fulfilling.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can create together!

⸻

【近況報告】
新たな挑戦の場として、VS STUDIOに加わりました。

かつての上司2人と再び一緒にゲーム開発に取り組む毎日は、どこか懐かしく、それと同時に新しいゲームを生み出していく刺激にも溢れていて、とても充実しています！

これからここで何を生み出していけるのか、私自身も楽しみです！

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

It feels like typical AI-generated work.

The amount and density of information, as well as the overall quality, increase every year, but somehow it all seems to be heading in the same direction. In any case, it still hasn’t reached a level where it can express any real creative taste, so it’s rejected.

The real battle will begin when an engineer indistinguishable from a human developer is typing away at a keyboard, and a Terminator shows up completely naked to kill me and my grandchildren.

In Japan, we already have cat-eared robots delivering food at family restaurants—but they’re still on wheels. Evolution is way too slow. At this rate, I’ll die of old age before AI ever comes to kill me.

People trying to make money from viral videos have been making a huge fuss about how amazing AI is since around 2020, but honestly, its progress feels slow enough to make me yawn. Both software-based AI and physical AI need to hurry the hell up.

Just yesterday, I still had to clean my car windows myself.

This isn’t the future I was told about when I was in elementary school.

According to the books about the 21st century that I read as a child, we should have had robot chefs in our homes by now. Nuclear-powered jumbo jets should have been flying through the skies. Android tutors equipped with artificial intelligence should have been coming to help children with their summer vacation homework. Cars shouldn’t merely have been self-driving—they should have been flying along sky highways. Fathers should have been commuting to work from cities beneath the ocean. Humanity should already have begun colonizing Mars. Every movie should have featured incredible three-dimensional imagery without the need for 3D glasses. Game developers shouldn’t even exist anymore—you should have been able to shout, “I want to play an amazing game!” and then play GTA 6 on your wristwatch for about two dollars’ worth of electricity. And above all, it was supposed to be a peaceful world where crime was something you could experience only inside video games.

And yet, what does the modern world actually look like?

In Paris and Tokyo, we still live through day after day of dog owners failing to pick up their dogs’ shit while out on walks.

This isn’t the future I was promised.

Every day, I’m reminded that we’re still the ones who have to keep pushing things forward.

[🧩🧩🧩🧩 @VirgoRobb]

I wonder what @Harada_TEKKEN thinks of these.

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

If possible, we’d rather not say anything for at least three years hehehe

[Shikimagura Shiseki @ShikimaguraS]

@AkitoKilian @Harada_TEKKEN If they announce something a year after they started operation, I'd be worried.

If they announce a name of the project two years after they started, I'd start to feel calm.

However if they are 3 years in and all they have is a project codename, THEN I'll be worried.