“As I reflect on the past 20 years at the company, I remember first stepping into game development through Soulcalibur 4,” wrote Ikeda in a statement. “Later, I was given the opportunity to work on the Tekken series – a franchise that had a tremendous impact on my life and one that I had always hoped to someday give back to. Being surrounded by passionate and incredibly talented mentors and colleagues, and dedicating ourselves wholeheartedly to game development together, remains one of the most cherished experiences of my life.”

Ikeda had served as game director on Tekken 7 and 8, and while the reasons behind his departure haven’t been revealed, the director and producer has had nothing but positive things to say about his time at Bandai Namco. He also thanked the larger fighting game community with which he got to interact as the director of the two most recent Tekken titles.

“Whether it was hearing someone at an event say, ‘Thank you for working so hard for us!’ or being told, ‘You need to balance the game better!’ – every one of those comments supported and motivated me,” he wrote. “For that, I am truly grateful.”

“And to the development team members who fought alongside me for so many years – I can never thank you enough. There is no doubt that everything we achieved was possible because of this team.”

Ikeda wrapped up his statement by noting that he looks forward to seeing where the Tekken franchise goes and how the fighting game community will continue shaping the development of the series. He also noted that he isn’t stepping away from game development, saying that “I will also continue taking on new challenges as a game developer.”

Along with Tekken 7 and 8, Ikeda has worked on quite a few titles during his tenure at Bandai Namco, which has spanned two decades, including beloved games like Tekken Tag Tournament 2. On Soulcalibur 4, he had also worked as a battle effect director alongside his game designer duties.

Ikeda is the second major departure from Bandai Namco’s Tekken team in the last seven months, with former chief producer and game director of Tekken 8, Katsuhiro Harada, having announced his departure back in December 2025. At the time, he spoke about how he was leaving the company during the 30th anniversary of the Tekken franchise, and how he felt that this was the ideal time to bring that chapter of his life to an end.

Harada has since announced the founding of a new development studio, dubbed VS Studio, which was formed thanks to investment from SNK. The name of the studio should come as no surprise, since Harada has been largely working on fighting games for the majority of his career.

Tekken 8, in the meantime, is going through its third Season Pass, and Bandai Namco recently announced that Baki the Grappler’s Yujiro Hanma will be joining the roster in early 2027.

It is worth noting that Bandai Namco hasn’t officially unveiled how Yujiro will look in the game – the teaser only makes use of artwork from throughout the manga’s pages to showcase him. He’ll join the roster in early 2027.

Yujiro is the father of the protagonist Baki and serves as one of the primary antagonists throughout the manga series. Interestingly, the father-son drama that forms the throughline for the manga also happens to make Yujiro a perfect fit for the Tekken roster. The fighting game’s plot essentially kicked off several decades ago due to Heihachi’s hatred of his own son, Kazuya.

In the manga, Yujiro describes himself as the “Strongest Being on Planet Earth”. Throughout the series, he has shown himself to be capable of almost-impossible feats of strength, endurance, speed, agility, and flexibility. His entire goal throughout the story is to have a child who could one day surpass him in all aspects of combat, which also leads him to torment Baki on a regular basis in an effort to make him stronger.

The Season 3 Character Pass will kick off its release schedule on May 27th with the arrival of Kunimitsu. Roger Jr. follows her in Autumn, and Bob, who made his debut in Tekken 6, this Winter.

While Kunimitsu originally made her debut with the original Tekken, this one is actually Kunimitsu 2 – the daughter of the original. The current incarnation made her canonical debut with Tekken 7, but her mother has had several appearances, including the non-canon Tekken Tag Tournament and Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

If you’re curious about her fighting style in Tekken 8, check out the gameplay reveal trailer that was released earlier this month. The trailer focuses on Kunimitsu using her martial arts, ninjutsu and agility to take down foes. Some of her moves include counters, teleports, and even mid-air counters.

As for the story implications of Kunimitsu’s arrival, the kunoichi seems familiar with Tekken 8 newcomer Reina, as well as Raven, a pupil of her father. How these story developments will play out over the course of Tekken 8‘s lifetime remains to be seen, however.

Meanwhile, Yujiro’s arrival marks the fighting game’s second major crossover character, with Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive Rosfield having debuted in the Season 1 Pass. Interestingly, rumors at the time had indicated that it was going to be Final Fantasy 7‘s Tifa Lockhart instead. In a strange turn of events, Tifa is rumored to be instead coming to Street Fighter 6 as part of its next season pass.

As a kunoichi, Kunimitsu relies on her agility, ninjutsu, martial prowess and a ninjatō to overwhelm her opponents. Some intriguing maneuvers include deftly countering a strike into a stab, teleporting to avoid a low strike and countering in mid-air, dashing towards opponents, and launching them before transitioning into a brutal slam.

Perhaps more interesting is that Kunimitsu and Reina already know each other. She’s also familiar with Raven, who trained under her father. In case there’s any confusion (or you didn’t play Tekken 7), this Kunimitsu is actually the daughter of the original, who appeared in the first Tekken.

As for other fighters in the Season 3 Character Pass, Bob will join this Summer followed by Roger Jr in Autumn. An unknown fighter rounds out the list this Winter alongside a yet-to-be-revealed stage. All eyes are on a new collaboration character – with recent rumors claiming Tifa Lockheart from Final Fantasy 7, of all possibilities – but we’ll need to wait for more details.

Those who purchase the Season 3 Pass will receive five days of early access for each character and the Aurora Outfit Pack, which packs new skins for Jin Kazama, Lili and Panda. It will be available to purchase on February 9th, PST. Of course, there’s plenty more planned, from the 2nd Anniversary Campaign next week to a rank reset, balance adjustments, and more in mid-March.

Available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC since January 2024, Tekken 8 received extensive critical acclaim and went on to sell over three million copies. Sadly, public perception was quickly set ablaze with the addition of a cash shop shortly after launch, followed by several balance changes that caused many hardcore fans to quit.

While the development team has course-corrected extensively in the past several months, Tekken 8 still has an overall “Mixed” rating on Steam with only 55 percent of its users recommending the game. It also doesn’t help that long-time series director Katsuhiro Harada left Bandai Namco last December. Nevertheless, new content is new content, so we’ll see if Season 3 can turn things around.

“I’d like to share that I’ll be leaving Bandai Namco at the end of 2025,” announced Harada. “With the Tekken series reaching its 30th anniversary—an important milestone for a project I’ve devoted much of my life to—I felt this was the most fitting moment to bring one chapter to a close.”

Harada went into detail about how he started out with the company, and how his roots have always been with the grass roots tournament scenes that sprouted around fighting games in arcades from the 1990s. He wrote about carrying arcade cabinets by himself to various tournament venues and encouraging players to try out the brand new 3D fighting game Tekken at the time.

“My roots lie in the days when I supported small local tournaments in Japanese arcades and in small halls and community centers overseas,” he wrote. “I still remember carrying arcade cabinets by myself, encouraging people to ‘Please try Tekken,’ and directly facing the players right in front of me. The conversations and atmosphere we shared in those places became the core of who I am as a developer and game creator.”

As for the future of Tekken 8 and the franchise as a whole, Harada has been handing off some of his responsibilities over the last few years to different members of his teams. This means that development on these titles will continue even well after his departure from Bandai Namco. Closing things out, he reminisced about having worked on interesting titles during his time at the company, from Pokken Tournament to VR title Summer Lesson.

“Each project was full of new discoveries and learning, and every one of them became an irreplaceable experience for me,” he wrote.

Ultimately, Harada’s last appearance in an official capacity for the Tekken franchise is slated to be at the Tekken World Tournament Finals at the end of January 2026. He noted that, since this is going to be his chance to enjoy the tournament without having to worry about his game-related responsibilities, he is also releasing an hour-long “Tekken DJ-style nonstop mix (DJ mix),” to fulfil a dream of his to have performed as a DJ at a tournament. This hour-long track can be checked out on SoundCloud under the title “Tekken: A 30-Year Journey – Harada’s Final Mix”.

While he originally started out as a voice actor on the original Tekken, he would move on to the role of director with the release of Tekken 3. He would serve as director up to the release of Tekken 5, after which he took on producer duties over the franchise. In the meantime, he also worked on titles like the Tekken Tag Tournament games, as well as Soulcalibur. This year’s Shadow Labyrinth will mark the final Bandai Namco release with Harada’s name as an executive producer.

Tekken 8

The Tekken saga has always been drenched in betrayal that helps it stand outfrom the rest of the crowd, but Tekken 8 pushes that intensity higher than ever. That increase in intensity can be felt across each punch, kick, and slam as these hulking behemoths fight each other to the death. The generational curse of the Mishima family continues, and we find Jin at an interesting crossroads – continuing down the dark path of revenge much like Heihachi or Kayuza, or try to become a better man and break free from the cycle of violence. The fights here carry emotional weight beyond the tournament stage, and that makes this journey a lot more compelling to complete than prior entries in the series.

Rather, Harada spoke about how the spin-off series is likelier to return in the form of a game mode for either the current game – Tekken 8 – or a hypothetical mainline sequel. “It’s quite difficult because, you know, Tag is something I’ve always thought of more recently, and [I feel] like it should be some kind of mode within a Tekken 9 or 8 or whatever you want to call it,” said Harada through a translator.

It largely comes down to the fact that the tag fighter sub-genre has become quite popular these days, and Harada isn’t sure if there is room in the market for a new standalone title. He said that “if we start now [to make a Tekken Tag Tournament 3] by the time that they’re no longer popular, that’s when Tag Three would come out.”

Harada went on to note that, if a new standalone Tekken Tag Tournament were to be developed, it would be more likely to be worked on by a new generation of game developers, saying that it probably wouldn’t happen in his “working lifetime”.

“We have so many more moves than a typical 2D fighter,” he explained. “So much more work is involved in trying to do that with a 3D game…It’s probably a ways off if it were to happen, and so probably not in my working lifetime. So that’s something that the next generation can decide.”

Interestingly, Harada also spoke about a crossover game that was long believed to have essentially disappeared – Tekken X Street Fighter. The game would have been Bandai Namco’s follow-up to Capcom’s own Street Fighter X Tekken from all the way back in 2012. While the title was confirmed to be in development at the time, work on it had seemingly been quietly dropped.

“It’s hard to say if that’s even a thing,” said Harada when asked about Tekken X Street Fighter. “I mean, it depends on what people are wanting as well. That said, I would like to show people what we already have. That would be cool if we could do that. We were 30 percent into development, so fingers crossed.”

It is worth noting that Tekken 7 did get something of a crossover with the Street Fighter franchise thanks to Akuma being one of the core parts of its roster. Since then, the Tekken franchise, and especially Tekken 8, have featured several crossover characters from across various other franchises, including Fatal Fury and Final Fantasy.

As for Tekken Tag Tournament, the last game in the series was released back in 2011 on the PS3, Xbox 360, and eventually the Wii U. In the meantime, check out our review of Tekken 8. Also check out the details of the next additions to the Tekken 8 roster, Armor King and Miary Zo.

However, that’s not all, as the developer revealed the final DLC character for the season: Miary Zo, a brand new fighter. Her fighting style is unknown, but she’s packing sparring gloves and large wrist cuffs. Miary also hails from Madagascar and is accompanied by Baobab Horizon, a new stage. Both will be available this Winter.

As for the future and whether there will be a Season 3 Character Pass, stay tuned for more details. Tekken 8 is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. It crossed three million sales last February. Check out our review for the base game here.

Other titles appearing, including The Blood of Dawnwalker, Patapon 1 + 2 Replay, Little Nightmares 3, Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots, Death Note: Killer Within, Shadow Labyrinth, Tekken 8 (specifically its next DLC character, Fahkumram), Super Robot Wars Y and, of course, Code Vein 2. It could also reveal the next Tales of remaster and maybe even the next Ace Combat.

Bandai Namco hasn’t indicated how long the presentation will be, so stay tuned for more news and updates. As for its releases this year, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree arrives on September 19th, while Digimon Story: Time Stranger launches on October 3rd.

As a fan favorite, Armor King debuted in the first Tekken and has appeared in numerous entries, with Tekken 7 being the last. He’s an accomplished luchadore who entered a rivalry with King, though they would eventually become friends.

After his death at the hands of Craig Marduk, his younger brother took up the mantle, becoming Armor King 2. Given everything that’s happened in the world of Tekken since the previous game, it should be interesting to see how he’ll factor into the story and whether Marduk is still an issue.

Armor King is out this Fall for Season 2 Character Pass holders. Stay tuned for a concrete release date in the coming months, and check out our review for Tekken 8 here.