Tekken 8 Director Comments on Whether He Will Be Involved in Tekken 9

Tekken 8's director and producer, Katsuhiro Harada, has stated that Tekken 9 would likely be the last game he would ever develop. Tekken 8 has been a huge success already, with the game selling at least two million copies since its late-January launch and is one of the most critically acclaimed entries in the long-running fighting game franchise. While the game is still fresh, some might wonder if Tekken 8 will get a follow-up.

Tekken 8's director is one of the most open and communicative fighting game developers, having a consistent presence on social media sites like Twitter and YouTube, the latter hosting his web show, Harada's Bar. This show usually has him discussing various subjects in a more casual setting. The latest episode of Harada's Bar features Harada himself, Tekken 8's trailer announcer, Lenne Hardt, and associate Tekken producer Michael Murray, with one of the topics of discussion being the future of the Tekken franchise.

In the episode «Harada, Lenne, and Michael» of Harada's Bar, Murray asks if Hardt has any questions for the two of them. Hardt asks when Harada will work on a possible Tekken 9, along with when he thinks the game will be out. Harada stated that Tekken 9 would likely be the last game he'd work on before retiring from the gaming industry. "Tekken 9 will be our last work before retirement," Harada said, referring to himself and Michael Murray. He then notes that the timeline of the next game following Tekken 8 would be hard to quantify. Harada then shared his original plans regarding Tekken 8 and Tekken 7. According to Harada, the developers planned on announcing the eighth game two years after 7's launch, and releasing 8 five years after, but the development took much longer than anticipated.

Hardt then notes that Tekken 8 is really popular right now, so it'd be best to wait, with Harada commenting that if they wait too long, they'd get old, expressing it'd be better to release Tekken 9 sooner rather than later. Harada notes that the