Longtime Tekken director and producer Katsuhiro Harada has joined SNK. It’s been confirmed he’ll be the CEO of the new “VS Studio SNK Corporation”. Harada recently left Bandai Namco, after 31 years with the company. During his time there, he acted as a director and producer for the Tekken franchise since Tekken 3. He had also been involved with the franchise as a voice actor since the very first game.

Moving on from one legendary fighting game franchise to another, Harada finds himself working with a studio that has created multiple notable fighters themselves. Given that the name of the studio is VS Studio SNK Co., there’s speculation that Harada’s first major project could possibly be the highly requested Capcom VS SNK 3. Harada would be no stranger to working with Capcom in a crossover fighter. He was the director of Street Fighter X Tekken back in 2012. However, it is worth noting that VS Studio will operate independently from what SNK is doing themselves.

Harada made a statement announcing the formation of the studio in the video below:

Whether Capcom VS SNK 3 comes to fruition or not, Harada has endeared himself to fighting game fans over the years. He previously handled Tekken announcements with plenty of enthusiasm and would be often seen at fighting game tournaments. It’s exciting to see what him and SNK are able to do together with VS Studio.