Tekken 8 director Harada confirms Tekken 9 will be his last game

While talking on Harada’s Bar, a talk show the Tekken 8 director hosts, he claimed that Tekken 9 would be the last project he works on before he retires from game development. If he even decides to make it.

Katsuhiro Harada has been a pivotal part of the Tekken series for decades, a director so iconic that his name has become synonymous with the series. Tekken 8 is shaping up to be the series’ most successful entry, with the game already selling over 2 million copies in the weeks since its launch and having massive content updates planned.

And, while Harada doesn’t plan on quitting just yet, he thinks Tekken 9 will be his last game.

Tekken 8’s trailer voice actress Linne Hardt asked Harada about the topic on Harada’s Bar, Harada’s very own talk show. Though Tekken 8 has been released very recently, he already has feelings on what his plans for Tekken 9 will be.

“Tekken 9 will be our last work before retirement.” he said, referring to himself and Producer Michael Murray.

He continued, “If we were to work on Tekken 9, it would likely be our final project. It’s actually very hard to answer your question because, after releasing Tekken 7, we had planned to announce Tekken 8 two years later. We wanted to develop Tekken 8 right after releasing 7, and ideally release it five years after the release of 7.

“However, it took more than seven years from the release of [Tekken 7]. We didn’t think it was gonna take that long.”

Harada expressed that he’s getting old, and that he doesn’t plan to wait as long for Tekken 9.

“If we’re going to release 9, it’s better to do it sooner rather than later,” he claimed. Perhaps when new consoles come out.

“I think next would be the release of Playstation 6 or the new series of Xbox. When that happens, I want to release 9 immediately. That’s one thing I’d love to do. But we don’t know how many years that might be.” Harada also expressed interest in releasing Tekken 9 on a Nintendo platform as well.

Though both Harada and Murray were uncertain of the future of the games industry and when we’ll be getting the next gen of consoles (if we get a next gen at all), they’re sure Tekken 9 will be the last project they work on. Maybe that’s when we’ll finally get that Waffle House stage.