Back in December, Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada announced he was leaving Bandai Namco after decades of leading the publisher’s marquee fighting game series. His announcement was reflective and heartfelt, and fans wished him well wherever he was going next. Now, we know where he’s going, and oh, no…not like this, Harada.
Harada is now the CEO and director at VS Studio, a new team under the SNK umbrella. At a glance, that sounds like the stuff of fanfiction, with one veteran fighting game legend heading over to another company known for classics like King of Fighters and Fatal Fury, and in theory, this could be a really impactful studio for moving the genre forward. However, look a little closer at the state of SNK, and the cynical cracks start to set in.
Electronic Gaming Development Company, a company owned by the Saudi Arabian prime minister, Mohammed bin Salman, acquired SNK back in 2022 as part of what appears to be a concentrated effort on the part of the Saudi Arabian government to bring its “sportswashing” campaign to gaming. The country with tons of money but a very checkered record on human rights has set about acquiring stakes in developers and publishers like EA and Capcom, as well as taking over long-standing cultural events like the EVO fighting game tournament.
Harada opening a new studio should be exciting, but now it’s got a giant asterisk next to it. It remains to be seen whether or not VS Studio SNK suffers under its parent company, though Fatal Fury has made weird choices since the acquisition, from using AI slop to including soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo as a playable character for no discernible reason.