Katsuhiro Harada's post-Tekken move is now official: the longtime fighting game producer has founded VS Studio SNK, a new game development studio backed by SNK.
In an official announcement, SNK said VS Studio SNK Co., Ltd. was established on May 1, 2026, with Harada serving as Representative Director and CEO. SNK plans to support the studio's launch, invest in the company and bring it into the group as a consolidated subsidiary.
The most important caveat is that no game has been announced. SNK says the two companies will collaborate on game software development to strengthen SNK's development capabilities, but Yasuyuki Oda's comment in the announcement makes clear the project slate is still open.
"To be honest, nothing has been decided yet, but I have no doubt that things will become even more exciting than ever before."
That uncertainty is part of what makes the move interesting. Harada spent decades associated with Tekken, Namco and later Bandai Namco, while SNK is one of fighting games' other defining names through series such as The King of Fighters, Fatal Fury and Samurai Shodown. Seeing a creator so closely tied to one side of that history start a new SNK-backed studio is a genuine genre crossover, even before a first project is revealed.
Harada's own statement frames VS Studio as a developer-first attempt to build a new environment after a long career in games.
"Having been involved in game development for many years, I've constantly considered how I want to spend my time as a developer and what kind of environment allows developers to perform at their best. VS Studio is one answer to that question."
SNK says the "VS" name has several meanings, including roots in "Video game Soft," the "Versus" spirit of challenging tradition and other ideas tied to innovation and challenge. The studio's business activities are listed as the planning, development and operation of video game software.
Tekken itself continues under Bandai Namco, with Tekken 8 still adding new fighters and updates. VS Studio SNK is a separate new chapter for Harada, and the next real question is whether its first game stays near the competitive fighting space that made his name or uses SNK's backing to go somewhere less predictable.