Katsuhiro Harada esports Supervisor Role Announced via Twitter

Katsuhiro Harada, longtime producer of the Tekken series, has a new job. Harada announced via Twitter that Bandai Namco has a new initiative to commit to esports development for its three big fighting games: Tekken, Soulcalibur, and Dragon Ball FighterZ. In order to do that, Harada has been appointed as leader and supervisor of the Bandai Namco Fighting Game esports Strategy team. He will also remain as producer on the Tekken franchise.

To everyone in the “DRAGON BALL FighterZ”, “TEKKEN”, and “SoulCalibur” community.

Please read & refer to the following link. Thanks!!!https://t.co/wE62pUOYPa

ドラゴンボールファイターズ、鉄拳、ソウルキャリバーコミュニティのみなさんへ、上記リンクを読んで頂ければ幸いです。

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) December 27, 2018

In a “TwitLonger” statement, Harada stated that Bandai Namco is committing to an expansion of the communities revolving around these three titles, and that the company is planning on running “as many official tournaments as possible” for the next year. Notably, Harada also states Bandai Namco wishes to continues supporting community-run tournaments as well. This is interesting, since a lot of confusion has hit the community as of late due to Dragon Ball FighterZ being conspicuously absent from the Evo Japan even, as well as pulled from a recent North American tournament. The statement continues by stating Bandai Namco is also working on new ways to support tournaments and community activities going forward.

Harada has long been the face of Tekken, appearing at many events such as Evo with new announcements in tow, and of course has built a strong social media presence around communicating with the fans and dropping information in real time. It makes sense for him to represent these communities in an official capacity because of his built-in presence and name value.

Hopefully this leads to some clarification on what’s going on with Dragon Ball FighterZ.

[Source: Twitter]