Katsuhiro Harada (born June 10, 1970) is a developer and producer for Bandai Namco Entertainment. While he has been involved in the development and production of many games created by Bandai Namco, he is most famous for his work on the Tekken series of fighting games as a leading figure of Tekken Project, as well as the Soul Series as a member of Project Soul.
Born in Nara, Osaka as the youngest of three children, Harada had been captivated by video games from an early age, in spite of his parents' disapproval — often leading to him sneaking out to video arcades. After graduating high school, he would attend Waseda University, where he would meet and befriend Tomonobu Itagaki, a fellow future video game developer who would go on to create the Dead or Alive series. He would graduate with a degree in psychology, but his passion for games would still burn strongly throughout his time in college, and he would make the decision to pursue a career in video games.
He would get his start in the video game industry working at an arcade in Shinjuku, Tokyo, that was owned by Namco. There, he would organize fighting game tournaments and, using his knowledge of psychology, collect feedback from players to improve the arcade even further. His work would go on to be recognized by Namco, and Harada would use that recognition as leverage to become involved in game development, landing him a spot on the development team of the first Tekken, which he pushed to have a console release in addition to an arcade release, along with making the game appeal to the general public.
In the years since, Harada's name has become synonymous with Tekken. He has been involved in the development of Tekken games on some level for every game in the series to date, in addition to providing voice acting for a handful of characters up through Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, including Marshall Law and Yoshimitsu.
As of 2019, Harada was named General Producer of Bandai Namco, as such placing him in a head position for the development and production of all of the company's major games, from Dark Souls and Ace Combat to game adaptations of Dragon Ball and One Piece, as well as Tekken. Harada serves in both this role and as Bandai Namco's director and supervisor of esports strategy, working with major tournament organizations such as EVO.
Among fans, Harada enjoys a reputation as both a Trolling Creator and a Memetic Badass, playfully teasing fans on social media while also having experience in judo, karate, and taekwondo and reportedly battling illness with tequila, and always appearing in public wearing Cool Shades. He also hosts a Youtube Channel called Harada's Bar
, where he interviews other game developers.
