Tekken creator makes Bandai Namco’s most expensive game yet, Not a fighter

It appears that the Japanese gaming giant Bandai Namco has big plans that go beyond the elusive Elden Ring. At least, that’s the takeaway we get from a recent interview. None other than Mr. Tekken himself, Katsuhiro Harada, revealed that his new project is the biggest in the company’s history to date.

What will surprise you, even more, is that this unknown game will not be a fighting game. Quite the surprise when you consider that Katsuhiro Harada is best-known for his work on the venerable Tekken series.

It’s still early days for the new project that Harada teases. As such, there’s basically no information about its nature at this point. What genre will it be? Which platforms does it target? Is it a new IP or a sequel in an existing franchise?

Katsuhiro Harada only talked about one aspect of this new project. Its budget. But that alone is already enough to get excited about it. In an interview with the Japanese portal GamesTalk (via Gematsu), Harada revealed that the game he currently works on is the most costly development project in the history of Bandai Namco.

This fact alone already shows that whatever Harada and his team over at Bandai Namco are cooking behind closed doors is highly ambitious. It’s guaranteed that the game targets next-gen consoles, too. But the real question is, will it also come out for current-gen systems? We highly doubt it. With the game still being so early in development that not even its name is shared, we’re looking at a release in the two years. And that’s the early estimate.

It’ll also be interesting to see what this game is based on. Bandai Namco has decades of experience in the gaming industry. Hence, there’s a fitting amount of IPs to choose from as well. The company’s recent output revolves a lot around licensed anime games with other notable franchises like Ace Combat, Dark Souls, among many others.