Aug 18
Kohei Ikeda, the game director known for Tekken 7 and Tekken 8, announced on August 18 that he has joined VS Studio SNK. Ikeda, also known by the nickname Nakatsu, left Bandai Namco Studios in June after 20 years at the company. He began his career at Enterbrain before moving to Bandai Namco, where he worked on numerous titles, especially the Tekken series, serving as game director and development producer for Tekken 8. VS Studio SNK is a development studio established in May with support from SNK. Its CEO is Katsuhiro Harada, who worked on the Tekken series with Ikeda and left Bandai Namco Studios in 2025. Yuichi Yonemori, another Tekken series veteran, is also part of the studio as CCO. In an X post, Ikeda said working on game development again with his two former bosses feels nostalgic and full of excitement from creating something new, and that he is very fulfilled. The game currently in development at VS Studio SNK has not been announced yet.
Aug 6
At CEDEC 2026, Masataka Ishiguro, motion director for early Tekken and Soulcalibur titles, and martial artist Taichi Sato demonstrated fighting action animation techniques. They argued that pushing the front knee forward to add power can make poses look cramped. The lecture proposed a three-layer animation design concept of realism, acting, and theatrical flair.
Jun 29
Bandai Namco Entertainment revealed at EVO 2026 a gameplay trailer for Bob, the next Season 3 character for Tekken 8. Bob enters early access on August 19 with a full release on August 24. Other Season 3 characters include Kunimitsu, Roger Jr., and Yujiro Hanma from the Baki series.
Jun 27
Bandai Namco Entertainment America streamed a teaser trailer for Tekken! Cartoon, an animated project featuring superdeformed versions of the game series' characters. The trailer includes live-action footage of cast member Tsubasa Tobinaga. Sohta Ozawa (NERD) directs, Amehiro handles character design and animation, and an unnamed person in a blue shirt is responsible for music and sound design. More information will be revealed later.
Jun 24
Hamster announced on June 24 that it will release Arcade Archives 2: Tekken on June 25, 2026, for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The game is a port of the original 1994 arcade Tekken, developed by Namco (now Bandai Namco Entertainment). It retains the four-button control scheme mapping left and right limbs, and the Arcade Archives 2 line supports VRR to reproduce behavior closer to the original arcade hardware. The price is 1,800 yen, and it supports one to two players. On the release date at 19:00 JST, Hamster will stream a Tekken special episode of its official program Arcade Archiver on YouTube, featuring development talks with the original team and game introductions. The original Tekken was a landmark 3D fighting game that launched during the early 3D era, competing with titles like Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter II.
Jun 2
Kohei Ikeda, game director for Tekken 7 and Tekken 8, announced on Monday that he has left Bandai Namco Entertainment after 20 years at the company. His departure follows that of former Tekken project producer Katsuhiro Harada, who left at the end of 2025 and now leads SNK's new studio.