Tekken 8 Game Director Kohei Ikeda leaves Bandai Namco after 20 years, marking yet another major dev departure

Kohei Ikeda, Tekken 8‘s Game Director, has announced he has left Bandai Namco after over two decades with the developer-publisher. In a statement shared to social media, Ikeda reminisces fondly, offering his thanks to fans and his fellow Tekken developers.

“Ever since I first discovered fighting games as a student, I spent countless days in arcades, completely immersed in competition and battling against others,” Ikeda recounts on X. “For someone like me, becoming part of the company I had always admired – Namco – was truly a dream come true.”

During his tenure, Ikeda worked as a designer on SoulCalibur 4 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2, before moving on to produce Tekken 3D: Prime Edition and the Project X Zone games. Having worked his way through the ranks, Ikeda became the Game Director of both Tekken 7 and 8 – a steady ascension that underscores 20 years of undoubtedly hard graft.

“I am deeply proud that I had the opportunity to create games alongside such incredible people who poured their hearts into this work,” Ikeda continues. “While my role leading the team as Game Director is coming to a close, the values that both I personally and the Tekken Project have always cherished – staying close to the fans and the community and building the game together with everyone – will never change.”

Ikeda says he has “entrusted those values” he describes to “the incredible team that will continue shaping the future of Tekken.” Ikeda’s departure follows that of Producer Yohei Shimbori in August 2025, and Tekken Project Executive Game Director Katsuhiro Harada back in December. Though it’s currently unclear where Ikeda will end up next, there’s always the possibility that he will rejoin Harada at VS Studio, which the legendary dev launched in early May.

Tekken 8 itself recently faced fan criticism over game balance, which Ikeda makes a cheeky nod to in his farewell. Season 3, which launched back in March, had promised a ‘back to basics’ approach that many had hoped would salve its overly-aggressive meta. Expectations weren’t met, prompting a response from the team, alongside an emergency patch. Tekken 8’s most recent 3.01.01 patch appears to have further pushed it back in the right direction, so hopefully whoever takes over Ikeda’s mantle won’t have to deal with too much heat.