When someone told Katsuhiro Harada that an AI-generated video about Tekken’s lore was better than the actual games, the legendary producer wasn’t having it. The Bandai Namco veteran fired back with a reality check that every gamer and tech enthusiast needs to hear.
The AI video that sparked the debate
It started innocently enough. A user on X shared an AI-created video chronicling Tekken’s story, claiming it did a better job at explaining the franchise’s narrative than the games themselves. For Harada, this wasn’t just a casual comment, it was a fundamental misunderstanding of how technology and creative work actually function.
First, regarding your comment that some of these videos do a “~ better job than the games.”
What genuinely concerns me is that this kind of statement reflects a fundamental lack of understanding of technological history and chronology.
Reacting reflexively to the final output,… https://t.co/aIiBD1qXsv— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) December 26, 2025
The producer didn’t hold back. He pointed out that the real problem isn’t AI itself, but how people judge it. We’re so dazzled by the shiny end result that we forget to ask the important question: where did all that source material come from? Spoiler alert, it came from decades of work by actual developers.
Harada dropped some serious knowledge, comparing AI skepticism to asking why satellites weren’t used in World War II or why movies before the 1980s didn’t use CGI. The point? Context matters. You can’t judge technology outside of its timeline, and you definitely can’t claim AI is “better” than games when AI literally feeds off content that developers created in the first place.
“What really concerns me is that this kind of statement reflects a fundamental lack of understanding of the history and chronology of technology,” Harada explained. “Reacting reflexively to the end result, without any understanding of the process that led there, ends up revealing more about your own approach to learning than about the work itself.”
The photoshop parallel and what’s next
Here’s where it gets interesting. Harada admitted he made the same mistake back in 1990 when Photoshop launched. He enthusiastically told his sister, already a professional manga artist, that hand-drawing was dead. Sound familiar? It’s the same knee-jerk reaction we’re seeing with AI today.
The producer acknowledges that AI is inevitable in game development. It’s not about choosing whether to use it, it’s about understanding that the industry will naturally evolve to incorporate it. But that doesn’t mean AI replaces human creativity; it’s just another tool in the developer’s arsenal.
In related news, Harada recently confirmed he’s leaving Bandai Namco at the end of 2025 after over 30 years with the company. While he hasn’t revealed his next move yet, Bandai Namco assured fans that Tekken 8 will continue receiving support and the competitive scene remains strong.
The takeaway? AI isn’t magic, and it’s not superior to human developers. It’s a tool that builds on decades of creative work. Before we crown AI as the next big thing, maybe we should understand the history that made it possible.
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