Tekken and Dead or Alive are two video game sagas that belong to the fighting genrevery different from each other, but with creators who are more united than you might imagine.
Katsuhiro Harada and Tomonobu Itagaki had been developing and competing in the industry for decades, something Harada commented upon saying goodbye to Itagaki.
Let us remember that in October 2025 we received the sad news that Tomonobu Itagaki, the legendary creator of sagas such as Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive.
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Interestingly, this year we also learned the truth about this rivalry and why it happened. It is a coincidence that, just when he decides to tell, his companion leaves this world.
The video game industry mourned this death and friends, colleagues and rivals said goodbye to the Japanese, perhaps that’s why Harada dared to become a little more sentimental.
Citing a Famitsu article about the miraculous conversation between the two and Itagaki’s words, the tekken boss He made everything very clear.
Katsuhiro Harada’s heartfelt tribute to Tomonobu Itagaki
The magazine republished an article where the two spoke in three issues between January and March as a memorial project for Tomonobu Itagaki.
This was published in 2012, when Itagaki was with Valhalla Game Studio to create Devil’s Third and Harada was with Tag Tournament 2.
In the interview they played why the creator of Dead or Alive said he hated Tekkenthe conversation between the two and many other equally interesting things.
“For greater clarity, this article recreates the conversation between the two, in which they reflect on past events.
Includes episodes from the time, some already known, presented as if they were being remembered again“.
Therefore, it seems that Katsuhiro Harada was able to remember again this exchange of words with Tomonobu Itagaki in 2012 as if it were something recent.