With the announcement that NAMCO Bandai would be involved in the production of the next Super Smash Bros. entry came, the assumption, in Western media, that this would involve the entire Tekken team going to work on the product and, effectively, co-opting it from series progenitor Masahiro Sakurai. Harada, in a recent interview with Gamesradar at TGS, clarified what his team’s role would be and that Sakurai was still very much in charge:
Sakurai-san is still indeed the person in charge of that project. We as a company—Bandai Namco, or NAMCO Bandai in the west—are cooperating with him on working on the game. That means using the experience gained in Tekken, and the technology as a base as well—in Tekken, but not just Tekken. So obviously, we’re cooperating with them, but it’s not “Smash Bros. made by the Tekken team!” Obviously it’s Sakurai-san’s project, so please don’t misinterpret that fact.
Thank you, Mr. Harada, for the clarification. You are, as always, a class act.