Harada’s motto isn’t just aimed at toxic fans. It is also aimed at the corporate stooges who want to ruin his game for the sake of a quick buck. It is very easy to imagine a corpo trying to tell Harada to put unskippable ads to Tekken, only for Harada to point at his own shirt while saying his slogan.
Ive been talking about this ever since the BP was I troduced and people were going rabid. Did people really think we could even get a proper T8 without some form of extra monetization? This shows how unavoidable monetization on top of the base price was. It was either make the money, or Tekken starts being binned for ventures more worth Bandai Namco money. This is why people need to stop complaining about non essential gameplay monetization, negate these days you either have it, or the big boys up top say the franchise is done. LIke maybe if Soul Calibur had done one or two BPs in it's first year, with some low budget, low effort cosmetics like T8 has, then they would've made those year 1 sales numbers. But this was before BPs were big, so instead SC gets GG'd as a series.
@@insanemindset2667 Which only worked because Harada was considered essential by his bosses. If any of Soul Calibur's directors had done what he did they'd likely have been fired.
@@wolfman210 It more than that.... Harada is part of the C-Suite at Namco. He doesn't fight with the corporate suits anymore, because is he one of them himself. He got so BIG that they HAD to give the man a seat at the adult table. No director of the Soul Project made themselves that INDISPENSABLE.... and they should have.
That just reminds me of that sick Soul Calibur reference in MK 11 from Spawn when talking to Scorpion. "You've been to other worlds?" "Each with their own Injustices." "Maybe that's why my soul still burns."
My respect for Harada definitely went a lot higher after this read. Not only for being the champion of Tekken but for giving us valuable information from the inside of game development. What a legend he is
Harada has always been cool. He just suffers from the fanbase of his game being rabid. He's pretty respected overall by developers and fans of other series. It's just Tekken fans that have this burning hatred for him.
@@jameshalle558I love tekken but I don't hate him I think he is an artist and he needs time to paint his picture and when he is done we always get a masterwork
Actually it's because none of the higher ups fired him for messing with budgets and unofficially taking charge of a project he had no authority to do so. Also Tekken wasn't forced to push out an unfinished game after an earthquake-tsunami-nuclear meltdown conga line of national disasters while Tekken 7 gets to have 2 years in the arcades before console release. Bamco: Hmmm, I have two children, but only the one I feed and clothe is growing. The other child must be lazy! It couldn't be MY fault!
@spiffythealien the situation was tough. Nobody can deny that, but sc 6 also didn't fulfill the goals bamco had set after its launch, which led to okubo leaving. Sometimes, a project needs people who are unrelenting in their pursuit. Somebody has to stick to certain principles when all the high ups care about the line going up
@@spiffythealien Only problem with your statement is... Harada is one of the higher ups! He's not just a director for Tekken Project or a producer... he's also a general manager of the company.
There’s still hope. I personally believe we might see another DOA game (not for a long while probably). Also did you notice, if you count soul blade or soul edge, both series’s 6th mainline entries are considered the worst and put the respective franchises in jeopardy only to be followed up by a reboot. (From what we know so far)
I don't think so. At this point, I consider Darkstalkers a product of it's time in the wild gaming 90's. I don't think that you could get away with DS today with the amount of visual fidelity that would be demanded of a game, it would invite way too much scrutiny.... and many don't remember the close call that the industry had with Mortal Kombat, Midway got dragged to congress for that and was at the centre of a committee hearing. At this point, I have let DS go... I don't think that Capcom will ever revisit Darkstalkers in my lifetime outside of collections. Soulcalibur boat isn't that, it's more that their is someone, a team, that is missing to go to bat for it. That is a hard problem to fix, no doubt, but it can be fix.... Street Fighter was missing that till Ono pull some figurative teeth to get SF4 out the door. Ed Boon entire career is Mortal Kombat, for better and worse. Harada and the "Tekken Team"... nuff said really. Sakurai.... again, nuff said (to the point that I worry if he was to leave the Smash Project). And so on. And we have seen when the creative influence walks away.... as has been the case with BlazBlue and Mori. Their are a few folks at Bandai that could likely get the old band back together (and make a new one) but they are going to need to be ready for Bandai to be Bandai and fight hard to convince them that this is good idea to push forward. Not easy when you are talking about food on the table and putting your kid through school, knowing what they are at risk with a failure.
Harada responding to my tweet in such an epic fashion made my week! Seeing Soul Calibur in such a desperate state is sobering. I wonder, if we as fans can also unite, like how Max has done for MvC and Killer instinct, and effect the intentions at NAMCO?
I think that a new SC and DS will never happen, but then I see the Capcom polls giving Dino Crisis a lot of love and hope still burns in my heart ... People never forget their treasured memories.
This not only explains things like SC, but also what happened with Kojima and Igarashi, and a lot of what has happened with Square Enix's identity issues. This is genuinely eye-opening
@@ausgod538 You need to re-read Harada's tweet. While he's talking about his experiences at Bandai Namco, language was used to make it clear this is similar thinking to a lot of japanese corporate structure in general.
I won't say much because what Harada has said is an excellent incite to how the 2010-CURRENT Japanese business structure works, but I used to work at Sony Pictures/Animation and lets say these are the types of things and decision making that slowly lets Marvel slip out of Sony's hands (regardless of money) over to Disney. IT DOESN"T EXIST, but I used to hear chatter about Spider Verse level passion and budget for Avengers and Xmen... Xmen 97 is amazing and probably wouldn't have happened if not for Disney so there is always pro and con. Unfortuantely the con is ALWAYS a separation of power and passion in the longevity of the product because "Why would you not want to grow up" so to speak. Also, look at how Capcom was trending RIGHT BEFORE they huge influx of passionate leaders and devs they have today. It's across the board. Kaz (Project Aces) has spoken the same way in how much leadership wants him to "Stop playing games" during TGS interviews.
Licensing would be a nightmare, unfortunately. That's what guest characters get you. Super hype and exciting in the moment, but the tradeoff is your game is never getting rereleased and if it is, it's an exception, not the rule.
@@yinepuiwhite3955very true. It's definitely the major issue with getting these games on major platforms. Not to mention the only truly "complete" version would be a Switch version because of Link in SC2.
He was too important to fire at that point not that it seems he knew that. Tekken is lucky it had him or its possible it'd have either joined or taken Soul Calibur's place.
I remember those days. Back when fighting games where huge visual showcases on consoles. You could effectively devote the entire GPU to just two characters on screen so they looked amazing compared to every other game.
Influencers always eat up whatever Harada spews out onto twitter like its haute cuisine. It was a good read, but in the end its a ton of nothing and lacks a lot self-awareness. Lot of errors in Max's reading of it too, flat out reading words as totally different words.
He's saying that Japanese conglomerates usually don't assign teams to handle certain jobs like how say Disney has a dozen different internal divisions for its brands so you had toy and accounting people coming in from Bandai who had no idea how to run Namco's Arcade business and just treated it the same as what they did before. Compare what Harada said about Bamco's management to how Disney basically lets Kevin Feige and Kathleen Kennedy run Marvel and LucasFilm independent of Disney as a whole and you'll get it.
Soul Calibur is not only my favorite fighting game franchise of all time, it's one of my favorite franchises period. And while for the most part this info really sucks, there is still some hope left. If MVC can make a comeback so can Soul Calibur.
AAA game development is just another by-product of good ole corporate greed. It doesn't matter if you make the Mona Lisa of video games. The corpos WILL demand that you rip that painting in half and make people pay DLC if they want to see the whole thing.
@@insanemindset2667 No it's what happens when costs skyrocket but you still have to fulfill audiences' expectations. They could make games cheaper but they know audiences won't accept the hit to quality like graphics and presentation that comes with reduced spending. This is also why DLC exists to keep games at 60 dollars but even that's not enough anymore. Hollywood has the same problem with blockbusters.
Problem with sc is that its a 3d fighter. Fgc usually loves 2d fighters more (including me). Tekken is a big exception there. 2d fighters once tried to go 3d, noticed it doesnt work that well and stopped
Couldn't agree more. Even during the time of the great guest characters like Vader and Link, I was under the impression that EVERYONE knew about this franchise till I found out that very little even knew about it. But that's what made the series a little bit more special to me.
They need to remove the meter system. That game doesn’t need it. Remove the awakenings and critical finishes. The. They need to refine the guard impact system. It’s a weapon based fighter after all. The party mechanic shouldn’t be something you need to burn meter for.
I feel like the problem is that most people are not interested in stuff like weapons or anything involving medieval weapons so it will never probably get a boost in sales
Yeah, SC6 was really fun after the lackluster - for me - 4th and 5th entries. Also, Best group of guest characters after SC2 imo. Haohmaru vs Mitsurugi had been a dream match for so long it was truly awesome when Haohmaru was announced as DLC.
Here's a shoutout to the modders that have been keeping content flowing for this game with new characters (full movesets), new customization options, legacy equipment and stages. Keep doing your thing, you are the lifeblood as it is right now
All honesty if soulcalibur never gets resurfaced I'm happy with how 6 turned out and still proud of my Glory Days entering and even topping some tournaments from 2-5. 🎉
I semi agree 😂. As someone who loved SC6 story writing, I really wanted to see where the story was going next. Especially when the game ended in a To be continued...
@@LowellLucasJr. yep. It’s called Soul Kombat, a crossover between Soulcalibur and Mortal Kombat. It would have Nightmare and Shang Tsung team up, to harvest souls using his soulnado, with Tsung attempting to betray Nightmare (because of course he would)
i think situations like this really bring to light one of the main things i despise about the modern gaming landscape; only safe franchises that execs are sure will make billions of dollars upon each installment are ever granted the light of day now. niche (and frankly, better) franchises might as well have never existed.
This is a problem that other creative industries (like movies) have as well. Unfortunately the execs want to run all businesses like a factory where things are very predictable and stable. The problem is culture is not like that. Capcom made a billion dollars in the 90s from arcade SF2 alone. You can't predict when you will accidentally create a new incredibly popular genre (especially when SF1 was garbage). Execs see profits but only understand the factory model. The result is as you said. They spend $200 million on safe franchises and expect billions just like it was a mining, oil company, or factory where you could invest in more equipment to produce more ore/oil/widgets and make more money.
@@TheCrewExpendable Because taking a risk is a gamble and when costs are high too many failed gambles are lethal. "Then just lower budgets" The problem with that thinking is that audiences have come to expect a certain quality or "pedigree" if you will from studios like Bamco and Capcom and won't accept the compromises to quality like presentation and graphics that comes from reduced budgets. Soul Calibur 6 and MVCI getting flack for their graphics are proof of this. The result of this is of course prioritizing proven brands and franchises that can recoup the costs of production.
There are almost no such franchises left. A franchise is worthless without a development team, we've seen this many times before. Phil Spencer especially screwed up in this direction. In general, now the audience is incredibly heated because of Woke, you can raise a lot of money from sales if you play your cards right, Space Marine 2 do it and Wukong the same. Now "Dune" is very popular, you can license 2-3 characters from there and insert them into Souls Calibure 7
Harada's candor is one of the best things about him. Nobody else in the industry talks like he does. This is all stuff we would never hear about, yet with him, you can get straight, honest answers about stuff that people want to know.
It's kind of ironic for you saying this because SC6 unfortunately didn't sell well in the time it needed to AND SC2 HD was Delisted off of PSN and the Microsoft Store a year back. That means, unless you already bought it, you can't buy in on modern systems like the Xbox One and Series consoles.
This is why I love this channel. Thank you Harada for the detailed explanation, & thx Max for broadcasting it for us. So much cool intel, now I know the gaming industry a little better.
The fact they left us of with that cliffhanger in 6 dlc with major players in the new timeline like Cassandra Zasalamel & Huang is slightly peeving also to know that original 5 games were basically the bad timeline makes me wonder what stuff are we going to see in soul calibur 7
This guys the GOAT for real. Like he took on the shitty game industry long before the consumers started realizing there was issues because of suits. Now we see it clearly, this man knew it was happening from within the industry, stood his ground and survived.
Soul Calibur VI felt low budget and safe. Like they were afraid to put too much into it. They really should give it one last Big Budget shot. Like Tekken 8 levels of marketing and budget and MAKE people see how cool this franchise is. We need a good weapon based fighter on the scene!
Judging by the fact SC2 on GCN sold the most if they just make it multi platform and put good exclusive characters in it'll probably sell well, only issue is obviously tournament play
I agree. It felt very iterative instead of a fresh new take. Granted, I did really enjoy the game and it's leaps and bounds ahead of 5, but you can see a lot of the same bones that have been around since 4.
15:23- This quote right here. Harada basically breaking down the idea of "Modern Gaming" and how it is looked upon by a good chunk of companies where it seems less about providing that experience, but rather to see how much you can sell so you can keep that growth going indefinitely. Something to which you should know... Well, Indefinitely isn't infinite and you can hit that roof. Harada definitely is one of the standouts in this industry.
Tekken 7 was made with an even SMALLER budget but it was enough for Tekken 8 to exists. Soulcalibur was never as big as Tekken. but, it's chances will skyrocket of Sparking Zero is blasted by critics.
@eyalrephaeli6833 For clarification, you're saying that T7's dev budget was even lower than SC6? Considering the final product compared to the pervious versions of each game I simply cannot believe that. T7 was superior to T6 in all aspects from graphics, roster, and content with 2 yearsof DLC and superior marketing. SC6 looked like and updated version of SC4 and had the smallest roster to date. If there was real data (actual numbers) that shows T7 having a smaller budget than SC6 then I'll change my tune. But you cannot look at the final product and tell me that SC6 had more money behind it than T7.
@@OutlawCarr I'm not sure if T7 had less of a budget than SC6 but Tekken 7 had an arcade release with a way smaller roster compared to the console port. I think one of the factors that made T7 succeed that end up hurting SC6 was that T7 had and arcade release years before the console port, add to that how (at least in Japan) Tekken was always more successful in arcades than Soul Calibur (the GAMEST magazine would be my source for that) so T7 had plenty of excuses to release an arcade port first which ended up being successful enough to help the game grow before the console port.
And why do you think SC6 was given a low budget? Because Bamco didn't have faith it could justify the usual cost of a AAA release after SCV underperformed. This is what I mean when I say audiences won't accept the compromises of reduced budgets.
this is so sad, soulcalibur is my favorite media franchise of all time 💔 i wish there was a way to communicate to the higher ups just how much people love soulcalibur so that they would take it seriously and help it flourish
I gotta get to the Edge of Soul... To carry on what I believed in from the very start... I gotta get to the Edge of Soul... To carry on deep in my heart... To love! To shine!
It's pretty badass Harada essentially shielded Tekken from the suits at Bandai Namco who know nothing about games and game development but unfortunately there was no one like him to do the same for Soul Calibur...
It's so disappointing that SoulCalibur is so niche. IMO it's one of the best fighting games out there. Personally, I think it is way better than Tekken itself. The gameplay is really good, and it is also a very complete game because it offers a great deal of single player content, this is a kind of game that I feel the money I spend is actually really worth it. To me SoulCalibur represents both; quality and quantity. SoulCalibur 6 is very balanced, all the characters are good, and you can win with any of them. Also, the story is really great, I played the entirety of Soul Chronicles and Libra of Soul in order (SC6 story modes), and I have to say the writing is really good, I dont think I like a Story mode in a fighting game as much as I liked the one in SoulCalibur 6. The only problem I had with the story modes in SC6 is that they were locked in Easy mode (way too easy I would say), but I also used a mod of difficulty increase which solved my problem, and that made both story modes a 10/10 in my book. SoulCalibur 3 is still my favorite game, countless hours of entertainment. And Chronicles of the sword is my favorite mode in the entire franchise.
@@cylondorado4582 . Yeah, SoulCalibur has something special. I actually liked Tekken 3 a lot, and I like the character of Nina Williams, but with the pass of time I lost interest in Tekken. It's a good game, but I simply don't like it that much, personally, I never found the appeal on it.
Man, I just happened to follow Harada on twitter for no particular reason; dude is always dropping gems. This is no different, love it. These kinds of breakdowns are always appreciated.
I figured this would happen to the Soul series. I remember there being a lot of discussion when 6 came out about how it needed to be a big success for the franchise to continue, and while it got a lot of coverage in the first couple months (mostly due to the character creator and 2B being added as DLC), people stopped talking about it pretty much immediately after that. That, combined with Bandai Namco's own Tekken 7 and DB FighterZ blowing up in a major way around that time, made me fear that Bandai Namco wasn't going to deem future games in this series to be worth making.
So basically Namco didn't give the guy what he needed to make Soul Calibur 6 bigger than it could have been he got upset and left to Cygames, senran kagura guy did the same, Harada wants to bring it back along with others they're just not in the position to do so quite literally Soul Calibur 7 will have to take time. No wonder all the fans hate Namco, man Namco really likes their fans hating them
This lines up with my own impressions about the management of large video game companies. The people making decisions have no idea what makes a good game.
They only have a idea of what makes a profitable game, not a good one, that's why you get mobile phone slop/shovelware that still makes them a gazillion dollars or whatever.
AAA development is a NIGHTMARE for anyone with a creative vision. Play it safe to appease investors? Your players might hate it. Take big risks? Your superiors will put unreasonable expectations on you, and will drop your ass if you don't meet them. In such an environment, how can true innovation / experimentation survive. This is why AA and indie titles are incredibly important. Without the looming threat from greedy investors, you can afford to take risks.
Honestly heartbroken to hear that it could realistically be another 10 years but there is still hope lol! I just got my second soulcalibur tattoo the other day, needless to say my soul still burns.
Sounds like another series I enjoyed playing bites the dust. And they say we’re living in a fighting game renaissance?! You’d have a hard time convincing me of that.
does give true incite into how the way business is run that doesn't cater to what the developer/creator or consumer/gamer wants or likes. its in the hands of executives/board of directors who are interchangeable, paid millions of dollars to make bad decisions and suffers no real consequences. The real consequences goes to the developers actually doing the work where they are pushed out, forced to leave or laid off. We as fans are left with our fav series just crumbling right in front of us and then poof...series gone indefinitely. its a shame. shoutout to Harada for being honest about the enter workings of the biz. appreciate it. love discussing the nuance of it all.
As someone who just recently discovered Soul Caliber 6 for the very first time, and have found it to be AMAZING. I would really like to see a future for this series.
I would love a Soul Calibur collection consisting of: Soul Edge, SC1, SC2, SC3 with online support. I don't see SC7 coming anytime soon unfortunately but there is hope for a collection on modern consoles and if that sells well hopefully that will spark a SC7 similiar to the MvC Collection and MvC4.
I have never really cared that much about Tekken, but Soulcalibur is the only 3D fighting series I truly love. This is all very painful but let us have some hope for a brighter future.
Stories like this reminds me why the US Navy has a CRITICAL rule when it comes to who can command an aircraft carrier: ONLY a person that was actually a naval aviator--I.E. flying jets (or in the case of Amy Baumerschmidt, rescue choppers) off the deck of the boat can EVER be in line to command the boat. The same thing should apply to any business, really. Only someone that was in the trenches should EVER be in line to run the company. Want to run a game development company? You had better actually have been working on the actual games. Want to run a trading company? You had better have been a trader. Etc. etc. etc.
for me SC2 is still my favorite SC game, specially when it blew my mind that they added guest fighters like Link, Spawn and Heihachi in the respective systems been on GC, OG Xbox and PS2. I still got my GC copy of SC2, wish they would bring it back for the switch.
Confirming what I've been suspicious of for year. Yet it's still an eye opener. 17:50 this part here pisses me off so much. I've always hates suits/moneymen and this brings up why I still hate them. Why force someone to do multiple roles?? Not everyone wants to be a god damn manager. It still hurts being a Soul Calibur fan. But my respect for Harada just grew bigger because of what he said.
At least we got Soul caliber 6 instead of it just being left in limbo with SC5. Still its sucks that we most likely wont see a new soul caliber game for quite a while. But until then, the soul will still burn!
With MvC being in a similar state and us getting the collection, I’m hoping the same thing can happen with SC. Next year is the 30th anniversary, and there was a remaster or collection rumored to be in development last year. Fingers crossed!
Soul Calibur is legit my favorite fighting game franchise right up there with Bloody Roar and Smash Bros. To see it in such a state really makes me sad.
Also keep in mind, Bandai knows 100% first hand how much the arcade experience makes a profit for a fighting game. While most of you reading this wont/havent played it, there's a reason why they keep the latest Gundam Extreme Vs titles as arcade exclusive. It makes soo much money in the arcade that there are several arcades in japan where entire floors are dedicated to that game only.
22:35 Actually, I'd say that was someone (Odashima?) trying to make SoulCalibur's Street Fighter III. EX moves (Brave Edges), Super Moves with stackable meters, fucking blue just frame parries, a timeskip, and half the roster gone with only a bunch of them being replaced by characters that are kind of similar but not at the same time
DING DING DING DING BINGO, that's actually literally what happened. SFIII WAS a failure, especially 3S since, as James Chen pointed out in an interview, nobody cared. Making games MORE like SFIII makes them worse but whenever games like SF6 or Tekken 8 or Xrd are made more like SC, THE GAMES IMPROVE! Aris was jizzing himself at the fact characters in T8 can perform GCF moves from full crouch now, something which SC has been doing the whole time.
Forgot to give the game the '3rd Strike' patch then. The kind of patch where people will still play it and have tourneys running for it 30 years later 😅.
Yes, there was someone there who sincerely cared about its direction, and it was sad to see them eventually post something like "I'm just a slave to the machine" or something on their twitter before the game came out, and then they left. Soul Calibur 5 was also a victim of low budget (probably lower than 6's) and an even lower timeframe to be made iirc (like, criminally low). The team seemed incredibly passionate and laid out a bunch of ideas that never ended up happening because of the rushed development, we all would have gotten more fleshed out newcomers in terms of story at least if it hadn't. Honestly, SC5 at launch was the best the series has been (at least to me), but due to the complaints of the (much smaller) Japanese userbase, they nerfed backstep and made the game much worse in a patch a few months later. That and the netcode just somehow got much worse...
I jumped, screamed, and flipped my chair when Harada unveiled SC6- I await the day maybe I can do it again. I understand why it probably can’t, but I can still dream.
The mechanics were already perfect, one of the few fighters that anyone can pick any character and be successful and have a good time. Such a shame, kind of why I've fallen away from fighters, they just don't have my attention as much. I guess I'll have to rely on Virtua Fighter if it isn't shelved as well.
Imagine a new soul calibur game with a higher budget, fully animated cutscenes, full cinematic story -OR- It branched out into single-player adventure spin off games, telling the stories of characters, like imagine ghost of tsushima but you play as Mitsurugi in an open world, imagine a Siegfried game where you take turns playing as him and Nightmare, imagine a whole fanservice-y game playing as Voldo lmao, or a 2-player co-op adventure game playing as Sophitia and Cassandra, imagine a stealth-oriented game as Taki, stuff like that.
Soulcalibur is my very first and favourite fighting game series. It's disappointing to watch the series fall into obscurity as it has a great story, minus SCV, amazing characters, and unique mechanics. I'm glad we have an in depth explanation as to its lack of traction and little to no updates on a possible new game, but it is still bittersweet to see it taking an indefinite hiatus. Here's to hoping Soulcalibur can rise from its ashes. The Legend Will Never Die...
First of all thank you max for breaking this down. When i saw this i wanted to read it but i was on my own lunch break and i need to eat and get back to work. Second holy hell Harada had a bone to pick with this tweet. He being super respectful due to the public facing, but you can tell he is not happy with the corporate side of gamedev as far as its come over the las 10-15 years. Soul Calibur deserves something and means somethinf to many people including myself and to see it get thrown through the corporate meangrinder just aint right.
I have a buddy that still runs matches with me every weekend. Sad that we might not get a new SoulCal. This is the series that got me into fighting games.
Man “Don’t ask me for shit” as a slogan makes a whole lot more sense with this context. Man’s fighting tooth and nail for what we got already.
My thoughts exactly upon hearing all of this.
Harada’s motto isn’t just aimed at toxic fans. It is also aimed at the corporate stooges who want to ruin his game for the sake of a quick buck.
It is very easy to imagine a corpo trying to tell Harada to put unskippable ads to Tekken, only for Harada to point at his own shirt while saying his slogan.
Ive been talking about this ever since the BP was I troduced and people were going rabid. Did people really think we could even get a proper T8 without some form of extra monetization? This shows how unavoidable monetization on top of the base price was. It was either make the money, or Tekken starts being binned for ventures more worth Bandai Namco money. This is why people need to stop complaining about non essential gameplay monetization, negate these days you either have it, or the big boys up top say the franchise is done.
LIke maybe if Soul Calibur had done one or two BPs in it's first year, with some low budget, low effort cosmetics like T8 has, then they would've made those year 1 sales numbers. But this was before BPs were big, so instead SC gets GG'd as a series.
@@insanemindset2667 Which only worked because Harada was considered essential by his bosses.
If any of Soul Calibur's directors had done what he did they'd likely have been fired.
@@wolfman210
It more than that.... Harada is part of the C-Suite at Namco. He doesn't fight with the corporate suits anymore, because is he one of them himself. He got so BIG that they HAD to give the man a seat at the adult table.
No director of the Soul Project made themselves that INDISPENSABLE.... and they should have.
Harada's Soul Calibur Manifesto summarized:
"Does your soul still burn? Mine does."
That just reminds me of that sick Soul Calibur reference in MK 11 from Spawn when talking to Scorpion.
"You've been to other worlds?"
"Each with their own Injustices."
"Maybe that's why my soul still burns."
thats nice, dont let that man touch that shit
My company hates me, but I acted this way to avoid the same outcome that happened with Soul Calibur.
the most Woolie thing i've ever read in a Max comment section
IT DOES BURN 🔥
My respect for Harada definitely went a lot higher after this read. Not only for being the champion of Tekken but for giving us valuable information from the inside of game development. What a legend he is
He's my favorite game developer of all time. F R E E
Harada has always been cool. He just suffers from the fanbase of his game being rabid. He's pretty respected overall by developers and fans of other series. It's just Tekken fans that have this burning hatred for him.
What a Chad, more knowing how Japanese people act and how disrepectful to the company can be taken a post like this.
Honest, open and awesome!
Can't help but agree
@@jameshalle558I love tekken but I don't hate him I think he is an artist and he needs time to paint his picture and when he is done we always get a masterwork
Harada: "MY SOUL BURNS THE BRIGHTEST, IT IS WHY I AM STILL STANDING"
Actually it's because none of the higher ups fired him for messing with budgets and unofficially taking charge of a project he had no authority to do so. Also Tekken wasn't forced to push out an unfinished game after an earthquake-tsunami-nuclear meltdown conga line of national disasters while Tekken 7 gets to have 2 years in the arcades before console release.
Bamco: Hmmm, I have two children, but only the one I feed and clothe is growing. The other child must be lazy! It couldn't be MY fault!
@spiffythealien the situation was tough. Nobody can deny that, but sc 6 also didn't fulfill the goals bamco had set after its launch, which led to okubo leaving. Sometimes, a project needs people who are unrelenting in their pursuit. Somebody has to stick to certain principles when all the high ups care about the line going up
@@spiffythealien Only problem with your statement is... Harada is one of the higher ups! He's not just a director for Tekken Project or a producer... he's also a general manager of the company.
Soulcalibur fans 🤝Dead or Alive Fans
Desperately waiting for the 7th installment of their 3d fighting game franchise.
There’s still hope. I personally believe we might see another DOA game (not for a long while probably).
Also did you notice, if you count soul blade or soul edge, both series’s 6th mainline entries are considered the worst and put the respective franchises in jeopardy only to be followed up by a reboot. (From what we know so far)
Bloody Roar joins the party.
and forevermore
My two favorite fighting game franchises 😭 maybe I just need different tastes in games or something
@@Rayhaku808 i just play those till this day
Soulcalibur.. now officially the Darkstalkers of Namco.
I don't think so. At this point, I consider Darkstalkers a product of it's time in the wild gaming 90's. I don't think that you could get away with DS today with the amount of visual fidelity that would be demanded of a game, it would invite way too much scrutiny.... and many don't remember the close call that the industry had with Mortal Kombat, Midway got dragged to congress for that and was at the centre of a committee hearing.
At this point, I have let DS go... I don't think that Capcom will ever revisit Darkstalkers in my lifetime outside of collections.
Soulcalibur boat isn't that, it's more that their is someone, a team, that is missing to go to bat for it. That is a hard problem to fix, no doubt, but it can be fix.... Street Fighter was missing that till Ono pull some figurative teeth to get SF4 out the door. Ed Boon entire career is Mortal Kombat, for better and worse. Harada and the "Tekken Team"... nuff said really. Sakurai.... again, nuff said (to the point that I worry if he was to leave the Smash Project). And so on.
And we have seen when the creative influence walks away.... as has been the case with BlazBlue and Mori. Their are a few folks at Bandai that could likely get the old band back together (and make a new one) but they are going to need to be ready for Bandai to be Bandai and fight hard to convince them that this is good idea to push forward. Not easy when you are talking about food on the table and putting your kid through school, knowing what they are at risk with a failure.
@@DuvJones Thats quite the chunk of text, but fair enough.
@@DuvJones It would be like getting the A-team back together. Literally, in this case.
just wait 10 years to take that theory to the test
Asura's Wrath:
The gap from SC6's release to present day is only a little shorter now than the gap between SC5 and SC6
So what you're telling me is that there's hope?!!
Soul Calibur isn't dead. It's on ice for now, but it'll be back. God help the next producer though lol😅.
Oh, don't worry. It'll get longer.
Great you jinxed it
Only silver lining 6 was good compared to Daishit's monstrosity of a game
That's crazy man. I remember how long those years between SC5 and SC6 felt
Never say never, the soul STILL burns!
Harada responding to my tweet in such an epic fashion made my week! Seeing Soul Calibur in such a desperate state is sobering. I wonder, if we as fans can also unite, like how Max has done for MvC and Killer instinct, and effect the intentions at NAMCO?
I hope more people see this it's weird that your comment isn't getting much traction as the one who started all this
MY SOUL STILL BURNS!
Yes very good, you asked a question. Well done.
Tekken is too entrenched as the Namco fighter now.
I think that a new SC and DS will never happen, but then I see the Capcom polls giving Dino Crisis a lot of love and hope still burns in my heart ...
People never forget their treasured memories.
This not only explains things like SC, but also what happened with Kojima and Igarashi, and a lot of what has happened with Square Enix's identity issues. This is genuinely eye-opening
This isn't true for anything but bandai namco. The structure of bandai namco isn't the same as those other companies
Konami also cleaned out Naoki Maeda and Akira Yamaoka as well. :(
@@ausgod538 You need to re-read Harada's tweet. While he's talking about his experiences at Bandai Namco, language was used to make it clear this is similar thinking to a lot of japanese corporate structure in general.
Yep, always knew there were alot of decisions by suits.
I won't say much because what Harada has said is an excellent incite to how the 2010-CURRENT Japanese business structure works, but I used to work at Sony Pictures/Animation and lets say these are the types of things and decision making that slowly lets Marvel slip out of Sony's hands (regardless of money) over to Disney. IT DOESN"T EXIST, but I used to hear chatter about Spider Verse level passion and budget for Avengers and Xmen... Xmen 97 is amazing and probably wouldn't have happened if not for Disney so there is always pro and con. Unfortuantely the con is ALWAYS a separation of power and passion in the longevity of the product because "Why would you not want to grow up" so to speak.
Also, look at how Capcom was trending RIGHT BEFORE they huge influx of passionate leaders and devs they have today. It's across the board. Kaz (Project Aces) has spoken the same way in how much leadership wants him to "Stop playing games" during TGS interviews.
I would at least settle for a collection of the older games. Give us a bundle of Soul Edge and Caliber 1-5. It'd be a day one purchase for me.
Licensing would be a nightmare, unfortunately. That's what guest characters get you. Super hype and exciting in the moment, but the tradeoff is your game is never getting rereleased and if it is, it's an exception, not the rule.
And make it roll back and online play
@@yinepuiwhite3955very true. It's definitely the major issue with getting these games on major platforms. Not to mention the only truly "complete" version would be a Switch version because of Link in SC2.
bro if they can't even manage to release a collection of the first 3 Tekken games XD
Gimme the game cube version with Link
Harada put the biggest target on his back, gave no fucks and went "It's all about who is left standing." What a legend.
He was too important to fire at that point not that it seems he knew that. Tekken is lucky it had him or its possible it'd have either joined or taken Soul Calibur's place.
Soul Calibur 2 rocked my world at 11 years old. I hope SC makes a triumphant return someday.
One day well all be screaming like Max did when MvC2 came back. cant wait.
I remember how happy I was when we got SC2 on PS3 with online play. Good times.
I remember those days. Back when fighting games where huge visual showcases on consoles. You could effectively devote the entire GPU to just two characters on screen so they looked amazing compared to every other game.
@@SavageColeTrain😮 really?! I didn’t know about this. Was the guest characters there?
@@AlexCole272Heihachi and Spawn was.
Harada says it's different in the west but it's the same. Suits and penny pinchers. Profit over art.
Influencers always eat up whatever Harada spews out onto twitter like its haute cuisine. It was a good read, but in the end its a ton of nothing and lacks a lot self-awareness. Lot of errors in Max's reading of it too, flat out reading words as totally different words.
He's saying that Japanese conglomerates usually don't assign teams to handle certain jobs like how say Disney has a dozen different internal divisions for its brands so you had toy and accounting people coming in from Bandai who had no idea how to run Namco's Arcade business and just treated it the same as what they did before.
Compare what Harada said about Bamco's management to how Disney basically lets Kevin Feige and Kathleen Kennedy run Marvel and LucasFilm independent of Disney as a whole and you'll get it.
Soul Calibur is not only my favorite fighting game franchise of all time, it's one of my favorite franchises period. And while for the most part this info really sucks, there is still some hope left. If MVC can make a comeback so can Soul Calibur.
My thoughts exactly.
Taki will be forever jiggling in my heart
Taki's bodysuit and Cassandra's tights "awaken" a lot of young lads.
but ivys massive milkers tho
@@matrielledon’t forget Sophitia’s thighs.
Ivy
Fucking love how hot Taki looks in SC6. Peak design.
AAA game development sounds like a nightmare, no matter where you are in the world.
AAA game development is just another by-product of good ole corporate greed.
It doesn't matter if you make the Mona Lisa of video games. The corpos WILL demand that you rip that painting in half and make people pay DLC if they want to see the whole thing.
@@insanemindset2667 No it's what happens when costs skyrocket but you still have to fulfill audiences' expectations.
They could make games cheaper but they know audiences won't accept the hit to quality like graphics and presentation that comes with reduced spending.
This is also why DLC exists to keep games at 60 dollars but even that's not enough anymore.
Hollywood has the same problem with blockbusters.
Soul Calibur deserves the best but I feel like it'll always be a niche type of game. It needs a big budget and a real big scene
The thing is niche stuff never gets a big budget
Problem with sc is that its a 3d fighter. Fgc usually loves 2d fighters more (including me). Tekken is a big exception there. 2d fighters once tried to go 3d, noticed it doesnt work that well and stopped
Couldn't agree more. Even during the time of the great guest characters like Vader and Link, I was under the impression that EVERYONE knew about this franchise till I found out that very little even knew about it. But that's what made the series a little bit more special to me.
They need to remove the meter system. That game doesn’t need it. Remove the awakenings and critical finishes. The. They need to refine the guard impact system. It’s a weapon based fighter after all. The party mechanic shouldn’t be something you need to burn meter for.
I feel like the problem is that most people are not interested in stuff like weapons or anything involving medieval weapons so it will never probably get a boost in sales
Man; SC was done dirty for so long.
I’d love it to come back; but I feel like it’s a little too late after what happened with SC6 (which I loved).
Yeah, SC6 was really fun after the lackluster - for me - 4th and 5th entries. Also, Best group of guest characters after SC2 imo. Haohmaru vs Mitsurugi had been a dream match for so long it was truly awesome when Haohmaru was announced as DLC.
@@AlbionVega Them having Geralt of Rivia is still so goddamn cool in my eyes, and fucking 2B too!
@@AlbionVegawtf are you talking about soul calibur 4 was peak
Here's a shoutout to the modders that have been keeping content flowing for this game with new characters (full movesets), new customization options, legacy equipment and stages. Keep doing your thing, you are the lifeblood as it is right now
All honesty if soulcalibur never gets resurfaced I'm happy with how 6 turned out and still proud of my Glory Days entering and even topping some tournaments from 2-5. 🎉
I semi agree 😂.
As someone who loved SC6 story writing, I really wanted to see where the story was going next. Especially when the game ended in a To be continued...
Yeah the to be continued does leave me a little sad and that what kind of possibilities could be moved forward@@SeventhheavenDK
@@LowellLucasJr.well hey, if that doesn’t work out, I do have an idea that could.
@@IamaPERSON oh?
@@LowellLucasJr. yep. It’s called Soul Kombat, a crossover between Soulcalibur and Mortal Kombat. It would have Nightmare and Shang Tsung team up, to harvest souls using his soulnado, with Tsung attempting to betray Nightmare (because of course he would)
i think situations like this really bring to light one of the main things i despise about the modern gaming landscape; only safe franchises that execs are sure will make billions of dollars upon each installment are ever granted the light of day now. niche (and frankly, better) franchises might as well have never existed.
"Playing It SAFE" Has been nothing but a curse for video games smh.
This is a problem that other creative industries (like movies) have as well. Unfortunately the execs want to run all businesses like a factory where things are very predictable and stable. The problem is culture is not like that. Capcom made a billion dollars in the 90s from arcade SF2 alone. You can't predict when you will accidentally create a new incredibly popular genre (especially when SF1 was garbage).
Execs see profits but only understand the factory model. The result is as you said. They spend $200 million on safe franchises and expect billions just like it was a mining, oil company, or factory where you could invest in more equipment to produce more ore/oil/widgets and make more money.
@@TheCrewExpendable Because taking a risk is a gamble and when costs are high too many failed gambles are lethal.
"Then just lower budgets"
The problem with that thinking is that audiences have come to expect a certain quality or "pedigree" if you will from studios like Bamco and Capcom and won't accept the compromises to quality like presentation and graphics that comes from reduced budgets.
Soul Calibur 6 and MVCI getting flack for their graphics are proof of this.
The result of this is of course prioritizing proven brands and franchises that can recoup the costs of production.
There are almost no such franchises left. A franchise is worthless without a development team, we've seen this many times before. Phil Spencer especially screwed up in this direction. In general, now the audience is incredibly heated because of Woke, you can raise a lot of money from sales if you play your cards right, Space Marine 2 do it and Wukong the same. Now "Dune" is very popular, you can license 2-3 characters from there and insert them into Souls Calibure 7
Harada has really been doing work for us these last few years, just telling us straight what's happening and why.
Mad respect.
Harada's candor is one of the best things about him. Nobody else in the industry talks like he does. This is all stuff we would never hear about, yet with him, you can get straight, honest answers about stuff that people want to know.
10 years? Just 3 more years until SC6 10year anniversary. Its actually -90% off right now on steam.
10 years from when Max asked 2 years ago 😢
Actually Harada said that in 2022, so come back in 8 years and we’ll see about that.
If the FGC came together for MVC2, we need to come together to get Soul Calibur back. Even if is an SC2 port to modern consoles
SC2 would be huge if they did the HD version again with all the characters combined (minus link being missing)
Good Luck with that, are you gonna start the fire and gather the embers
I wish SC3 had that same love 😅 it would have been awesome but I get it Nintendo fans want Link a lot.
@@danteshollowedgrounds well they could just do a Soul Calibur collection of some sorts
It's kind of ironic for you saying this because SC6 unfortunately didn't sell well in the time it needed to AND SC2 HD was Delisted off of PSN and the Microsoft Store a year back. That means, unless you already bought it, you can't buy in on modern systems like the Xbox One and Series consoles.
One legend returns (MVC2), While another fades away.
This is why I love this channel. Thank you Harada for the detailed explanation, & thx Max for broadcasting it for us. So much cool intel, now I know the gaming industry a little better.
Soul Calibur and DoA have just joined the dead franchises group with Bloody Roar, Power Stone and Battle Arena Toshinden. They all deserved better.
BLOODY ROAR PLEEEASE COME BACK
bloody roar so dead Max doesn’t even mention it
Wait DoA is dead too?
@@ryanj4607 yes
There’s also senran kagura. It’s all Sony’s fault they’re keeping the mainline series dead
So that's why Harada always have this air of Badass on him. He's always been a rebel.
If SC7 ever comes out, It will be HUGE!!
i hope ivy ass will be huge in SC7..........
I love that Harada answers like this
there's a lot that's learned with the way he does it
I refuse to believe this tale of souls and swords won't be eternally retold
The fact they left us of with that cliffhanger in 6 dlc with major players in the new timeline like Cassandra Zasalamel & Huang is slightly peeving also to know that original 5 games were basically the bad timeline makes me wonder what stuff are we going to see in soul calibur 7
Man I loved this, Harada basically gave us a mini documentary on the history of 3D fighting games and the developers involved
This guys the GOAT for real. Like he took on the shitty game industry long before the consumers started realizing there was issues because of suits. Now we see it clearly, this man knew it was happening from within the industry, stood his ground and survived.
Soul Calibur VI felt low budget and safe. Like they were afraid to put too much into it. They really should give it one last Big Budget shot. Like Tekken 8 levels of marketing and budget and MAKE people see how cool this franchise is. We need a good weapon based fighter on the scene!
Judging by the fact SC2 on GCN sold the most if they just make it multi platform and put good exclusive characters in it'll probably sell well, only issue is obviously tournament play
If it could have the same impact as Soul Calibur 2 on the Dreamcast for casual fans and competitive ones, sure
I agree. It felt very iterative instead of a fresh new take. Granted, I did really enjoy the game and it's leaps and bounds ahead of 5, but you can see a lot of the same bones that have been around since 4.
To put it in perspective, Tekken 7's dlc had a bigger budget than the entirety of Soul Calibur 6.
It WAS low-budget because Okubo had to practically Beg Bamco to bring it back after the disaster that was SCV
Watching all of these fighting games get their sequels, but of course my all time favorite gets left behind
The intro of the video was max pulling a prank making everyone think he was about to talk about dr disrespect lol
was it? i felt there was something in there but i'm dense lol had to comment scan xD
Thought the same 😂
Why can't we get Soul Calibur 2's weapon master mode back? Easily my most favorite offline mode of all the games.
ask the devs
Personally, id rather the arcade exclusive conquest mode to return in some way
I still miss Edge Master mode, even though doing the Colosseum as Li Long was an absolute nightmare.
@@kitestar Why not both?
@@TheDawnofGaming 🤔
15:23- This quote right here. Harada basically breaking down the idea of "Modern Gaming" and how it is looked upon by a good chunk of companies where it seems less about providing that experience, but rather to see how much you can sell so you can keep that growth going indefinitely. Something to which you should know... Well, Indefinitely isn't infinite and you can hit that roof.
Harada definitely is one of the standouts in this industry.
Man, this makes me sad.
I'm expecting a Great Depression for the Soul Calibur community
Namco: *Makes SC6 with a cripplingly low budget*
Also Namco: "We can't figure out why sales aren't as high as Tekken"
Tekken 7 was made with an even SMALLER budget but it was enough for Tekken 8 to exists. Soulcalibur was never as big as Tekken. but, it's chances will skyrocket of Sparking Zero is blasted by critics.
@eyalrephaeli6833 For clarification, you're saying that T7's dev budget was even lower than SC6? Considering the final product compared to the pervious versions of each game I simply cannot believe that. T7 was superior to T6 in all aspects from graphics, roster, and content with 2 yearsof DLC and superior marketing. SC6 looked like and updated version of SC4 and had the smallest roster to date. If there was real data (actual numbers) that shows T7 having a smaller budget than SC6 then I'll change my tune. But you cannot look at the final product and tell me that SC6 had more money behind it than T7.
@@OutlawCarr I'm not sure if T7 had less of a budget than SC6 but Tekken 7 had an arcade release with a way smaller roster compared to the console port.
I think one of the factors that made T7 succeed that end up hurting SC6 was that T7 had and arcade release years before the console port, add to that how (at least in Japan) Tekken was always more successful in arcades than Soul Calibur (the GAMEST magazine would be my source for that) so T7 had plenty of excuses to release an arcade port first which ended up being successful enough to help the game grow before the console port.
Namco kinda does this to every franchise they don't wanna make. Look at Klonoa
And why do you think SC6 was given a low budget?
Because Bamco didn't have faith it could justify the usual cost of a AAA release after SCV underperformed.
This is what I mean when I say audiences won't accept the compromises of reduced budgets.
Bloody Roar and Soul Calibur are two franchises I would love to see return. At least, if done well.
At least it still possible for Soulcalibur to return.
I lost hope for any new/ports/remasters/etc of Bloody Roar.
in 2024, i didnt think id have to lose soul calibur to gain back MVC 😩see u in a decade my love
this is so sad, soulcalibur is my favorite media franchise of all time 💔 i wish there was a way to communicate to the higher ups just how much people love soulcalibur so that they would take it seriously and help it flourish
I read this essay when it was posted and it was a fascinating read. I love that he does this deep dives and makes them so accessible for the masses.
I gotta get to the Edge of Soul...
To carry on what I believed in from the very start...
I gotta get to the Edge of Soul...
To carry on deep in my heart...
To love! To shine!
We all need to shine on to see
How far we've come on our journey
It's pretty badass Harada essentially shielded Tekken from the suits at Bandai Namco who know nothing about games and game development but unfortunately there was no one like him to do the same for Soul Calibur...
I love this Harada guy. He explains these things so well, and honestly.
Stupid corporate shiz ruining something else, surprise surprise
It's so disappointing that SoulCalibur is so niche. IMO it's one of the best fighting games out there. Personally, I think it is way better than Tekken itself.
The gameplay is really good, and it is also a very complete game because it offers a great deal of single player content, this is a kind of game that I feel the money I spend is actually really worth it. To me SoulCalibur represents both; quality and quantity.
SoulCalibur 6 is very balanced, all the characters are good, and you can win with any of them.
Also, the story is really great, I played the entirety of Soul Chronicles and Libra of Soul in order (SC6 story modes), and I have to say the writing is really good, I dont think I like a Story mode in a fighting game as much as I liked the one in SoulCalibur 6.
The only problem I had with the story modes in SC6 is that they were locked in Easy mode (way too easy I would say), but I also used a mod of difficulty increase which solved my problem, and that made both story modes a 10/10 in my book.
SoulCalibur 3 is still my favorite game, countless hours of entertainment. And Chronicles of the sword is my favorite mode in the entire franchise.
I found it better than DOA personally not Tekken but it's whatever.
Yeah, I don’t want to bash Tekken, but… it’s not the same.
@@cylondorado4582 . Yeah, SoulCalibur has something special.
I actually liked Tekken 3 a lot, and I like the character of Nina Williams, but with the pass of time I lost interest in Tekken. It's a good game, but I simply don't like it that much, personally, I never found the appeal on it.
Adding to that, the fact that you use weapons in the series, where most others have you fight with fists and kicks, makes this a little more special.
Tekken just feels... Sloppy yet stiff in comparison.
SC flows and is intuitive.
Man, I just happened to follow Harada on twitter for no particular reason; dude is always dropping gems. This is no different, love it. These kinds of breakdowns are always appreciated.
I figured this would happen to the Soul series. I remember there being a lot of discussion when 6 came out about how it needed to be a big success for the franchise to continue, and while it got a lot of coverage in the first couple months (mostly due to the character creator and 2B being added as DLC), people stopped talking about it pretty much immediately after that.
That, combined with Bandai Namco's own Tekken 7 and DB FighterZ blowing up in a major way around that time, made me fear that Bandai Namco wasn't going to deem future games in this series to be worth making.
It's also worth noting that SCVI has way less budget than both of them, and that Namco basically did no publicity for them
So basically Namco didn't give the guy what he needed to make Soul Calibur 6 bigger than it could have been he got upset and left to Cygames, senran kagura guy did the same, Harada wants to bring it back along with others they're just not in the position to do so quite literally Soul Calibur 7 will have to take time. No wonder all the fans hate Namco, man Namco really likes their fans hating them
That intro bait was fantastic. One that could land you in jail you could say.
This lines up with my own impressions about the management of large video game companies. The people making decisions have no idea what makes a good game.
They only have a idea of what makes a profitable game, not a good one, that's why you get mobile phone slop/shovelware that still makes them a gazillion dollars or whatever.
AAA development is a NIGHTMARE for anyone with a creative vision.
Play it safe to appease investors? Your players might hate it.
Take big risks? Your superiors will put unreasonable expectations on you, and will drop your ass if you don't meet them.
In such an environment, how can true innovation / experimentation survive.
This is why AA and indie titles are incredibly important.
Without the looming threat from greedy investors, you can afford to take risks.
This is why we need more and more AI tools--so the costs to develop games plummet, so that more and more people can be one-man game studios.
Also franchise history and fan expectations put heavy restrictions on what you can do with a franchise.
One of my cherished franchises from my teen years playing on game cube.
My soul still fuckin burns baby
Honestly heartbroken to hear that it could realistically be another 10 years but there is still hope lol! I just got my second soulcalibur tattoo the other day, needless to say my soul still burns.
Soul Calibur 2 on the GameCube is still my favorite fighting game ever
Excellent video, Max!
It's sad that this is the modern reality of the industry but the Soul Still Burns!
Sounds like another series I enjoyed playing bites the dust. And they say we’re living in a fighting game renaissance?!
You’d have a hard time convincing me of that.
does give true incite into how the way business is run that doesn't cater to what the developer/creator or consumer/gamer wants or likes. its in the hands of executives/board of directors who are interchangeable, paid millions of dollars to make bad decisions and suffers no real consequences. The real consequences goes to the developers actually doing the work where they are pushed out, forced to leave or laid off. We as fans are left with our fav series just crumbling right in front of us and then poof...series gone indefinitely. its a shame.
shoutout to Harada for being honest about the enter workings of the biz. appreciate it. love discussing the nuance of it all.
It was an awesome read. Protect that man at all costs. He's a gem.
Max, you definitely have to be a guest at Harada's bar 🍺
Soul Calibur NEEDS to come back
I don't understand how it is not more popular..
You a billionaire willing to pay for it? Otherwise it's never coming back, just like Darkstalkers.
@@DoctorDoom84 SC3 was one of the best fighting games of all time nice bait
@@Kingdom-zu6tm absolutely
@@DoctorDoom84 Never seen a take any more wrong
Soul Calibur V was my personal favorite, I hope the franchise can come back as it meant alot to me during my childhood
As someone who just recently discovered Soul Caliber 6 for the very first time, and have found it to be AMAZING. I would really like to see a future for this series.
My biggest problem with tripple a games today is the lack of try before you buy.
SC IV was my introduction to the FGC. Love to see Harada peeling back the curtain
Harada is a fucking bad ass, loved this video
I would love a Soul Calibur collection consisting of: Soul Edge, SC1, SC2, SC3 with online support. I don't see SC7 coming anytime soon unfortunately but there is hope for a collection on modern consoles and if that sells well hopefully that will spark a SC7 similiar to the MvC Collection and MvC4.
That might happen, they released Broken Destiny on PS4/ps5 some time ago.
I have never really cared that much about Tekken, but Soulcalibur is the only 3D fighting series I truly love.
This is all very painful but let us have some hope for a brighter future.
Same but also wish there was more 3d fighters to choose from we only have 3 and 2 of them from same company
Stories like this reminds me why the US Navy has a CRITICAL rule when it comes to who can command an aircraft carrier:
ONLY a person that was actually a naval aviator--I.E. flying jets (or in the case of Amy Baumerschmidt, rescue choppers) off the deck of the boat can EVER be in line to command the boat.
The same thing should apply to any business, really. Only someone that was in the trenches should EVER be in line to run the company. Want to run a game development company? You had better actually have been working on the actual games. Want to run a trading company? You had better have been a trader.
Etc. etc. etc.
be safe Harada
MY SOUL STILL BURNS!!!
Wait for 10 years for a new Soul Calibur game, tell that to the Darkstalkers fans?
“A fight is about who is left standing. Nothing more” Holy shit harada
for me SC2 is still my favorite SC game, specially when it blew my mind that they added guest fighters like Link, Spawn and Heihachi in the respective systems been on GC, OG Xbox and PS2. I still got my GC copy of SC2, wish they would bring it back for the switch.
Confirming what I've been suspicious of for year. Yet it's still an eye opener.
17:50 this part here pisses me off so much. I've always hates suits/moneymen and this brings up why I still hate them. Why force someone to do multiple roles?? Not everyone wants to be a god damn manager.
It still hurts being a Soul Calibur fan. But my respect for Harada just grew bigger because of what he said.
At least we got Soul caliber 6 instead of it just being left in limbo with SC5. Still its sucks that we most likely wont see a new soul caliber game for quite a while. But until then, the soul will still burn!
CalibUr!!! Why so many people can't get this series' name right?
I met Itagaki at the last E3 held in Atlanta. I think that was right before DOA on Dreamcast was released. He was nice!
With MvC being in a similar state and us getting the collection, I’m hoping the same thing can happen with SC. Next year is the 30th anniversary, and there was a remaster or collection rumored to be in development last year. Fingers crossed!
Soul Calibur is legit my favorite fighting game franchise right up there with Bloody Roar and Smash Bros.
To see it in such a state really makes me sad.
Harada keepin it real, as always. Good shit.
Yeah, totally can see how there is always a dissident between stakeholders versus developers. It’s pretty much the same in so many business models.
I don’t like playing Tekken that much… But hearing about Harada’s iron balls, makes me glad I’ve still thrown money at his team and their games.
I appreciate Harada SO MUCH for his honesty and how deep he gets on these topics.
Also keep in mind, Bandai knows 100% first hand how much the arcade experience makes a profit for a fighting game. While most of you reading this wont/havent played it, there's a reason why they keep the latest Gundam Extreme Vs titles as arcade exclusive. It makes soo much money in the arcade that there are several arcades in japan where entire floors are dedicated to that game only.
This was good background! Thanks for highlighting it.
22:35 Actually, I'd say that was someone (Odashima?) trying to make SoulCalibur's Street Fighter III. EX moves (Brave Edges), Super Moves with stackable meters, fucking blue just frame parries, a timeskip, and half the roster gone with only a bunch of them being replaced by characters that are kind of similar but not at the same time
DING DING DING DING BINGO, that's actually literally what happened. SFIII WAS a failure, especially 3S since, as James Chen pointed out in an interview, nobody cared. Making games MORE like SFIII makes them worse but whenever games like SF6 or Tekken 8 or Xrd are made more like SC, THE GAMES IMPROVE! Aris was jizzing himself at the fact characters in T8 can perform GCF moves from full crouch now, something which SC has been doing the whole time.
Forgot to give the game the '3rd Strike' patch then. The kind of patch where people will still play it and have tourneys running for it 30 years later 😅.
Yes, there was someone there who sincerely cared about its direction, and it was sad to see them eventually post something like "I'm just a slave to the machine" or something on their twitter before the game came out, and then they left. Soul Calibur 5 was also a victim of low budget (probably lower than 6's) and an even lower timeframe to be made iirc (like, criminally low). The team seemed incredibly passionate and laid out a bunch of ideas that never ended up happening because of the rushed development, we all would have gotten more fleshed out newcomers in terms of story at least if it hadn't. Honestly, SC5 at launch was the best the series has been (at least to me), but due to the complaints of the (much smaller) Japanese userbase, they nerfed backstep and made the game much worse in a patch a few months later. That and the netcode just somehow got much worse...
I jumped, screamed, and flipped my chair when Harada unveiled SC6- I await the day maybe I can do it again. I understand why it probably can’t, but I can still dream.
The mechanics were already perfect, one of the few fighters that anyone can pick any character and be successful and have a good time. Such a shame, kind of why I've fallen away from fighters, they just don't have my attention as much. I guess I'll have to rely on Virtua Fighter if it isn't shelved as well.
Basically why there has been no new Virtua Fighter in 20 years as well. Yu Suzuki left and that was that for AM2
Imagine a new soul calibur game with a higher budget, fully animated cutscenes, full cinematic story -OR- It branched out into single-player adventure spin off games, telling the stories of characters, like imagine ghost of tsushima but you play as Mitsurugi in an open world, imagine a Siegfried game where you take turns playing as him and Nightmare, imagine a whole fanservice-y game playing as Voldo lmao, or a 2-player co-op adventure game playing as Sophitia and Cassandra, imagine a stealth-oriented game as Taki, stuff like that.
Soulcalibur is my very first and favourite fighting game series. It's disappointing to watch the series fall into obscurity as it has a great story, minus SCV, amazing characters, and unique mechanics.
I'm glad we have an in depth explanation as to its lack of traction and little to no updates on a possible new game, but it is still bittersweet to see it taking an indefinite hiatus.
Here's to hoping Soulcalibur can rise from its ashes.
The Legend Will Never Die...
First of all thank you max for breaking this down. When i saw this i wanted to read it but i was on my own lunch break and i need to eat and get back to work. Second holy hell Harada had a bone to pick with this tweet. He being super respectful due to the public facing, but you can tell he is not happy with the corporate side of gamedev as far as its come over the las 10-15 years. Soul Calibur deserves something and means somethinf to many people including myself and to see it get thrown through the corporate meangrinder just aint right.
I have a buddy that still runs matches with me every weekend. Sad that we might not get a new SoulCal. This is the series that got me into fighting games.