Tekken loses its third lead in 9 months as director Kouhei Ikeda leaves Bandai Namco after 20 years, leaving fans to worry about what's next for the iconic fighting game series

Longtime Tekken director Kouhei Ikeda has announced his departure from Bandai Namco after 20 years at the company.

Tekken hasn't exactly been at its best over the last year or so, with a disastrous Tekken 8 Season 2 launch, followed by an also disastrous Tekken 8 Season 3 launch. On top of that, the development team has seen several departures.

Last September, Tekken 8 producer Yohei Shimbori left Bandai Namco Studios, then at the end of the year, longtime series producer Katsuhiro Harada – who many associate with the series more than series creator Seiichi Ishii – left Bandai Namco after 31 years to open VS Studio at SNK. Now, half a year later, Tekken 8 director Ikeda has announced he has left the company.

Ikeda – who worked on Soul Calibur 4 before moving onto Tekken Tag Tournament 2 as a designer and directing Tekken 7 and 8 – posted an announcement on Twitter, saying "I have officially left Bandai Namco Entertainment after many years with the company." He continues, "I am deeply proud that I had the opportunity to create games alongside such incredible people who poured their hearts into this work. 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.

"I have entrusted those values, and that baton, to the incredible team that will continue to shape the future of Tekken," he adds, saying, "As I look forward to the future of Tekken and the FGC, I will also continue taking on new challenges as a game developer. I hope our paths cross again someday."

Naturally, some are already speculating that he'll be joining Harada at SNK. While nothing has been announced, Harada has often said that he wants more 3D fighting games on the market to compete with Tekken, so working on a new one with Tekken 7's director could be a no-brainer. And of course, change is scary, so some are already worried that without Harada and Ikeda, Tekken is as good as dead, which I doubt will be the case given it's one of Bandai Namco's biggest series.

At the very least, Tekken fans seem to be a bit more excited about the game, as the post-launch updates for Season 3 have been received far better, and the announcement that the next DLC character will be Baki the Grappler villain Yujiro Hanma is so out there that people are hyped for another silly crossover after Negan showed up in Tekken 7.

Final Fantasy 7 icon Tifa is rumored to join the Street Fighter 6 roster, stealing Tekken fans' most-requested guest fighter away from the already miserable fanbase