The path to success is not always one everyone agrees with, and in Katsuhiro Harada's case, his career choice actually caused his parents to initially break down into tears.
Harada's parents have since changed their opinion now that he's become a highly successful developer for Namco Bandai, but like many others, he had much humbler beginnings.
Katsuhiro joined a Namco arcade to become a promoter, and he started off planning events and tournaments for Street Fighter.
With his background in studying mental functions and behaviors, he was heavily interested in the patrons at the arcade, and he did things like moving machines to different locations to find out if they'd perform better, or seeing if specific drinks would increase the duration gamers would play on the setups.
"Because of my psychology degree I was fascinated with human behavior. I'd try moving cabinets to certain spots in the arcade to see if they'd perform better depending on their location. At one point I became obsessed with finding out whether certain types of drink would increase the amount of time that people would play games for, or influence how much they’d spend."
His early dabbling into the human mind paid off, as he smashed a sales record two months in a row, and received an award of commendation from Namco's president at the time. So while Harada's parents were initially against the idea, after some of his early success, they came around. Hit the jump to read on.
On how he became so successful at his job, Harada stated that, "I spent an entire year chatting to customers, finding out exactly what they liked or disliked about certain titles. I began to think that I could probably make a more successful title than many of the game creators working at that time."
After his early success working at an arcade, he now had a platform to approach management and request that they move him into game development — which they did.
Harada has of course went on to have an amazing career, noting that the Tekken franchise is #1 in terms of sales in the entire genre now, but that doesn't mean he's mastered the arts of cellphone etiquette.
Kastushiro went missing back in June of this year, but the cause of his disappearance was just a powered down cellphone.
"I just needed to take some time out because I've been working so hard. But I learned a valuable lesson through this episode. In today's society, if you turn your cell phone off for any length of time, then people presume that you're missing."
These details and more are explored in the piece on Edge Online's website. Hit the link to read the full interview.
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perfume
said
1 hour, 59 minutes ago
Sounds almost exactly like my parent's reactions when I told them I wanted to be a music producer and produce music for videogames.
Cydoken
said
1 hour, 56 minutes ago
Sounds almost exactly like my parent's reactions when I told them I wanted to be a game maker and create software for videogames.
ShadowGeno
said
1 hour, 55 minutes ago
Should probably turn my phone off a lot more often ...
Terrorrisk
said
1 hour, 51 minutes ago
@12:
Huh, my parents reaction was anger when I started to go to college with the goal of being a Sound Designer videogames.
HyperViperNZ
said
1 hour, 46 minutes ago
Back then, parents didn't realize how big the video game industry was and would end up so it's understandable. Parent's were stuck in the ways for there children to be doctors, lawyers etc.
PikminExpert
said
1 hour, 46 minutes ago
Good on him for doing what he loves and being successful at it.
chipndip
said
1 hour, 43 minutes ago
Tears of joy? 😀
Meety
said
1 hour, 35 minutes ago
That's the way you do it‚ Harada. Doing what you love is the way to go and the cellphone is what I should do at times‚ too.
put_Garuda_in_SFIV
said
1 hour, 24 minutes ago
put_Harada_in_Tekken7
Enter4none
said
1 hour, 11 minutes ago
It gets better Harada-san, beats than living in the closet to please them parents.
ryuhayabusa13
said
1 hour, 7 minutes ago
Much respect to Harada san. These do sound like many people's parents. Just showed them that you are serious about your career and being into games is a great job like any other.
fohstick
said
52 minutes ago
"Tekken franchise is #1 in terms of sales"
i have a really hard time believing this
HooliganComboFTW
said
42 minutes ago
#12 for fighting games that is possible
insanekyo
said
32 minutes ago
#12 while no doubt capcom games are most popular in america, expand your horizon beyond eventhubs and you'll see tekken frachanise is still incredibly popular in europe and japan.
LK
said
27 minutes ago
Harada is one example, but you forgot countless others who had the same dream and never made it. You never hear about non-famous people. Reality check.
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