{"id":54392,"date":"2025-11-28T13:23:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T04:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=54392"},"modified":"2025-11-28T13:23:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T04:23:52","slug":"tekken-producer-katsuhiro-harada-denies-rumors-about-wanting-to-monetize-official-tournament-streams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/tekken-producer-katsuhiro-harada-denies-rumors-about-wanting-to-monetize-official-tournament-streams\/","title":{"rendered":"Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada denies rumors about wanting to monetize official tournament streams \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tekken<\/strong> producer Katsuhiro Harada recently took to social media<\/a> to clear up some confusion surrounding a recent interview with The Game Business<\/a>. While some media outlets and social media accounts interpreted his interest in the workings of pay-per-view fighting game event livestreams as confirmation that the Tekken World Tour (TWT) might follow the same business model in the future, Harada debunked these claims, explicitly saying the event is unlikely to ever monetize streaming.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never said a single word about wanting to turn it into paid content (I only said, \u201cI wonder or interest how that could be achieved?\u201d). In the first place, I am not even positive about monetization. The context and interpretation may have been created by the article, but judging from the flow of the conversation, you would have to interpret it extremely negatively to think that I was trying to make streaming paid.

In any case, it is unlikely that it will be monetized, and in fact, the operation of streaming and TWT has never fallen within the scope of our business since the very beginning (because prize money is involved, these activities have been excluded from the scope of our Japanese corporate entity).<\/em>

Katsuhiro Harada, via X<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though he didn\u2019t mention it outright, Harada\u2019s expression of interest in paid live streaming content in the original interview likely had to do with Capcom\u2019s decision<\/a> to make its upcoming Capcom Cup 12 Finals and Street Fighter League World Championship 2025 livestream events pay-per-view. According to Capcom, the shift to pay-per-view livestreams from a once-free service was made to promote the company\u2019s esports business \u201cin a sustainable manner over the medium-to-long term.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To clarify, Harada\u2019s interest in paid streaming content only goes so far as wondering how it will be achieved. He doesn\u2019t think TWT livestreams will ever be monetized, as they have never been a part of Bandai Namco\u2019s business model since the beginning. Harada adds that since prize money is involved in the tournament, activities such as livestreams \u201chave been excluded from the scope of our Japanese corporate entity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The key goal of the TWT is to make the TEKKEN community sustainable, not to commercialize it. That\u2019s why the Finals would never become a PPV \u2014 we\u2019ve never proposed, discussed, or even considered such an idea. I\u2019ve been present for all of Harada-san\u2019s interviews, and I have never\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/oEYvFif0kV<\/a><\/p>— Yasuda Esports \/ \u5b89\u7530\u30a4\u30fc\u30b9\u30dd\u30fc\u30c4 (@y_esports) November 27, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>