8WayRun.Com

Short and sweet: Thanks to this picture in a recent tweet from Harada's Twitter we now know that Namco knows we exist. Get hype!

In case you can't tell, look at what Katsuhiro Harada is holding in his hands...

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Well for the past week, this website and several others have been ablaze, discussing the possibility of another installment in the Soulcalibur franchise. While Soulcalibur IV was hugely successful outside of Japan, the game was obviously designed to be the last in the series; especially since the word around the rumor mill is that Project Soul, the group responsible for SC3 and SC4 had been disbanded. Last week, Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the Tekken franchise for Namco dropped the bomb that he would only look into another Soulcalibur game if it appeared to him that there was enough interest.

While some may have thought Harada was simply trying to boost his twitter following; this community banded together, with the help of other fighting game communities to show Harada that the interest still exists. In less than a week, 3,000 people signed the Facebook petition to prove to him that we still want another Soulcalibur game! The petition is still open and people should still continue to spread the word about it so that we can show Namco more than just 3,000 people want SC5! But for today, Harada confirms in an official response in the Facebook petition with what we've all been waiting for!

Yes I'll share this petition with my Staff, Directors, and SC Senior Producer / Leader Mr.Yotoriyama. I promise. ... Our team will be interested in your opinions that much if there are a lot of followers. ... Of course, it becomes the power of the number of these petition. ... I love fighting games. Thanks.

Harada then goes on to mention that he would be willing to accept opinions and requests on his twitter (as long as you are a follower); but to keep the messages short and to the point as English is not his native language. While this is great, I am asking the community here to NOT post opinions and requests on his twitter. Yes, you should follow him, but instead of posting requests and opinions, just simply ask that he coordinate with the representatives here at 8WayRun.Com while developing the game. It would be much easier for a few representatives here to be heard, than a mass of people who may not know exactly what they want.

While this does not guarantee Soulcalibur V, at least we know Namco hears us and knows we exist!

UPDATE: Harada just tweeted the following:
Yeah i found Soooooul Calibur !! I did co-director. My development team will be create new one .....? ...

It's funny, these days every time a large SCIV tournament happens, people are like, "this is the last large SC tournament" or, "SCIV is dead after this". I heard it about Evo/Nats 2009, I heard about NEC, and I'm even hearing it now about FSAK. Do people just want the game to 'die'? It's only dead if you make it dead, people. If you have the mentality that the game is done after so and so tournament, then you are guilty for contributing to it's demise.

For me, SCII & SCIII died the moment its successor came out. I kept playing SCII with my local offline SC players right up until the day before SCIII came out. Same thing for SCIII. And I don't plan on letting SCIV 'die' in my local community until the day SCV is in my hands. I have never thought of SCIV as being "dead". For me the soul will remain burning as long as I, ...

I logged in today and part of my soul burns when I see stuff like this Rekano article on the front page. Why does everyone have to hate on some iterations of the game. There was stuff to hate on about every version of the game the only thing is you apparently think step G was fun to deal with while other things are not. I really think that is one of the big reasons this community is so split up. There are too many clicks that like their idea of the best SC and none of them can seem to stop hating on the other games. If we could all just get along something good might actually happen.

Instead we get into rule debates that make major events choose to NOT run the game. We have people who like the "better" versions of the game hating on little nonsense things about the current game. ...

Yo, so apparently SC needs signatures now to move the series forward. It does seem strange. But no matter ones stance, if you're a Calibur fan. You are hype right now, mere utterence of the game and its like really bright lights, they grab your attention. Everyone is hoping for SC5 to do the undoing of SC3 and SC4's handy work. Not to say those game didn't offer anything, but if/when SC5 drops. How many want them to continue progressing the current system? Or how many would rather them go back to an older Calibur and start from there? Even more outrageous, how many would actually want them to start over? Scary thought really, pros and cons from so many sides of the spectrum. ...

With the success of some community driven fighting games, it seems that Namco has realized that they too should try to be a bit more active amongst their respective fighting game communities. Since then Katsuhiro Harada, the producer for the Tekken and Soulcalibur series has been very active in talking with his fans. A few days ago, one of our local veterans, Enkindu, discovered a short mention of Soulcalibur on Harada-san's twitter. In short, he mentioned that Namco could possibly put work into a new Soulcalibur game if the interest was high enough.

Well since then, several members of these forums have been sending tweets to Harada, asking him for the game, showing him that there is indeed an interest in a sequel. Well as of one hour ago, it seems that Harada has informally responded to my tweet in which I requested a new Soulcalibur game, and that he involve the folks here at 8WayRun. I'm not sure if Namco even knew we existed, so I felt it worth mentioning. While not making any guarantees, he did say he would talk to his staff about it... and that we should be patient. A pleasant surprise waking up from Summer Jam 4 to say the least.

Harada-san's Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000832424468
Harada-san's Twitter: https://twitter.com/Harada_TEKKEN
Jaxel's Twitter: https://twitter.com/JasonAxelrod

UPDATE:
Well Harada-san has responded to our enthusiasm and asked us to stop anonymously trolling him. He has instead asked that we follow him on twitter and facebook before we post any comments or tweets. It looks like he wants to see a personal face to our community. He also said he's looking for a large quantity of signatures before they would realistically put thought into another Soulcalibur game. Because of this, 8WayRun member malice has set up a Facebook petition for us all to sign.

Facebook Soulcalibur V Petition: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Petiti...39645629404991 ...