He worked at the company for over 20 years.
Tekken 8
Kohei Ikeda announced his departure on social media. In a farewell message, he admitted that having the opportunity to work at Bandai Namco was a dream come true for him, and he is immensely grateful for the experience.
Ikeda did not specify why he ultimately decided to leave. However, he emphasized that he does not plan to leave game development entirely — he will continue working on games elsewhere. Perhaps Ikeda will reveal more about this new chapter of his career in the future, but for now, he has kept the details to himself.
It's worth noting that the first game Ikeda worked on at Bandai Namco was the fighting game Soulcalibur IV. In the following years, Ikeda contributed to the development of numerous other projects until he eventually became deeply involved with the Tekken series. Within this franchise's team, he held the position of game director for Tekken 7 and Tekken 8.