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Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi has left Namco Bandai, presumably because the King of All Cosmos has destroyed the universe once more and Takahashi (or the Prince to those in the know), must use a sticky ball to roll up everyday household items in order to restore the stars and planets. Ok, so that’s not exactly true, but Takahashi’s real motive behind leaving seems to be a lot more spiteful and bitter.
While no specific reason for Takahashi’s departure has been given, it seems that his relations with the company had soured. He recently called Namco Bandai a “so-so company,” and stated “I am so inefficient I only made four games in 11 years.” Clearly this is a fellow who was none too pleased with his job and eventually got so fed up he simply quit. It’s a sensation we’ve all had at various points in our lives, Takahashi simply went ahead and acted on it.
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Ultimately we’re left wondering what exactly happened that caused Takahashi to make such comments and depart from the company so quickly. Is this a major, company-wide morale issue or did he simply not get along very well with some specific co-workers or executives? We haven’t really heard about any discord at Namco, which makes this resignation all the more surprising.
We also have to question what this means for the future of the Katamari Damacy franchise. Will the games continue to roll on without their creator (no pun intended), or will Namco fold up the franchise and move onto something else? While we’d hate to see such a quirky series go, the Katamari games have been quite stale for some time now, making the success of the original look less like a major game franchise and more like a title that got lucky and just happened to come out in the right place at the right time. How things end up playing out from here could be quite telling indeed.
