Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada claims he knows why Namco Bandai was chosen by Nintendo to work on the next Super Smash Bros. games for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Because Super Smash Bros. is a fighting game, Nintendo supposedly wanted Namco Bandai because of its 17 years of experience with the Tekken franchise. According to Harada, Namco Bandai has developed a “very good” relationship with both Nintendo and Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai.

“I think Nintendo chose us just because Smash Brothers is a fighting game. We have over 17 years of continuously developing titles in our franchise [Tekken], I think they felt we were a choice for that.”

“Also, we’ve continually developed a very good relationship with Nintendo. Maybe not necessarily in the public spotlight but kind of behind the scenes. We have established a very good working relationship with them. Not just Nintendo, but as a company, we have a very good relationship with Sakurai-san at Sora as well. I think that we are in very good position to make a great game for the Smash Brothers series.”