It was announced that Namco Bandai would contribute to the development of Smash Bros. This made some people nervous, since most assumed the company would have dominant control over the project. Katsuhiro Harada, the director of the Tekken series, however, has confirmed that this is not the case, explaining that:

…we’ll help provide support on technology and other things involved creating the game, I’m currently very focused on the Tekken series. Some people might say online that I’m going to be involved in the development process or not but that shouldn’t really be an issue because the game design is going to be handled by Masahiro Sakurai. So I don’t understand why there would be any worries there.

And in this context, it feels like a great decision. Namco Bandai have developed fantastic fighting games over the years, so with their technical expertise and Sakurai’s design taste, I think there’s a lot to look forward to.

(via mynintendonews.com)