‘I wish I had the Katamari IP’: Creator forced to leave the US after struggling to find success
Keita Takahashi says he has ideas for new Katamari Damacy games
Katamari creator Keita Takahashi has returned to Japan due to disappointing sales of his most recent original game, and suggested that his future as a game designer is unclear.
Takahashi designed the original Katamari Damacy game and its sequel at Bandai Namco in the early 2000s. In 2010, he left the publisher and founded company Uvula with his wife, eventually moving to San Francisco and working with Annapurna on Wattam (2019) and To a T (2025).
Speaking in a new interview with Games Radar, Takahashi has claimed that To a T “didn’t sell well,” to the extent that he decided to move back to Japan with his family after more than a decade in the US.
The designer also suggested that his future working in games isn’t certain, but said that he’d be interested in working on the Katamari series again, if allowed to do so.
“I don’t think anyone tries to make a niche game,” he said, when asked about the amount of attention his games have historically received. “The title ‘niche game’ is just a result. I know my games are far from mainstream.
“I recently returned to Japan, and one of the reasons I had to do so was because ‘to a T’ didn’t sell well. This is a risk of being independent, and I’m willing to take it, but I don’t think it’s a question of niche or traditional, it’s a question of whether people like it or not.
“I believe there is still room for new ideas, and unfortunately, ‘to a T’ just wasn’t a good fit. But I think the situation is what it is.”
Takahasi said he felt that it was “definitely getting harder” for him to make the experimental games that he’s known for. “My next goal is to support my children and find them a school in Japan. Then, if I feel that I don’t belong in the games industry, I’ll have to look elsewhere,” he said.
Asked about the legacy of Katamari, the series he’s best known for, Takahashi said that he still had ideas for future games in the series.
“I wish I had the Katamari Damacy IP 🙂 Anyway I’m glad that the game and characters are still loved today. In many ways, I have some interesting ideas for Katamari Damacy that only I could come up with. If I have the opportunity to work with Bandai Namco again, it would be a very interesting project.”
