On July 5, 2026, Katsuhiro Harada — the fighting game legend behind Tekken — posted a tribute to Hidetaka Miyazaki that cut through the usual industry noise. He called Miyazaki’s career “remarkable,” but not for the reason most people assume. It wasn’t because Dark Souls or Elden Ring sold tens of millions of copies. It was the years of quiet, stubborn work that had no guarantee of paying off. “He and his team built that success over many years,” Harada wrote. “That’s what’s truly remarkable.”

Harada’s words landed with force because they dismantle a pervasive myth in gaming: the overnight success. For players who see only the polished final product, and for aspiring developers chasing the next viral hit, he offered a rare glimpse behind the curtain. FromSoftware’s rise wasn’t a lightning strike. It was a slow, methodical climb — and it holds lessons for anyone who cares about games.

The Comment That Reframed a Studio’s Ascent

Harada’s statement came as part of a wider reflection on the Japanese game development scene, shared on social media. He didn’t name a specific interview or event; he simply highlighted what he sees as the core of Miyazaki’s achievement. The full context of the post isn’t available, but the excerpt makes his point clear: Miyazaki’s career is remarkable because he and his team spent years building the foundation that eventually supported blockbusters like Elden Ring.

This isn’t empty praise from a peer. Harada has spent over three decades at Bandai Namco, shepherding a single franchise through countless iterations. He knows what it means to commit to a vision over the long haul. When he speaks about sustained effort, it carries weight. His comment implicitly rejects the narrative that FromSoftware’s success exploded after Dark Souls — and instead points to the decade of less visible labor that came before even that.

Why ‘Overnight’ Success Is a Gaming Industry Myth

For gamers, the notion of the surprise hit is seductive. We remember the moment a game like Elden Ring smashed sales records on Steam, selling 12 million units in its first month on PC alone. We remember the endless “You Died” memes that flowed from the original Dark Souls. What we forget is that behind those cultural moments were years of work with no viral payoff. Miyazaki’s journey offers a case study in how genuine, lasting success is almost never sudden — it’s a product of patience, iteration, and institutional support that is increasingly rare in a hit-driven industry.

The practical takeaway for consumers is this: the games that truly resonate — the ones we play for hundreds of hours on our Windows rigs — are not born from a marketing blitz. They are built slowly, by teams given the time and safety to fail. Understanding that can reshape how you evaluate the next hyped release. Flashy trailers may promise the world, but the studios that endure are often those that have been quietly honing their craft for years, even decades.

For aspiring game developers, Harada’s tribute is a reality check against the allure of overnight fame. Platforms like Steam and itch.io are full of indie dreamers hoping their first project will be the next Hollow Knight. But the data tells a different story. Most successful developers — from Toby Fox to the team at Larian Studios — spent years refining their skills before breaking through. Miyazaki himself joined FromSoftware in 2004 as a planner on the Armored Core series. It took five years of grunt work before he was given the chance to direct Demon’s Souls, a project that many inside the company considered a failure in the making. If you’re coding your first game in your apartment, Harada’s message is simple: keep going, even when nobody is watching. The long road is the road that works.

For the industry, this is a sobering reminder that the current cycle of layoffs, crunch, and rapid project cancellations destroys the very conditions that create gems like Elden Ring. Miyazaki was allowed to fail — or at least to make something strange and uncompromising — because FromSoftware’s leadership at the time gave him the space. That kind of patience is vanishing as publishers demand live-service roadmaps and quarterly returns. If companies want the next creative breakthrough, they need to fund long-term teams, not just chase the latest trend.

From Demon’s Souls to Elden Ring: A Decade and a Half of Building

To grasp why Harada’s point matters, you need to understand the timeline. Miyazaki’s rise wasn’t a smooth curve; it was a slow, often bumpy progression. Here’s how it actually happened:

  • 2004: Hidetaka Miyazaki, a former account manager at Oracle, joins FromSoftware at age 29. He works on the Armored Core series, learning 3D modeling and game design from scratch.
  • 2006: He takes over a struggling internal project that would become Demon’s Souls. The game’s early builds were deemed a disaster by Sony, who originally passed on publishing it outside Japan.
  • 2009: Demon’s Souls releases in Japan. It’s a commercial flop at first, selling just 39,000 copies in its debut week. Word of mouth slowly builds, and the game eventually becomes a cult hit, especially after Atlus publishes it in North America.
  • 2011: Dark Souls launches. It refines the formula and sells over 2.3 million copies by year-end. Critics start calling it one of the greatest games ever made.
  • 2015: Bloodborne, a PlayStation exclusive, cements FromSoftware’s reputation for uncompromising design.
  • 2019: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice wins Game of the Year, proving the studio can evolve beyond its own conventions.
  • 2022: Elden Ring becomes a global phenomenon, selling over 20 million copies in a year and dominating the Steam charts for months.

Each step built on the last. The punishing difficulty, the interconnected world design, the opaque storytelling — all were iterated upon over 18 years. There was no single moment of brilliance; there was a team, led by Miyazaki, repeatedly asking “what if we made this more demanding, more mysterious?” and then refining the answer.

This slow growth is mirrored in the studio’s relationship with PC gaming. The original Dark Souls port to Windows in 2012 was infamously bad, requiring community mods to reach 60 fps. But FromSoftware learned: Sekiro and Elden Ring launched with solid PC performance (though not flawless), and the company now treats the platform as a first-class citizen. It’s another example of the long view paying off.

What to Do Now: Patience as a Strategy

Harada’s comment isn’t just a historical footnote; it’s a call to action for how we engage with games and development. Here’s what you can actually do with this insight:

If you’re a gamer: The next time you boot up a FromSoftware title on your Windows machine, remember what it took to get there. Consider supporting early-access games that show steady improvement over time rather than writing them off after a rough launch. Recognize that the studios delivering the richest experiences — Larian, Supergiant, FromSoftware — invest years in their craft. When you see a studio being patient, reward that patience with your attention.

If you’re an aspiring developer: Set a timeline that’s realistic, not viral. Miyazaki was 39 when Demon’s Souls shipped. He spent his 30s doing unglamorous work on a mech series few in the West remember. Start with small projects, learn a skill deeply, and don’t measure success by the first release. The most powerful thing you can do is simply stay in the game — literally and figuratively.

If you’re a team lead or publisher: Look at your roster. Who have you given the Demon’s Souls treatment — a project that’s weird, unproven, but being shepherded by a tenacious director? Protect that space. The next genre-defining hit probably looks like a mess on paper right now. The studios that thrive in the long run are those that build a culture of resilience, not a culture of immediacy.

There are no quick fixes or downloadable patches for this process. The action item is mindset: trust the long build.

Where FromSoftware Goes Next

Harada’s tribute arrives at an interesting moment. Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion in 2024 extended the game’s tail, but the studio has been characteristically quiet about what’s next. Rumors swirl about a new Armored Core installment (the latest, Fires of Rubicon, launched in 2023) or a brand-new IP. FromSoftware’s parent company, Kadokawa, has hinted that Miyazaki is working on multiple projects.

Whatever comes, it will be measured against the yardstick of an 18-year career arc. The lesson of Harada’s words is that we shouldn’t expect the next game to be another lightning bolt. It will be the product of the same slow, meticulous process that gave us everything from Demon’s Souls onward. And if history is any guide, it will surprise us — not because it came from nowhere, but because we forgot how long it was really in the making.

In a world addicted to instant gratification, the most remarkable thing FromSoftware did was refuse to be rushed. That’s the real story Harada wants us to hear.