Itagaki May Be Leaving, But Team Ninja To Keep On Keepin' On
Regardless of whether you like the man's games or not, anyone that follows gaming news uniformly paused yesterday when Tomonobu Itagaki issued his official statement that he would not only be jettisoning himself from Team NINJA, but that he would also be filing a lawsuit against his employer.
The most immediate question on everyone's mind has been what will become of not only the Team NINJA brand, but of Tecmo's two primary IPs: Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. In an official press release today, Tecmo cleared the air for us grieving spectators.
On June 3, 2008, Tomonobu Itagaki, Executive Producer of Tecmo, LTD.(Tokyo, Japan) owned development studio Team NINJA, submitted his resignation. Due to the fact that he had recently filed a legal complaint against Tecmo, LTD., there was no choice but to accept his resignation. His resignation is effective July 1, 2008.The legal complaint is in regards to a claim to an incentive bonus linked to a past project. The parties could not reach an amicable resolution to this matter and Itagaki chose to seek a legal remedy. Tecmo, LTD. will let the court decide the outcome of this case and will seek a true, fair, and quick resolution.
Most importantly, Tecmo, LTD. would like to assure its loyal fans that Team NINJA, known for its top selling and critically acclaimed Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises, is intact and, as a matter of fact, have several new projects already underway. Team NINJA is, more than ever, committed to producing compelling and cutting edge games in order to maintain its reputation as a high quality developer and to continue to receive the support of its loyal fans.
While I'm sure that Tecmo will have no problem in tapping Yosuke Hayashi (director of Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the PlayStation 3) to maintain the Ninja Gaiden series, one has to wonder who will be able to herald the Dead or Alive crew for the years to come.
TECMO: Itagaki's Last Day is July 1, Team NINJA Still Developing [Kotaku]
Noun
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 4 June 2008
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: Dead or Alive, Doin', Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo, Tomonobu Itagaki
Name: Dave
Team Ninja games has been a fav of mine, it would not be the same without Itagaki-san
Dude, that pic is kinda offensive, innit?
Considering how many people actually work on these games, I'm not exactly worried about the loss of Itagaki. Plus it will be nice to hear from a respectful director instead of his blasphemous mouth.
@ Kyle: You sure about that? Because plenty of other people seem to be worrying about his absence. http://kotaku.com/5013233/after-itagaki-announcement-tecmo-stock-price-drops
Itagaki's presence as a creative director/designer/butch manly-man at Tecmo was very significant. I'm not his biggest fan, but I realize that his contributions to his games go beyond that of most people in his role. Outside of his games, Tecmo hasn't had a lot of hits to hang their hats on sales-wise (even though I loved Tokobot). Maybe this will let Tecmo find the next Itagaki and pass the torch of the DoA/NG series onto a new designer, but until that time the company and team will be hurting.
Also, omg, that picture is rough! Noun, please tell me you found that somewhere online and you're not actually so mean to make that that up yourself.
@game-boi
Noun didn't make it lol, I've seen it on 4chan a couple times.