" I, Tomonobu Itagaki, hereby announce that on the 14th of May 2008 I filed a complaint in the Tokyo District Court against Tecmo Co., Ltd. for unpaid completion bonuses, and against the President of Tecmo, Yoshimi Yasuda, for such unlawful acts as unreasonable and disingenuous statements made towards me, claiming damages in total of 148 million yen. I also announce that this complaint was delivered to the defendants on May 22nd of the same year. In addition, I hereby announce that I have today submitted a letter of resignation to Tecmo Co., Ltd. stating that I will resign as of the 1st of July, 2008.
" Before the start of development on Dead or Alive 4, Tecmo Co., Ltd. had agreed to pay a completion bonus to me for this Xbox 360 title, which I produced. However, when the time came for the actual payment, Tecmo Co., Ltd. went against its previous agreement and refused payment. President Yoshimi Yasuda chose not only to violate this agreement, but also turned defiant, telling me ' if you are dissatisfied with the decision not to pay the bonuses, either quit the company or sue it.' In addition, he made demeaning remarks about me to my subordinates and colleagues, causing me significant emotional distress and worsening my personal relationships and work environment. Thus, I have no choice but to resign from Tecmo Co., Ltd.
" The conduct of Tecmo Co., Ltd. and its president Yoshimi Yasuda towards me has been unbefitting of a publicly-listed company. I have filed this lawsuit with a strong intent to question the social responsibility of Tecmo Co., Ltd. and its President Yoshimi Yasuda, as well as condemning them for their unjust acts. Today, in addition to announcing the reasons for this lawsuit, I make clear my reasons for resigning.

" To All Game Fans

" I truly feel sorry to all the fans of the games I have made. Ninja Gaiden 2, which will launch on the 3rd of June will be the last Ninja Gaiden I will create. I will also never be able to make Dead or Alive 5. I regret the circumstances that have forced me to leave Tecmo, where I had worked for so many years, and I regret the disappointment this will cause my fans. However, I can no longer continue to work with President Yoshimi Yasuda, a man who chooses not to honor promises even when he is able to do so. I truly hope that nothing like this happens again in the future."

I did not see this coming. At all. Ever.

Where will he go?

Well..... shit!

That' s certainly sucks. No more NG? No more DOA? Tecmo owns the rights to all those IP' s don' t they? So even if he did go back to games he wouldn' t have his trademark franchises.

Good. now he can make something new

Wow, it seems stupid that Tecmo doesnt keep their promises, Itagaki seems to be the only one creating games worth playing within tecmo, atleast outside JApan.

You' re probably right. I just finished reading Kikizo' s interview with Itagaki and it seemed like he made a lot of references to " moving on" and " starting anew" . He' s probably been thinking of doing this for a while now.

But Tecmo in actuality is crap. Team Ninja were the only talented bunch there. The best thing for Itagaki right now is to be snapped up by a company with lots of money and given charge over a small studio/team. I wouldn' t be surprised if Microsoft does considering the relationship between them over the years.

Damn, was just about to post this. Beat me to it.

Anyhoo, i have to say it was completely out of the blue, and am as surprised as all here.

Hope to see what the future brings, but i suppose it will be spandex, boobs and blood. Now, will it be from Itagaki, or Tecmo?

It' ll be interesting to see whether there' s any fallout from this. Usually when something like this happens more staffers from the same team leave and start a new studio. If it' s Itagaki on his lonesome and the rest of Team Ninja stay at Tecmo then we' ll still get a decent DoA5.

It also makes you wonder whether his comments about NGII being the last Ninja Gaiden game are only correct as far as Itagaki developed Ninja Gaiden games. Tecmo would be free to continue the franchise and even port II to PS3 if they wanted in an effort to maximise profits. It depends on what they already had penned in for the next 12 months (with regard to Team Ninja releases) and whether titles will slip as a result of him leaving.

His statement reads like Ninja Gaiden II will be his last game period, but since it' s been translated he could just mean his last game for Tecmo.

Holy f.uck! Well, I hope he gets a job with a developer with big ass pockets, braggart or not, the man sure knows how to make damn good games.

If it' s Itagaki on his lonesome and the rest of Team Ninja stay at Tecmo then we' ll still get a decent DoA5.

This is like saying MGS5 without Kojima will be decent. I don' t doubt it would be from a technical standpoint, but it was Itagaki the one that infused that series, and NG, with life and its uniqueness.

Maybe Itagaki will go to Sega and replace that talentless hack Yu Suzuki and work on Shinobi (which totally ripped off Ninja Gaiden) and Virtua Fighter (which totally ripped off Dead or Alive). Oh wait, do I have that backwards? Ultimate irony would be that he gets hired by Namco to work on Tekken.

I guess he doesn' t care about his " daughters" . They stay behind since they are property of Tecmo. I bet he will be a deadbeat dad.

Today is a very sad day.....i need some cake.

To quote from the other thread:

*sad face* Besides Sega, I, as a video game fan, haven' t been more loyal to a company than Tecmo(even though it was just for Team Ninja), so I am really sad to see Itagaki leave Tecmo. However that means, that Tecmo can go and eat shit now because without Itagaki they are nothing. I just hope he gets some of the people he worked with at Team Ninja (No, I dont mean the people who programmed the boob physics) to quit the company, too and together they start another, possibly Microsoft-financed, game company.

Oh and I hope that Itagaki' s lawsuit gets through and Tecmo have to pay him a lot of money....bankruptcy for Tecmo would be nice. That way Itagaki could buy the rights for their IPs and everything would be fine again...just with the little change that Itagaki would be his own ***ing boss.

But anyway, whereever he goes on to work...you can be sure that that game will have a badass AI!

ORIGINAL: Evil Killer

But anyway, whereever he goes on to work...you can be sure that that game will have a badass AI!

I don' t think you quite understand AI. Just because a game is hard, it doesn' t mean the AI is very advanced. All of Team Ninja' s games have very basic AI routines.

he' s a big mouth, a developer that fails to deliver a game with a " correct" camera system is not worth mentioning his name. Ninja gaiden 2, according to many reviews has a terrible camera, add to this the average graphics and i wonder why is he so cocky. he made fun of his collegues (those who worked on sigma ps3) and hearing that , you expect ninja gaiden 2 to be a " chef d' oeuvre" , well it' s not, far from it , and that' s very disapointing ... a mere 83% in game ranking for a game with tremendous hyper, that' s pathetic.

We' re in sadness Aba show some compassion.....but yes the camera does suck and the graphics are no better than sigma.

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane
a mere 83% in game ranking for a game with tremendous hyper, that' s pathetic.

Yes. A game with roughly a high distinction average is pathetic.

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane

he' s a big mouth, a developer that fails to deliver a game with a " correct" camera system is not worth mentioning his name. Ninja gaiden 2, according to many reviews has a terrible camera, add to this the average graphics and i wonder why is he so cocky. he made fun of his collegues (those who worked on sigma ps3) and hearing that , you expect ninja gaiden 2 to be a " chef d' oeuvre" , well it' s not, far from it , and that' s very disapointing ... a mere 83% in game ranking for a game with tremendous hyper, that' s pathetic.

That " terrible" camera is the same " terrible" camera that was in the Xbox NG games and Sigma. Have you played the previous games?

Itagaki-san, go to SEGA of Japan!



I want a Kunoichi II please! I think the original might have been known as " Nightshade" in the U.S.??

That " terrible" camera is the same " terrible" camera that was in the Xbox NG games and Sigma. Have you played the previous games?

yes i did , the first one on xbox , not black and the camera is not terrible... but you guys miss my point, if it was any otehr game , i would not show a lack of respect , but this is coming from a cocky bastard:

1) my game is the best action game ever ( i' ll say go fuck yourself)

2) he made fun of his collegues working on sigma saying he' s game we' ll be much better.

3) sluty characters (childish perv) and very weak storyline.

4) a game that is released a year or so after sigma, and reminisces of XBOX graphics is a true shame, i bet that' s a major reason why he' s superior was pissed off.


it' s his big mouth that makes me angry. he should look at God of war developers, those are marvelous, they remind me of rareware days. wait tile you see God of war 3.

ORIGINAL: Nitro

I don' t think you quite understand AI. Just because a game is hard, it doesn' t mean the AI is very advanced. All of Team Ninja' s games have very basic AI routines.

You split my nickname *sad face*. And while this might be said for Ninja Gaiden (Though not for all enemies, some had quite a few strategies. But most, especially the boss enemies, could easily be beaten if you memorized their attack patterns) I think in Dead or Alive 4 the AI is excellent. It adopted to my way of playing and I had to constantly switch strategies to be able to win, especially on higher difficulties.

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane

yes i did , the first one on xbox , not black and the camera is not terrible... but you guys miss my point, if it was any otehr game , i would not show a lack of respect , but this is coming from a cocky bastard:

1) my game is the best action game ever ( i' ll say go *** yourself)

2) he made fun of his collegues working on sigma saying he' s game we' ll be much better.

3) sluty characters (childish perv) and very weak storyline.

4) a game that is released a year or so after sigma, and reminisces of XBOX graphics is a true shame, i bet that' s a major reason why he' s superior was pissed off.

Ok, so we' ve established that the " terrible" camera isn;t actually " terrible" at all. that' s fine, ...now we can disregard it.

1) Ninja Gaiden Black/Sigma is at this point, as far as many action game fans are concerned - the best action game ever. It' s not hard to comprehend what he' s saying. The sequel to the best action game ever will be the new best action game ever. It looks and plays like Ninja Gaiden but it' s bigger, better, flashier and more brutal. I' ll let you know when i' ve played it whether it' s the best action game ever, but i doubt i' ll be disappointed.

2) Sigma is what Sigma is. It' s an updated port of Itagaki' s original Xbox title. It' s as kickass as the original because it is essentially the same game. Itagaki saying that II wil be better than Sigma is Itagaki saying it will be the best Ninja Gaiden game ever developed. Japanese - English/whatever translations often lose a lot of their meaning... so i highly doubt he was actually being offensive. If he was, maybe he simply didn' t agree with the PS3 port. That' d be understandable. If Tecmo was pushing for a PS3 port and Itagaki said he didn' t want to have anything to do with it... when it came to promoting his own direct sequel, you wouln' t expect him to praise it.

3) It' s a culture thing. If you haven' t been to Japan you probably wouldn' t understand.

4) NGII looks better than Sigma. I have Sigma, i bought it the day it came out - so i would know. It' s not massively different but the particle effects, number of enemies on screen, textures, lighting and enemy character models are all better to some degree or another. Again, i won' t be able to say what' s different until i' ve actually played the game for myself and seen it first hand on my TV but i suspect that without a complete engine overhaul this is as good as it gets. It looks as good as DMC4, just stylistically different. I don' t see the problem. It runs at 60fps too.

ORIGINAL: Evilkiller

I think in Dead or Alive 4 the AI is excellent. It adopted to my way of playing and I had to constantly switch strategies to be able to win, especially on higher difficulties.

DoA4 is notorious for having the cheapest enemy AI in any fighting game. Don' t try to make it something it' s not.