Tecmowned!!! 36 members of Team Ninja leave with Itagaki / Tecmo sued by 300 members of staff

Right now this is just hearsay but if it end up being true

In case you thought Team Ninja' s former boss, Tomonobu Itagaki, was leaving game publisher Tecmo as a solo act of attrition, think again. If that act was a single shot across Tecmo' s bow, here comes the fusillade. Word on the street is that key members of Team Ninja -- as many as three dozen or more -- are headed out the door as well, but that' s not all. It seems that each one of the soon to be ex-ninjas will be serving Tecmo with a class-action lawsuit in regards to unpaid bonuses for completed games.

While Tecmo has fired back, stating, " Tecmo 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, has several new projects already underway," one has to wonder just how many people are left that truly constitute the development group known as ' Team Ninja.' Journey was never the same after Steve Perry left, but imagine what it' d be like without the whole band. Yes, Tecmo still owns the IPs and can freely make all the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive games/ports it wants to, with or without Team Ninja (Dimps, we' re looking at you), but what will these games be without the people who made them hits?

Another problem for Tecmo is that in Japan, any lawsuit filed against a publicly-traded company must be immediately reported to its shareholders on the same business day. The fact that Itagaki had actually filed a complaint against Tecmo in Tokyo District Court on May 14, but Tecmo management withheld this information from shareholders, possibly as late as when the notorious developer released his high-profile public statement on June 2, creates even bigger problems for the game publisher.

We' ll have more on this drama as it unfolds, but with this peek into the myriad facets of Japanese law, it looks like Tecmo' s shareholders better brace for even more bad news.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168238

So how many people actually make up Team Ninja? I would think it' d be ~100 or so. So if this does come to fruition, over 1/3 of the team will be gone. Probably most of the people leaving would be the ones who matter, rather than the lower level grunts, playtesters and bug crunchers.

Well one thing that both lawsuits involve is that of Tecmo not paying Team Ninja their unpaid " game completions" . Just like Itagaki. So here is some supporting evidence of Team Ninjas leaving. I' m guessing another decline in the stock market for tecmo.

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

From Watch Impress...

Tecmo, Inc. executive officer of the two unions, representing employees of the company impersonation unpaid wage problem is caused by a lawsuit in Tokyo District Court on June 16 it filed a lawsuit on Tuesday.
提訴したのは、同社労働組合の執行委員長の小澤宏昭氏と同副委員長の角田龍生氏の2名。 The suit against the company union' s executive committee and head of the Hiroaki Ozawa Tatsuo Tsunoda, vice-chairpersons of the two. 小澤氏は今年2月に結成された労働組合の執行委員長として、今年5月に行なわれた従業員代表者選挙に当選し、従業員代表者も務めている。 Ozawa, who formed in February this year, the union' s executive chairperson, held in May this year, representatives of electoral elected employees and employee representatives of Staff.

提訴の内容は、「テクモにおける従業員代表者の偽装を原因とする、未払賃金請求訴訟」。 The contents of filing the suit, " Tecmo representative of employees at the cause and forge a suit for unpaid wages." テクモ経営陣が経理部の社員を従業員代表者であるかのように偽装し、36協定と裁量労働制の協定を締結したとして中央労働基準監督署に届けていた。 Tecmo is the management accounting department employee to employee representatives as if it were impersonating, 36 agreements and agreements with the discretion of the workweek as a central labour standards inspection office to deliver. この裁量労働制によってカットされていた残業手当等の賃金の支払いを求めている。 This discretionary work system that had been cut by overtime and demanding that payment of wages.

小澤氏らは、今回の件については迅速に問題を提起するという観点から、2名だけで訴訟を提起したが、これは約300名の社員全体の問題としており、テクモ労働組合としては今後の会社側の対応次第では第2弾、第3弾の訴訟提起を検討しているという。 Ozawa, who said the matter is quick to raise the issue from the perspective of the only two raised by the lawsuit, which is about 300 employees and the whole issue and the trade unions as Tecmo for the future Corresponding taken by the company' s second and third wave of suits to examine the complaint said.

Shitty translation, but basically the two top guys in the labour union at Tecmo have filed a lawsuit yesterday on behalf of 300 members of staff, claiming that bonuses and overtime haven' t been paid, and that Tecmo has repeatedly falsified documents relating to contracts.

Original link ...

Translated link

It doesn' t mention Team Ninja, but there' s obviously something pretty major going on within Tecmo.

EDIT: Correction - it does mention 36 members of Tecmo staff and unpaid wages which lends some support to the Team Ninja mass walkout and Itagaki' s personal lawsuit.

There' s nothing in the future for Tecmo other than brain training games.

Good for Temco and their shitty games, Companys that dont pay wages esp. in the games industry need to fuck off and die.

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

Tecmo is fu.cked

ORIGINAL: Chimura

Tecmo is FUCKED

Fixed.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

If it' s all true, and Tecmo both promised to pay completion bonuses to Team Ninja and haven' t paid overtime to staff member then i hope they get what' s coming to them.

You might not like the style od Team Ninja' s games, but nobody can deny that they are, for the most part, built to a high standard. DoA3 and DoA4 have been launch titles, so it' s likely those games that Itagaki & co were promised completion bonuses for. If Tecmo didn' t pay up... it was a mistake they won' t make again.

I' d like to hear somthing a bit more factual and get an idea of exactly who or how many are leaving. It' s indeterminable yet as to just how bad the damage is.

Tecmo strikes back
The Japanese developer responds to allegations that " dozens" of devs are jumping ship, and what it calls other " false and inaccurate reporting."
By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UK
Posted Jun 19, 2008 3:07 am PT

It is probably safe to say that it has not been a great month so far for Tokyo-based developer Tecmo. First, Tomonobu Itagaki resigned from the company days before the release of the highly anticipated Ninja Gaiden II. He also slapped the company with a lawsuit, alleging he was owed unpaid bonuses of some $1.4 million. Next, rumours started circulating that other members of Team Ninja had also handed in their resignations, and finally, that two employees filed a class action lawsuit for unpaid overtime.

Following an initial statement after the departure of Itagaki, Tecmo has maintained a " no comment" on the following reports, but today chose to break its silence with a statement released to the media.

Firstly, Tecmo states that it is simply not true that " dozens" of development staff are resigning following Itagaki' s exit, and also suing the company. The statement reads, " The rumours are false and no such action is taking place at the company."

Earlier this week various Japanese Web sites reported that two employees representing the entire 300 Tecmo staff had filed a lawsuit against the company for not paying overtime. According to Tecmo, " Although a lawsuit was filed by the two employees, on April 1, 2008, Tecmo did notify all affected employees that they would be appropriately compensated and is currently in the process of solving the matter. There are several inaccurate reports stating that all 300 company employees are named in the lawsuit and the company would like to clarify that only two employees are involved in the suit."

It also rebuffed claims that it withheld information from shareholders regarding Itagaki' s lawsuit, which was filed in May. According to Tecmo, " The company has observed the provisions defined by the Exchange and has released information accordingly and in a timely manner."

It finishes off by concluding, " It is unfortunate that false and inaccurate reporting of our organisation and employees' actions have caused some unrest among our development staff members. Tecmo would like to assure its partners and loyal fans that its teams continue to focus and work on several projects to be released and announced in the future."

Either there was a big misunderstanding to 300 of the employees leaving. Or we see the top of a comapny like Tecmo moving fast to cover up stuff as to not get bad press and trying to reduce further loss of their stock.

*sits back and waits for the mudslinging to begin*


ooh and here to make it a bit more interesting

Tecmo Slaps Itagaki With 4 Point Gag-Order

And the Itagaki vs. Tecmo legal battle continues! On June 10th, Tecmo filed with the Tokyo District Court for a " gag-order" against former employee and Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki before the court case begins. The provisional disposition includes the following four points, prohibiting:

• Disclosing or leaking information regarding Tecmo' s game software, sales, development or any other company secrets

• Using newspapers, magazines and the internet to criticize company software and company employees

• Obstructing the company' s business through slanderous remarks to third parties

• Do not accept interviews regarding Tecmo or talk to the press about the company

This gag-order certainly seems in response to the statement Itagaki released to Kotaku and other outlets.

Ah yes links I forgot

Tecmo strikes back

gag order

There you go.

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PSN: Demonoroth
pm me if you add anything

Don' t post articles from external sources without links m' kay...!?

*sits back and waites for the mudslinging to begin*

...

Right now this is just hearsay

I' d like to hear somthing a bit more factual and get an idea of exactly who or how many are leaving. It' s indeterminable yet as to just how bad the damage is.

?????????So wha??t was supposedlyうに偽装し36?? staff members is no more???than actually justうに2うに偽装し偽装しSo mucうに偽装しh of wtf is ac???tually the truth anうに偽装しd what is not?????this ????does not holdうに偽装しwell for both?? Tecmo and Itagaki ??????うに偽装しEventuうに偽装しally the tru??????th will????うに偽装しcome out and someone??????うに偽装しwill fall ha???rd.

Sorry if my translation was not good ^_^

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

I' m just wondering what you missed in between words like " truth" and " hard" to warrant the question marks.

Fuck Tecmo.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

*** Tecmo.

I' m just wondering what you missed in between words like " truth" and " hard" to warrant the question marks.

I was just commenting like how Nitro' s article was From Watch Impress...with the " shitty translation"

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.