Itagaki leaves Tecmo

360 News | Also attempts to ninja loot the company.

On the eve of the US release for Tecmo's anticipated action game, Ninja Gaiden 2, director and head of Team Ninja, Tomonobu Itagaki, has announced his resignation, and is also suing the company. In an official statement today on 1up, Itagaki's aide, Andrew Szymanski, confirmed the reports.

In Itagaki's letter, he states that he has '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.'

Itagaki also apologised towards his gaming fans, stating in the letter that '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.'

Itagaki was well known throughout the gaming industry for his consistency, and there are surely many disappointed fans upon hearing this news.

Related Ninja Gaiden 2 Content

Xbox Live Deal of the Week
03 Mar, 2009 Ninjas invade the marketplace.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Review
19 Jun, 2008 The bloody grace of an angry ninja.

Team Ninja mass exodus is likely
17 Jun, 2008 Itagaki resignation sets off a chain reaction.

9 Comments

Anonymous

3 years ago

Wow, Itagaki was really Tecmo. Tecmo are now really screwed without Itagaki because it's his games that sold well. Tecmo games not made by Itagaki are generally not top sellers besides Fatal Frame.

Itagaki is one of the best game developers around. They wont be a shortage of companies wanting to employ him, Microsoft in particular.

This is definetely good news for PS3 owners though, as it means Ninja Gaiden 2 will most likely be ported later onto the PS3. Maybe called Sigma 2.

DarkYoshii

3 years ago

The world is now over. Simple as that.

Knowing him, he'll probably take his massive breast research implemented in DoAX2 and try to put it towards something in human therepy.

Classic Itagaki.

rankodour

3 years ago

I reckon he is a unique personality, but I don't think he will be missed that much aside from his funloving dissing of games/ things he thinks are inferior.

His games are good, just not great. Ninja Gaiden could do with refinement bigtime and its gameplay is not so complex that non-Itagaki's wouldn't be able to work it out or improve it.

Cerebral

3 years ago

DarkYoshii wrote

The world is now over. Simple as that.

Knowing him, he'll probably take his massive breast research implemented in DoAX2 and try to put it towards something in human therepy.

Classic Itagaki.

Or breast cancer research.

That'd actually be pretty cool if I didn't get the mental image if him walking around the labs with his trademark sunglasses grinning all the time.

Ciel

3 years ago

I really doubt Tecmo will miss Itagaki that much since they own the 2 IP's he was involved with, DOA and Ninja Gaiden.

Team Ninja is still there, just that it won't have Itagaki's constant influence on how they make their games (I would imagine he left some sort "foot print" - especially how pubically opinionated he is).

Anyway I think Yosuke Hayashi (I'm assuming he'll probably take a bigger role now) who did Sigma for the PS3 (btw which Itagaki bagged him for) did a fine job with it.

I didn't think Itagaki was that big of a deal anyway, Team Ninja is so much more than just one opinionated guy.

arbok

3 years ago

I am loving the Ninja Gaiden 2 demo - oh if the camera was done well then this would be a masterpiece.

armageddon12

3 years ago

Hardly surprising to see him leave, considering his recent outbursts.

No DOA5 by Itagaki makes me sad though, who else can dedicate so much time to boob physics? Maybe they'll actually state Kasumi/Ayane's actual ages now though.

STANKY J

3 years ago

ahh Itagaki always the rockstar.

DarkYoshii

3 years ago

Cerebral wrote

That'd actually be pretty cool if I didn't get the mental image if him walking around the labs with his trademark sunglasses grinning all the time.

That makes it all the better, in my opinion.

View as forum topic

Add Comment

Like this news?

Share it with this tiny url: http://palg.nu/1wA

| More

Ninja Gaiden 2

Pre-order or buy:
PALGN recommends: www.Play-Asia.com

Australian Release Date:
  12/6/2008 (Confirmed)
Standard Retail Price:
  $99.95 AU
Publisher:
  Microsoft
Genre:
  Action Adventure
Year Made:
  2008

Read more...