Ninja Gaiden director Tomonobu Itagaki has returned to game development with a newly formed studio, he revealed.
In a post published on his Facebook page “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/facebook/ “> on Facebook, the designer revealed that he created Itagaki Games, a new studio unrelated to his former employers Tecmo and Valhalla.
“For the past four years, I have been teaching jobs to young fosters, but now I feel like I want to play a game again and I just started a company for that purpose,” he wrote.
The 53-year-old designer and his Ninja Gaiden team have been behind Tecmo’s biggest games for nearly two decades, including the Dead or Alive series and the Xbox “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/xbox/ “> Ninja Gaiden Xbox reboot.
However, Itagaki had a public disagreement with his employer after the release of Ninja Gaiden II in 2008, which saw him leave the company and file a $ 1 million lawsuit alleging unpaid bonuses and “false statements”.
After the split, Itagaki founded Valhalla Game Studios, the developer behind Wii U “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/nintendo/wiiu/ “> Wii U Devil’s Third title. In 2017, he resigned to the position of director and started to act as a consultant.
Devil’s Third was a rare deviation from the Xbox platforms to Itagaki, but even this game was originally planned to be exclusive to Xbox 360, according to the designer, with Xbox Game Studios (Microsoft) “href =” https: // www. videogameschronicle. com / companies / microsoft / “> Microsoft said it partially funded the formation of Valhalla. Due to the company’s move to focus on Kinect, Devil’s Third ended up switching to THQ (and later Nintendo” href = “https: // www. videogameschronicle.com/platforms/nintendo/”>Nintendo).
Thanks to the original Xbox successes Dead or Alive 3 and Ninja Gaiden, Itagaki remains a key figure in the platform’s history and recently contributed to a Bloomberg feature that marked Xbox 20º birthday.
Itagaki’s comments on Facebook came from an unedited interview he originally sent to the resource, which the designer said he would not have contributed had it not been for the large number of Xbox fans who anticipate his next game.
Asked if he would consider working with Microsoft again in the future, Itagaki said he would be “honored” to join his former partner.
“I would start again with questions that I asked [original Xbox designer] Seamus [Blackley] two decades ago, ”he wrote. “At that time, I asked him, ‘Are you confident that you will win the PS2?’ and he said, ‘Yes. The Xbox is called Project Midway and I will gain supremacy with it. ‘
“That’s why I trusted him and created games exclusive to Xbox for about ten years. Twenty years passed and I started my own company, Itagaki Games, which is neither Tecmo nor Valhalla. I know that Microsoft is still aggressive. If they get to me, it will be an honor for me. “
Xbox has openly expressed the desire to acquire an Asian game developer, “in particular a Japanese studio”, on several occasions.
According to a November 2020 Bloomberg report, Xbox is continuing discussions with Japanese game developers ‘big and small’ as it continues its search for studio acquisitions in the country, with several Japanese companies privately indicating that they have been approached by Microsoft to buy your business.
Microsoft is making renewed efforts in Japan with its latest console release. Xbox Series X | S “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/xbox/scarlett/ “> Xbox Series X and S launched day and date with other territories on November 10 (compared to a year later with its previous console ) and Xbox boss Phil Spencer “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/people/phil-spencer/ “> Phil Spencer said he wants to better serve Japanese players in this console generation.