And he wants to play games again.
Tomonobu Itagaki established a new video game studio, he said.
In a Facebook post, the famous Japanese developer said he recently founded Itagaki Games. That is neither Tecmo nor Valhalla, Itagaki said.
Itagaki, of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden fame, revealed the news as part of a self-published Q&A interview between him and Bloomberg that was not cut out for a January article on the original Xbox.
Itagaki has a long history of working with Microsoft. While at Tecmo, Itagaki directed OG Xbox launch title Dead or Alive 3, 2003 OG Xbox exclusive Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and 2004 exclusive Xbox Ninja Gaiden. A revamped version of the latter, Ninja Gaiden Black, came out exclusively for Xbox in 2005.
Eurogamer Next-Gen News Cast – the Star Wars games we’d love to see next
Itagaki then directed Dead or Alive 4 in 2005 for Xbox 360, Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 in 2006 for Xbox 360 and Ninja Gaiden 2 in 2008 for Xbox 360.
After Itagaki left Tecmo in 2008, he founded Valhalla Game Studios and, in 2015, launched the ill-received Devil’s Third for Wii U.
Itagaki said he spent the last four years teaching, “but now I feel like I want to play a game again and I just started a company for that purpose.”
Itagaki was asked how he would react if Microsoft expressed interest in buying this new studio.
“I know that Microsoft is still aggressive,” he replied. “If they get to me, it will be an honor for me.”