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Ninja Gaiden's Itagaki quits Tecmo News
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Tom Bramwell
Tomonobu Itagaki has reportedly left Tecmo under a cloud, leaving a hefty lawsuit and a personal attack on company president Yoshimi Yasuda in his wake.
1UP has relayed a statement - sourced from "Itagaki aide Andrew Szymanski" - in which Itagaki says he has filed a lawsuit claiming damages of 148 million yen (GBP 750k / EUR 915k).
In the statement, he also apologises to his fans, pointing out that Ninja Gaiden 2 (due out this Friday in Europe) will be his last ever Ninja Gaiden. "I will also never be able to make Dead or Alive 5," he added.
Itagaki seems to blame Yasuda primarily for all this. He says he was promised a completion bonus for Dead or Alive 4 (released in Europe back in January 2006), which Yasuda then denied him, telling him to put up or shut up about it. Itagaki says this caused "significant emotional distress and worsening [of] my personal relationships and work environment".
He claims Yasuda acted in a way "unbefitting of a publicly-listed company", and says he wants to "question the social responsibility" of Tecmo and Yasuda "as well as condemning them for their unjust acts".
"Thus, I have no choice but to resign from Tecmo," he concluded.
You can check out the full statement on 1UP, which is now appearing in a few places.
When you're done, you might like to check out one of Itagaki's final interviews - a video chat with Eurogamer TV at Microsoft's recent San Francisco showcase event.
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Mentalist(air)
03/06/08 @ 07:16
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All of the decently harassable female staff must have left tecmo
http://kotaku.com/gaming/notag/itagaki-s... |
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JohnnyWashnGo
03/06/08 @ 07:37
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Primadonna crybaby.
I am sure Tecmo will do just fine without him and, lets be honest, the world could use a few less Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive games ;) |
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Antwandemarco
03/06/08 @ 07:52
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God bless Itagaki.
To be sure he's a massive cockstain, but he's a hilarious cockstain |
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DanWhitehead
03/06/08 @ 07:54
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I am sure Tecmo will do just fine without him and, lets be honest, the world could use a few less Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive games ;)
I suspect without an eccentric perfectionist like Itagaki at the helm, Tecmo will actually start producing a lot more Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive games. |
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squarejawhero
03/06/08 @ 08:05
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Yeah, those two new reviews at Team Xbox (9/10) and Gamespy (4.5/5) are lukewarm, alright.
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muscleblade
03/06/08 @ 08:11
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@oef!
Microsoft is the publisher of DOA4 and Ninja Gaiden 2 so it wont be any ports no matter what. |
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GamesProgrammer
03/06/08 @ 08:14
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Well if its true they shouldnt of treated him like that but hes being a bit nieve if he thinks just because hes left they wont be making another DoA or another Ninja Gainden, unless he owns the IP personally which i highly doubt.
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@NatAttack
Why wouldn't it be about money? What else would it be about? If you are seriously suggesting that he'd publicly burn all of his bridges with Tecmo and slag off his former boss for any other reason (such as the rather simple-minded suggestions earlier in this thread) then you don't live in the real world. If Itagaki's story is to be believed, they owed him money and when he complained they said "if you don't like it, sue us or quit". There aren't many ways to retrieve a situation like that. |
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I don't get all the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive hate in this thread. Ninja Gaiden was one of the best games of the previous generation on any platform, and the sequel is likely to be one of the best games in it's genre this generation. And DOA is argubly the second best 3d beat-em up series (that doesn't involve weapons).
I expect he'll either start his own studio or get a job with Microsoft (let's face it he won't get one with Sony or Nintendo). At least it explains all his "this will be my last Ninja Gaiden" comments. |
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monkie_king
03/06/08 @ 09:15
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Sigma is still one of the best PS3 games too, despite essentially being 4 years old.
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From some of the comments on this thread, it would appear that those slagging him off have never played the games they are complaining about. No-one in the wider gaming community has ever had anything negative to say about DOA 4 or the original Ninja Gaiden. In fact they are heralded as being examples of good design.
If Itagaki left because he was not paid a completion bonus of 3 quarters of a million pounds, how is anyone slagging him off. Would anyone here seriously be happy to loose out on that kind of money! Would anyone here take that kind of a rip off lying down? At the end of the day Tecmo is going to suffer because of this. Any further Ninja Gaidens will simply not have Itagaki's stamp on them. They may become easier and more generic. Certainly Tecmo's credibility is going to be called into question now when publishers choose which companies to greenlight projects with. |
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monkie_king
03/06/08 @ 09:36
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Well, he did bring us the DOA series, as well as Ninja Gaiden, so he's made a more memorable contribution to gaming than, say, Kojima.
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His output has been very good, though in my view, he certainly doesn't possess the genius of the likes of Miyamoto and Kojima. I do hope he get himself a job elsewhere in the industry though, as I feel he would be somewhat of a loss, of which I'm sure Team Ninja will be currently feeling at losing their master ninja.
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monkie_king
03/06/08 @ 10:00
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If he puts out more games across more genres (fighting, ninja-ing, erm, volleyballing), doesn't that make him more prolific and more eclectic? I guess it depends how far back in Kojima's CV you go though.
(actually, looking at Wikipedia, Kojima has a shedload of production credits for all the Metal Gear handheld spin-offs and things. And I'd forgotten about Boktai).
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 03/06/08 @ 11:05
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I'm sure he'll move on to a brighter future with another company. The guy's a great games designer but I personally don't respect him and I think he's a sleaze-ball. I'm also sure he's quite wealthy, so this idea of bonuses seems a bit presumptious to me.
There WILL be more DOA and NG games someday. He's not the only one who made them. |
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The Bodybuilder
03/06/08 @ 10:43
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Consideringf his boner for MS, no doubt he'll be working for them to create even tittilating games.
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The Bodybuilder
03/06/08 @ 10:56
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He may not be as innovative as the likes of miyamoto, or as epic in narrative like kojima and yu suzuki, but he's a perfectionist. For all we know, NGII development may have been hampered by this relationship and rush to leave tecmo.
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