Team Ninja sings praises of PS3

By Robert Purchese Published 4 November, 2008

Reckons Sony console has "most potential".

The new-look Team Ninja is backing PS3 following the departure of former leader Tomonobu Itagaki.

"For the PlayStation 3, we do not believe that we've seen the fullest of its potential from any standpoint: from a developer standpoint, and also a consumer standpoint," Yosuke Hayashi, the new head of the Ninja Gaiden IP, told Gamasutra.

"There is greater potential, and we see that possibility the most in the PlayStation 3. It's going to be up to us developers and Sony to make sure that that does happen.

"For any developer that's been working on all of the platforms that are available today, I think they would agree that the PlayStation 3 is the most powerful system out there," he added.

Traditionally, the developer - a subsidiary of Tecmo - has favoured Microsoft and the Xbox formats, having only recently deviated with Ninja Gaiden Sigma on PS3, and Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword on DS.

However, leather jacket and sunglass-wearing studio founder Itagaki famously resigned in June, leaving plenty of opportunity for reorganisation and refocus in his wake.

Hitoshi Hasegawa, who's now in charge of the Dead or Alive fighting series, also sees plenty of possibility in the Wii.

"Maybe not Team Ninja specifically, but with Tecmo as a whole, we've been supporting the platform from the very beginning," said Hasegawa.

"Internally at the company, we have a lot of knowledge, and I think we've mastered most of the components to make a very compelling and entertaining product using the console.

"We will continue to work in that path," he added. "We have a lot of Wii console fans within the company, so hopefully there's something that we can work on."

However, none of this is to say Microsoft will be kicked to the curb, as Team Ninja continues to applaud the "all-round integrated aspects and elements" of the Xbox 360.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (38) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • AliRay #1 3 years ago

    Slow news day? Whats with this and the Epic story earlier singing M$' praises?! FFS

  • drumbaby #2 3 years ago

    Wow, Team Ninja finally stop smoking the Msoft Chipolata.

  • DFawkes #3 3 years ago

    So, generally speaking, what we can take from this news day is "Developers like consoles". I already knew that, otherwise they'd only be developing on PC. Though some may think that'd be better.

  • the_dudefather #4 3 years ago

    awaits FUCK YOU TEAM NINJA AND YOUR GAMES SUCK TOO comments

  • jonsaan #5 3 years ago

    DOA for PS3 pleeeease. Ta.

  • Steroyd #6 3 years ago

    Funny how they say that when Itagaki leaves Team Ninja.

  • Darren #7 3 years ago

    Ninja Gaiden Sigma was a crushing disappointment on the PS3... jaggy as fook and with lots of screen tearing plus bonus slowdown at 1080p... if Team Ninja think the PS3 is more powerful than they certainly don't know how to use it! That said, Ninja Gaiden 2 on the 360 was no better technically either... that game didn't even manage to run at 720p! ;)

  • penhalion #8 3 years ago

    So now that the guy with the guts to stand up to management has gone, it's back to the old tow the line mentality. Well good luck to them. If they want to be PS3 exclusive from now on, I'm not exactly going to miss them. After all their great ideas were the brains of the one guy who left.

    Edit: I should add that I mean they would loose half of their potential sales in an economic market that isn't exactly booming.
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/08 @ 10:44

  • Eraysor #9 3 years ago

    Strange when the most advertised PS3 game here a the moment is watercolour, a form of art mastered with a piece of parchment and a brush. Not sure that requires a cell processor.

  • Les #10 3 years ago

    Weren't they always obsessed by processor power? Last gen xbox had the most powerful CPU, this gen it's PS3. Nothing contradictory about that. Shame EG tries to turn this into a flame bait... :(

  • speedjack #11 3 years ago

    In summary... Ninja Gaiden founder who favoured 360 development left Temco along with most of his team, leaving his IP behind.

    Temco hastily assembles new 'Team Ninja 2' who now supports PS3 too.

    Seems fair enough.

  • youhavenomail #12 3 years ago

    " if Team Ninja think the PS3 is more powerful than they certainly don't know how to use it! That said, Ninja Gaiden 2 on the 360 was no better technically either... that game didn't even manage to run at 720p! ;) "

    There you go, then. What they should have said is, 'PS3 is slightly less rubbish than the seriously rubbish 360, but they're both as rubbish as each other when it comes to rubbish games by rubbish developers like ourselves'.

  • Gnort #13 3 years ago

    @Penhalion
    I think what they're saying is that they'll go multiplatform, like everyone else. Like you said, the market isn't exactly booming, and they need to cover as many bases as possible. It's the same reason Namco is bringing Tekken 6 to the 360, it's got nothing to do with striking a blow for the console war, it is about maximising sales in the face of ever increasing development costs.

  • Rash' #14 3 years ago

    Les, actually the emotion engine was still the more powerful cpu. xbox had a superior gpu.
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/08 @ 11:21

  • Rash' #15 3 years ago

    Where's Calgon when you need him!

    ...and Dizzy for that matter!

  • Thunderbolt #16 3 years ago

    Ah, the much talked about 'potential'.



  • nickthegun #17 3 years ago

    NG2 Sigma: Confirmed!


  • MrXBob #18 3 years ago

    "Les, exactly the emotion engine was still the more powerful cpu. xbox had a superior gpu. "


    ..............LOLemotion
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/08 @ 11:17

  • JHuxley #19 3 years ago

    I'm not a huge fan of Team Ninja, but it'll be interesting to se what they come up with post-Itagaki. Hopefully something less boob obsessed.

    Off-topic, this VC skin is great. Selvaria FTW. Awesome game.

  • miiiguel #20 3 years ago

    LesLol: remember his posts saying the worse things about DOA... man, this is too funny. Ppl shouldn't compromise themselfs with such strong statements, this is always changing.

  • chris_ace #21 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • Widge #22 3 years ago

    Couldn't give a fig about NG2, but I really love DOA. Its by far the most entertaining battler (for me) out of Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Soul Halibut etc.
    Although, there is that Naruto thing now....

  • miiiguel #23 3 years ago

    (koei + Tecmo + PS3 ) - Itagaki = OMG so da cool!
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/08 @ 12:14

  • septimus #24 3 years ago

    A not shitty DOA now please. Thanks.

  • 3william56 #25 3 years ago

    Did they actualy sing it, karaoke style?

  • insincere_dave #26 3 years ago

    This team is still the powerhouse it was despite Itagaki and half the team leaving!

  • Monkey_Puncher #27 3 years ago

    Be interesting to see what Team Ninja do without the influence of Itagaki, maybe they'll go back to the drawing board and sort out their awful art style?

  • patchbox360 #28 3 years ago

    For the PlayStation 3, we do not believe that we've seen the fullest of its potential

    dgweghwrhjtj5yklu6l6ltylkeyleylwykwyk5wkwqerheejrtj4

  • Weezer #29 3 years ago

    When I see a game that's cross platform and unequivocally, undeniably streets ahead of the 360 technically, then I'll start believing this nonsense. Until then, I see no massive advantage or disadvantage with either system. Although I've got a shit load more games on 360 than PS3...

  • BillyBrush #30 3 years ago

    Well i loved NG2 personally and a lot of them must still be there because not everyone jumped ship with Itagaki, so good luck to em good news for Sony...not earth shattering but now perhaps NG2 will come to PS and all those people hating on it will see that it delimbs DMC4 in just a few swift cuts..

  • Feanor #31 3 years ago

    For NG2 to come to the PS3 and "delimb" DMC 4, the god-awful camera will have to be totally redone for a start.

  • BillyBrush #32 3 years ago

    well...just imagine DMC with free camera all round and no fixed bits...that's the camera

    ...just my opinion but i thought NG2 was leagues ahead of DMC, faster, more responsive combat, great character animation, much better just as it is

  • lolife.se #33 3 years ago

    Yeah, the PS3 is the most powerful console, processing wise. The Cell should be able to do handle more AI's, many and smoother animations, etc, by doing it in parallell. But that's just it, in parallell -- it also makes it the most complex to develop for. Also, the subsystem and graphics (eg. it's divided memory, the graphics core) is inferior as far as I can tell, so it will very much be limiting how much of that processing you really can make use of.

    When dev's are better up to snuff with parallell game development, there will probably be a new XBOX platform out, comparable to, or even *with* a Cell, but with much more powerful surrounding hardware, being able to put out more objects, prettier effects, etc. So I think Microsoft made the right choice in this regard with the 360, it's hardware really is well balanced (except the optical drive, obviously :-) ). But they dropped the ball on reliability and storage instead.

  • Xerx3s #34 3 years ago

    Team Ninja without Team Ninja staff != Team Ninja.

  • TheBoyChris #35 3 years ago

    To those with the 'slow news day' complaints - are you the guys who called in over the Russell Brand thing, and Jeremy Clarkson's prositute comments?

    It's a games company, talking about a console; ergo it is news. It's just not as OMGWTF as you want it to be. Quit your whiney jibber-jabber already :)

  • canIdoyabombsforya #36 3 years ago

    Steve Jobs called the PS3 "a bag of hurt" LOL

  • Slipstream #37 3 years ago

    Heh, I remember Itakagaki's initial statement way back when saying that "The Playstation 2 will never have enough power to ahndle the quality of our games!" So the shifted to the XBOX, which was a wise decision considering it was ALOT more powerful than the PS2, they had found the format they wanted.
    But now, as you say they are singing songs of praise for the PS3...I really wish they would've kept this quiet and just gotten on with whatever new IP they have planned for the console, after all, they didn't say they were abandoning other formats, they're just keen to push what is 'supposedly the most powerful console.'
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/08 @ 19:57

  • RazorObsession #38 3 years ago

    maybe in a decade or so, someone, somewhere will finally have been able to unlock the PS3's potential.

    its just a shame that no one will remember or care when it finally happens.