Ninja Gaiden's Itagaki Leaves Tecmo, Sues for Damages

Gamasutra is reporting that Ninja Gaiden developer Tomonobu Itagaki has resigned from Tecmo and is suing for damages in the neighborhood of 148 million yen ($1.42M USD). "In recent press interviews for the just released Xbox 360 exclusive Ninja Gaiden II, Itagaki had repeatedly stated that it would be the last game in the series he would work on, while also disparaging Ninja Gaiden Sigma on the PlayStation 3 - with which he was not directly involved. At the same time he began to make reference to work beginning on a new action title unrelated to Ninja Gaiden. It now seems likely that these comments were made with the knowledge that the title would not be created at Tecmo, although Itagaki has given no indication of what his future plans might entail."

Comments

Re:written contract

[exley]

He was just pissed that they failed to provide him with his requisite sunglasses for outdoor and indoor use. That guy's a rock star, you know?

Seriously, though, I wonder how series like Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive will look without Itagaki at the helm. Can DOA: Extreme Barbie Doll Dressup really be the same without his genius guidance?

Then again I wasn't too impressed with all the focus on making the girls' breasts all bouncy -- it just ended up looking really weird. And there were never enough cute shoes!

The way of the ninja

[Kingrames]

The lawsuit was found nailed to their door by a shuriken, with no less than ten corpses strewn about for good measure.