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Team Ninja isn't quite dead and buried. As we first broke, Tomonobu Itagaki, the founder of the studio, quit and sued the company. But in September Tecmo announced a new head for the studio and said they were currently working on three new titles.
Tecmo announced at a press conference in Tokyo yesterday that Team Ninja has three titles currently in development, with team member Jin Hasegawa taking the reins at the developer as of July 1. That's the day that former Team Ninja master Tomonobu Itagaki ended his employment at the Japanese publisher.
One of those titles is expected to hit in 2009, is said to be designed with Western markets in mind and previously reported to be part of a genre new to Team Ninja.
Tecmo also showed off the Wii port of Rygar and announced the sequel to DS Nishimura Kyotaro Suspense Shin Tantei Series: Kyoto Atami Zekkai no Kotou - Satsui no Wana, which helps make this post of appropriate length. They also brought some pretty ladies.
Tecmo Autumn 2008 Press Conference [Game Watch]
Giving his first interview since his, uh, departure from Tecmo, former Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki has told 1UP's James Mielke a bunch of stuff. Some of it interesting, some of it confusing, some of it batshit insane. You should really go read the whole piece, but if you're after a highlights package, this quote probably takes the cake:
One more thing I would add is that I don't think that developing for the PS3 is hard at all. It was much harder developing for the Famicom. It's true. I mean, give someone who's developing for the PS3 a Famicom and see if they can make a game for it. They won't be able to. Yeah, that'll prove it. We'll bet a drink on it.
You know shit is serious when Itagaki starts betting drinks.
Wanted Dead or Alive: Tomonobu Itagaki's first interview since going underground [1UP]
While the freezing issues with Ninja Gaiden II that arose with the title update and mission mode downloadable content pack towards the end of last month have yet to be fixed, Microsoft assures us that they are working closely with Tecmo and Team Ninja towards a solution.
Microsoft is aware of the issues that players are experiencing with the title update to "Ninja Gaiden II" and are currently working to resolve them with Tecmo/Team NINJA. Please stay tuned for a new update. We thank you for your patience!
There is currently no ETA for a new update. Their suggestion for the meantime? Clear your cache and play the game offline. Doing so will remove all game updates and disable the mission mode DLC, but you'll be able to complete the main game without locking up while we wait for further updates. Hit the jump for cache clearing instructions.
They're the people in the shadows. You don't know their names, but you know their words. They localizers, the folks that take games from not only another language, but also another culture and open them up for another audience. "Good translation is tough to quantify", says Tokyo-based localizer Matt Alt. "If it's well done, it sort of disappears. Ideally the person playing the game doesn't even realise they're reading something that wasn't originally written in their native tongue". He runs AltJapan along with his wife (and company president!) Hiroko Yoda run out of a small second story office on Tokyo's westside. And with 99.999 percent of the games AltJapan works on that's true. Well, save for one: Ninja Gaiden II.
Those looking for more to do in Ninja Gaiden II should start rooting through the couch cushions for loose Microsoft Points, because details on the game's DLC have appeared, like, out of nowhere. One second there's a puff of smoke, the next Gamersyde reports that you'll be paying 800 MS Points for 25 new missions via Xbox Live. Cheap!
According to the report, two types of self-contained missions will extend the life of your Ninja Gaiden II experience: "Karma Attack missions task you with obtaining the highest score, while Survival missions give you a single weapon to fight off as many enemies as possible". What? No camera battle missions? That's the best part!
Ninja Gaiden DLC details [Gamersyde]
Whoah, NECA! Slow down! You'll wear yourself out, then you won't be any good to anyone. Not content with releasing God of War figures, and Gears of War of War figures, and Bionic Commando figures, they've just released shots of a Ninja Gaiden II figure as well. Of course, it's of Ryu Hayabusa, who'll stand 7" tall and come with a bunch of weapons and accessories when he's released in September. In case you haven't noticed with those ball hips and wacky shoulders, the emphasis here is on his flexibility, not his detail.
Tecmo is not pleased. It says that rumoured talk of some three dozen Team Ninja members bolting from the company along with Tomonobu Itagaki and filing suit against Tecmo, reports of which originated at 1UP, are false and inaccurate. "No such action is taking place at the company", reads an official statement forwarded to Kotaku.
According to Tecmo, only two employees have filed a lawsuit against the company. Tecmo claims that it notified "all affected employees that they would be appropriately compensated and is currently in the process of resolving the matter". It also goes on record as saying that reports that it had withheld information from shareholders regarding the lawsuit filed by Itagaki were, in short, hogwash.
Apparently, recent reporting on Tecmo's legal kerfuffle has caused "unrest" amongst company staffers, so the publisher and developer has asked us to "handle news reports concerning the above matters with care". It is our policy to handle all news reports as if they were a brittle nest filled with the precious and fragile eggs of a hummingbird.
The Itagaki-Tecmo pissing match may have hit a new level of animosity. 1Up, attributing only "word on the street," reports that as many as 36 key members of Team Ninja are walking, and preparing a class-action lawsuit against Tecmo regarding unpaid bonuses they were due for completed games.
Earlier this month Tomonobu Itagaki, who leads/led Team Ninja, announced his intention to quit Tecmo, effective July 1. In his announcement he was PO'd about a company decision not to pay bonuses on a completed game, so, chances are his comrades feel the same. Tecmo, for its part, says the bonus to Itagaki that is in dispute was approved by a previous management team, not the current one.
1Up also writes:
Last month when I spoke with Tomonobu Itagaki in San Francisco he told me that Ninja Gaiden II represented the culmination, the absolute height of the franchise and because of this he would no longer be making any more Ninja Gaiden games. Ninja Gaiden has always been about perfection of timing, on some level the art of the sword, this is no more evident than in this latest game.
But is Ninja Gaiden II really the franchise's swan song or is Itagaki's decision to ditch Team Ninja and sue Tecmo over unpaid bonuses the real reason he won't be making any more of the titles?
