Tag Archives: Tecmo

Two pleasant surprises cropped up in the PlayStation release schedule for this week. Almost a full year after announce, Drinkbox’s Guacamelee is headed to PlayStation 3 and Vita, with cross-buy enabled. It’s a Metroidvania starring a pair of luchadores, with a two-world mechanic and an emphasis on melee combat. The classic horror stylings of Tecmo’s Fatal Frame (otherwise known as Project Zero) will join the PlayStation Network’s PS2 Classics range, too.

Ninja Gaiden 3 hasn’t even been released yet, but screens for the game’s DLC have already surfaced. More »

Tecmo Koei has announced plans to absorb both development subsidiaries of both Tecmo and Koei.

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Ryu Hayabusa may not be much into that whole “stealth” thing that’s got all the other ninjas talking these days, but that hasn’t kept him from sneaking onto the tail-end of September.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma II is actually launching first in North America on September 29, and then in Japan on October 1, reports Kotaku. Tecmo has also announced a collector’s edition that comes with a swank 80-page book and a $69.99 price tag.

In addition, if you preorder the game from GameStop, you’ll unlock a special costume for Ryu. And honestly, if you live in North America, where else are you gonna buy the game? Wal-Mart? Oh, that’ll show those big corporations who’s boss.

More through the link.

Speaking with Gamasutra, Itagaki-successor Hitoshi Hasegawa and Ninja Gaiden Sigma director/former Itagaki-successor Yosuke Hayashi suffocated Sony’s next-gen competitor with smooches.

“The developers have been releasing products, but there is a bigger potential,” Hayashi said. “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, also touting Sony’s top-notch developer support.

When the Wii’s turn came around, however, things were a little less cut-and-dry.

“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,” Hasegawa explained.

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

Gobs more through the link.

By Nathan Grayson

Square Enix just formally announced its Tecmo bid in an English press release, saying its intentions are “friendly” and consent’s needed for the move from the Tecmno board by September 4.

“We believe that Tecmo will be able to make a great leap forward by joining the Square Enix Group, which will provide the group with further growth opportunities as well,” said the statement.

“We are planning to position Tecmo as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings maintaining Tecmo’s current organization and brand as in the cases of Square Enix and Taito.”

Press release after the link. News of the move first emerged this morning.

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According to this Gamespot report, Microsoft’s announced that Ninja Gaiden II has now sold more than 1 million units worldwide.

That’s pretty much it. Tecmo will be pleased. This probably isn’t the biggest Tecmo story breaking today, however.

Update 2: Square’s released a statement saying it’s prepared to pay a 30 percent premium on Tecmo’s stock. Details here.

Update: It’s been announced. IGN’s reporting it as well.

According to this sourceless Kotaku piece, Square Enix is to make an imminent takeover move on beleaguered publisher, Tecmo. From the piece:

Today at 1pm Japan Time, Square Enix will be outlining its plans for a friendly takeover troubled game maker Tecmo. Square Enix’s takeover would help the company gain a stronger foothold in the U.S. market with popular Tecmo titles like the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive games. What’s more, Tecmo’s games will help strengthen Square Enix’s current portfolio, which is heavily dependent on RPGs.

Hopefully more will come out about this later in the day.

This is actually pretty cool. 1UP managed to get some time with ex-Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki whilst drunk at Waseda University. Here’s a good bit:

You look at, for instance, back in World War II. You had aerial dogfight battle with 600 planes on each side. And then, as we got into say the Korean War, and now it’s say maybe 50 or 60. And in modern times, with modern jet planes, you only need one or two to fight a battle. So you certainly see a progression like that. So, I do look on it as someone who likes fighter planes and thinks that they’re really cool. The fact that fighter planes themselves have dwindled in number is certainly something that is somewhat regretful. But I still like fighter planes, and I think they’re the coolest type of plane there is.

One thing I will say is that, definitely, you have to have at least some fighter planes. Any country that doesn’t have fighter planes is destined to be extinct. In that metaphor, I think that game companies that aren’t able to do high-end development, or don’t have developers who can work on high-end hardware are destined to ultimately be obsolete in the market. Make sense?

Course it does. Loads more through there.

Kotaku is reporting that the troubled Tecmo president, Yoshimi Yasuda will resign today.

The board of directors have apparently accepted his resignation which was handed in this morning. Only “personal reasons” was given as a reason for Yasuda stepping down.

However, it most likely has something to do with with the secret Temco tapes which appear to support Itagaki’s claims that he was due “special incentive” payments.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Tomonobu Itagaki believes Tecmo owes him “special incentive” wages for the completion of DOA 4, but Tecmo president Yoshimi Yasuda vehemently denies that he’s required to pay Itagaki. Itagaki was fired over the whole ordeal, but now we have a tape provided by Kotaku that makes a pretty strong case for Itagaki’s claims.

The tape was recorded by Ninja Gaiden II producer Yoshifuru Okamoto – without Yasuda’s knowledge – and consists of a conversation between Yasuda and Okamoto. At one point, Yasuda says of the “special incentives” payment that, “The board of directors approved it and signed the ringi (a type of Japanese corporate approval form),” which essentially means that Yasuda is required to pony up.

If all of this is true, it seems Itagaki was in the right when he sued Tecmo. The tape has been submitted as evidence in court, so we’ll see.

For the full tape as well as a translation of its contents, check out the link.

By Nathan Grayson

According to an excellent trio of articles of Kotaku, Tomonobu Itagaki was actually sacked from Tecmo, and did not leave as originally thought.

The site’s also revealed that a gagging order placed on the the Team Ninja head following his the unceremonious end to his Tecmo career was removed weeks ago.

Last but by no means least, is this, a piece detailing a secretly recorded conversation in which Tecmo president confirms the existence of the 6.66 percent bonus Itagaki’s claiming was never paid.

Hilarious. Read more through the links.

Seriously, if you don’t look at it and actually say “meh” we’d be surprised. Unless you’re crapping yourself over Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff, obviously. Take a look.

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On Watch Impress. Looks suitably horrible. Still no idea when the Wii game’s coming out over here.

Update: There’s a brilliant piece on Kotaku suggesting Tecmo may not exactly be the paragon of virtue it’s claiming to be. Definitely read this.

Tecmo’s issued a press release outlining its position concerning what is calls employee unrest at the company, while claiming rumours about dozens of employees leaving the firm are not true.

“It is unfortunate that false and inaccurate reporting of our organization and employees’ actions have caused some unrest among our development staff members. Tecmo, LTD. would like to assure its partners and loyal fans that its teams continue to focus and work on several projects to be released and announced in the future,” said the statement.

“The company is committed to providing high quality, entertaining products for our fans around the world.”

Full press release through the link.

By Mike Bowden

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Famitsu‘s reported that Tecmo’s issued a gagging order on estranged Team Ninja dev boss Tomonobu Itagaki. Apparently, the law now says:

1. He is not allowed to take confidential information outisde of the company.
2. He is not allowed to talk about the business of the company or criticize the business of the company.
3. He is not allowed to make inflammatory remarks which may hurt the company’s business.
4. He is not allowed to talk to the media regarding the company’s business.

Thanks, XboxKings.

According to this 1UP report, as many as three dozens workers are leaving Team Ninja in the wake of the sensational Tomonobu Itagaki exit, and all of them are to file suits on Tecmo for unpaid completion bonuses.

Itagaki quit Team Ninja at the beginning of June, saying that Tecmo had failed to pay him an agreed sum for the completion of a previous game.

More through the link.

According to the Major, the Ninja Gaiden 2 demo that released in the rest of the world this week is now available in North America.

So hooray to that.

Ninja Gaiden 2 is one of the most frustrating games we’ve played in a long time. Not because we found it too difficult. We didn’t.

In fact, the frustration isn’t borne out of something entirely negative either. The trouble with Ninja Gaiden 2 is that, up to a point, it was easily the most brainless fun we’ve had all year: the problem was that the game suddenly turned round at chapter eight and stuck both it’s fingers up at us.

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According to this Excite piece, translated by Kotaku, Tecmo’s share price fell off a cliff yesterday after it was revealed that Tomonobu Itagaki was leaving the company over a pay dispute.

The company’s stock took a 10.6 percent hit to rest at just below 1,000 yen.

Just goes to show.