Tag Archives: Tomonobu Itagaki

THQ’s core boss, Danny Bilson, has said the company is more concerned with drawing talent into the collaboration fold than acquiring development studios.

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E3 isn’t exactly “normal,” but only one interview properly blew me away. I’d arrived at THQ’s booth for a meeting about “unannounced game” I made with UK PR weeks before, to be confronted with a screen showing the Devil’s Third logo, Valhalla legend Tomonobu Itagaki and THQ Core boss Danny Bilson, who was finishing off a phone interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Our chat, which saw Itagaki remove his trademark sunglasses and featured some genuinely touching comments from two genuinely sincere men, ended with the most surreal moment of my entire show. I stood up to leave and both Bilson and Itagaki went to shake my hand at the same time. I didn’t know what to do, so I grabbed both their hands simultaneously. For a second we all stood there, in the middle of THQ’s E3 booth, holding hands.

I have no idea if it was the “right” thing to do or not, but it seemed fitting. Bilson and Itagaki are two men on a journey. Bilson is trying to build THQ’s core output by signing the best in the business, and Itagaki was talking about his first project since his very public falling-out with Tecmo and his departure from Team Ninja. There was passion, not arrogance, in the room. There was no cynicism or question-dodging; just a desire to make amazing videogames.

See for yourself.

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THQ announced during E3 that Itagaki’s Devil’s Third will be released sometime during 2012.

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GameTrailers TV has just revealed the new project of Tomonobu Itagaki: a third-person actioner known as Devil’s Third for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

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Tomonobu Itagaki’s new title at Valhalla Games Studios will be revealed tomorrow morning UK time, according to the official site of the developer.

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Boom. BOOM. BOOM! Tomonobu Itagaki has said his next game will be revealed at E3 next week.

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Over on the official website for Valhalla Games, many different industry folks left messages wishing the company and Tomonobu Itagaki success with the new venture.

There’s messages of congratulations from Tim Schafer, Q Entertainment, Epic Games, and even Koei Tecmo.

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Tomonobu Itagaki has revealed to 1UP that some things are just so important, that he cannot create a game without them.

For him, this entails: cigarettes, coffee, drinking, and gambling.

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Tomonobu Itagaki has revealed that new developer Valhalla Games Studios is “currently focusing” on making one title.

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Tomonobu Itagaki’s confirmed his new studio is called Valhalla Game Studios, and that the outfit is now 50-strong.

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Former Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki said today that he’s reached a settlement over bonuses with Tecmo, adding that his new game will deliver “world class entertainment”.

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Platinum Games’ Hideki Kamiya has spoken out against former Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki, stating that the Ninja Gaiden creator is an “idiot”.

“It’s a huge mistake to think like an idiot that big breasts on women seem erotic,” said Kamiya

The two have been squabbling away at each other for a good couple of months now.

Kamiya also randomly revealed he wasn’t gay.

“I am bald, but I am not gay.”

Riiight. Find more info over at D’Toid.

Former Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki has called the Japanese game market the equivalent of sakoku, which was when Japan closed it’s borders to to the outside world 400 years ago.

“I think that, in time, [the games market] will end up much like the Japanese film industry, you know? I mean it will become similar in terms of its competitiveness in mass markets, its ability to raise funds, and its technological prowess,” he told Kotaku. “I mean, Kojima-san at Konami has been talking about the technological side of the issue for quite some time now, hasn’t he?

“Whether it goes into a major decline or not will depend on the publishers and game creators here in Japan. There’s no point in traveling the same path that Japan did 400 years ago, after all. I’m talking about sakoku, the policy in which Japan closed its borders to the outside world. What the industry is doing right now is just a modern form of sakoku.

“What I’m trying to get at is that you’ve got to be an Earthling first, and a Japanese second.

As far as an announcement regarding the games he has been working on, he said that “it’s just not time to announce anything quite yet”, and added that “my partners and I are working on quite a few bombshells at the moment”.

Good to know.

Ex-Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki has laid into Platinum Games’ Hideki Kamiya by saying if he’d made Bayonetta whilst at Tecmo, people would have thought him stupid.

“If I made a similar game as a game I made in the company I quit, people would say, ‘What an idiot, can’t he make anything else?’ Well, that is more or less the opinion I have for, uh, that Bayo-something game,” said Itagaki to 1UP at E3.

Of the character design, Itagaki weighed in: “Covered in hair, is she? I dunno, Mr. Kamiya must have a lot going through his head. Well, in any case, I would first recommend laser eye surgery. I’m sure he’s not that strapped for cash, right?”

Hack’n'Slash warz, ftw.

Sega’s Bayonetta is out for PS3 and 360 later this year.

More rambling through the link.

Ex-Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki and a new company built of producers and directors from the disbanded unit are at work on a new Xbox 360 game, according to this 1UP interview.

Itagaki told the site it’s “too early” to show the title at E3 next week, but he will be in LA for the event.

Full thing through there. There’s not much detail, unfortunately. Thanks, Blerk.

New Team Ninja boss Yosuke Hayashi has told Kikizo that Ninja Gaiden will almost certainly be continued as a series.

“What the gamers are looking for is going to be the next chapter – the future of an outstanding series. We feel that we’re in a position of being able to make that call… That calling is already there – we feel it”.

Tomonobu Itagaki, the previous Ninja Gaiden dev head, said in May 2008 that the second game would finish the IP.

Apparently not. It gets better: next time it’s going to be multi-format:

“We’re going to have to push ourselves to the next level, and we are better off giving both audiences an entirely new game,” Hayashi added.

There’s a full interview here.

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.