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Team Ninja On Losing Itagaki

Posted October 27, 2010 by M.H. Williams

It’s been two years since rockstar developer Tomonobu Itagaki, the creator of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, left Tecmo. After a dispute over bonuses, Itagaki left the company to found his own dev house, Valhalla Games Studios, with another ex-Tecmo employee, Satoshi Kanematsu. Team Ninja has never commented on the departure, until a recent interview with new studio head Yosuke Hayashi in the pages of Famitsu.

"I've been with Team Ninja ever since I graduated from college, so everything I know about the game business I learned from Team Ninja. Seeing the people who taught me the ropes leave was something I never imagined happening, and to be honest, I felt like I had no idea where to go next,” said Hayashi. “But later I realized that just because they had their reasons and beliefs that led them to leave, I didn't have to follow them along. It was a chance for not just myself, but for all of us at Team Ninja to rethink our approach to game development. That's what led us to have the team we have now, the people that stayed on as Team Ninja members."

Hayashi admitted that the early days after the transition were difficult, but the team had a lot of support.

“Koei have been a great support to us, as have a lot of other companies in the industry, directly or indirectly. I really appreciated that they went beyond the competitive forces that drive them to come out and cheer us on -- it made me feel like the industry treats all of us on the team as important,” he said.

Hayashi never refers to Itagaki by name, instead using ‘senpai’, a term of respect for someone with a higher workplace or social status. He also mentioned that he prefers the revamped Team Ninja, stating that certain staff members controlled much of the development at the studio, leading to inflexibility. Together, these statements paint the relationship between Itagaki and Hayashi in a murky light.

"After my senpai left, I actually expressed to the company that I didn't want people going around calling us the 'new' Team Ninja," he said. "I've been with the team both before and after the moves, and while some people left, that doesn't really change what Team Ninja is doing. Calling us the 'new' Team Ninja would be turning our backs on that history, and I really didn't want to do that. That's why we changed nothing, not even the logo."

"The old Team Ninja had a certain braintrust, a group of a few people, and game development tended to always revolve around them. That meant we couldn't really expand our development lines much, but with Team Ninja today, each developer can think for themselves on what they can do to make better games,” he continued. “There aren't many studios that can think organically like that. I really feel like we're working together and combining our forces to create the best games we can, and in that way, I feel confident in saying that Team Ninja right now is absolutely the most powerful team in history."

Outside of Metroid: Other M, which was released to decent reviews, Team Ninja is still working on new versions of properties Itagaki originally spearheaded, including Dead or Alive Dimensions for 3DS and Ninja Gaiden 3.

"I've realized this as we work, but the games we've made after they left feel just a little different from Team Ninja games of the past," Hayashi said. "It's the personalities of the people behind them coming to the surface. I'm sure there are fans who'd prefer the 'old' style, and I think that's just fine. As a fan myself, I'm looking forward to what my senpai do next, but as for us, we're going to keep working as Team Ninja. That's how I've felt about it over the past two years.”

[Via 1UP]

M.H. Williams has been writing in some form or another for ten years and has been a hardcore gamer since the NES first graced American shores.  You can catch him on Twitter as @AutomaticZen, Google+ as himself, or on his personal Facebook page.