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Former Team Ninja lead forms Itagaki Games, open to work with Microsoft again

The creator of Dead or Alive is starting his own game studio.

Donovan Erskine

January 21, 2021 10:20 AM

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Team Ninja has been a staple developer on the Xbox platform for generations. Now, one of the biggest creative forces behind the companies formative years is creating his own studio. Tomonobu Itagaki arguably had a large hand in that before leaving in 2008 after a fall out with Tecmo. Now, in 2021, Itagaki is launching his own new studio, Itagaki Games.

Tomonobu Itagaki shared the news of his departure and the forming of his own studio on his personal Facebook account. He states that this information was meant to be a part of a recently published feature on the history of Xbox at Bloomberg, but was cut. Itagaki then shares those parts of the interview in the Facebook post.

We’ve seen Itagaki lead several games that were exclusive to the Xbox platform, leaving many to wonder if he will seek future collaboration with Microsoft at his newly formed studio. During the interview, Itagaki spoke to how he’d respond if Microsoft reached out to work with him and his new company.

We’re excited to see what Itagaki Games has in the works. For future updates, stick with us here on Shacknews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_