Itagaki and other ex-Team Ninja members back with new team, new project

The time of controversy and lawsuits have passed. Team Ninja has moved on and so have Tomonobu Itagaki and his crew of ex-Team Ninja members. Teaming up with young but skilled engineers, the new team is now hard at work on a new game. Speaking with James Mielke of 1UP, Itagaki and his right-hand men spill a few droplets of detail (and scotch) to give us an idea of what they’re up to.

The time of controversy and lawsuits have passed. Team Ninja has moved on and so have Tomonobu Itagaki and his crew of ex-Team Ninja members. Teaming up with young but skilled engineers, the new team is now hard at work on a new game.

Speaking with James Mielke of 1UP, Itagaki and his right-hand men spill a few droplets of detail (and scotch) to give us an idea of what they’re up to.

Joined by his fellow ex-Ninjas Hiroaki Matsui, Katsunori Ehara, and Yoshifuru Okamoto, Itagaki talks about his current team. They basically have the core staff behind Ninja Gaiden 2, about 22 people, plus 22 more, some of which are young but skilled engineers and programmers that bring new opportunities to the table.

The team also has a few guys from the team behind Virtua Fighter 5. One thing’s clear, Itagaki and co. are back. And right now, their unofficial team name would be the “Tokyo Vikings.” Humor in that of course.

Instead of teasing us with what the new game is gonna be, Itagaki reveals what it’s not gonna be. Despite the Virtua Fighter 5 creds on a few on their team, it’s not gonna be a fighting game. And after the new Koei President, Kenji Matsubara, said that Itagaki can’t be employed with them, Itagaki confirms it sure as hell won’t be a Dynasty Warriors game.

It could be an Xbox 360-exclusive. But nothing’s final this early in development. ‘I’m trying to be flexible in that respect,” Itagaki said. “…but I do feel that the Xbox 360 still has a lot of potential that I haven’t been able to play with yet. I also have many good friends [at Microsoft‘s Xbox team] too, and being in a comfortable environment is best.” So whether he decides to be flexible or to choose to be within his comfort zone remains to be seen.

So basically we end up knowing very, very little about Itagaki’s new project. Worry not, the game developer and his crew will be unveiling the new game on E3.

Via 1UP