Itagaki Leaving Team Ninja, Suing Tecmo

[Dominik D]

NG an DoA seem to be owned by Tecmo, yes. NG2 however is published by MS, so it probably won't show up on another platform in its raw form (but "sigma" edition is more than likely to happen if you ask me).

I agree however that most of the talent is within the team behind Itagaki. It's not that he crafted all the games himself. I also find it unlikely that they will follow him - official statement has some info about "Yasuda [making] demeaning remarks about [Itagaki] to [his] subordinates and colleagues, causing [him] significant emotional distress and worsening [his] personal relationships and work environment".

As a side note: I find it sad that this thread became "my GoW is better than your NG" war zone. This is a thread about Itagaki leaving Tecmo, not about superiority of games or platforms.

 

[patsu]

There are probably more backstory to this dispute. Can't tell exactly why Tecmo refused to pay up. Perhaps there were some terms that were not met from Tecmo's perspective. If it has gone this emotional, money is just a tool to cause pain.



How good is Itagaki's prodigy ? I am refering to the gentleman who made NG Sigma.

What mistakes did he make for NG Sigma (I don't own the game) ? Is he a rising star ?

 

[Dominik D]

So far he was able to upgrade existing game to HD. Hard to say if he's a rising star, isn't it?

 

[patsu]

Is that his only exposure ? For him to shoulder even that responsibility, he must have done something right in previous games. Since people commented on his right and wrong moves, I'd like to know just how deep this gentleman is.

He may be one of the ammos for Tecmo's moves. If he's any good, I hope the stupid debacle between 2 men's egos won't distract him.

 

[zarbaj]

hayashi is the enemy ai planner iirc.

last time he did an interview, he commented on making more wii/ds games.

 

[Dominik D]

Correct. Yosuke Hayashi was NG AI planner. I don't know that much about him though: all there is is that he did Sigma and it seems he worked on Dragon Sword for DS too. And yes, he seems to like Wii which he said on multiple occasions.

 

[AlNom]

A a side note: I find it sad that this thread became "my GoW is better thatn your NG" war zone. This is a thread about Itagaki leaving Tecmo, not about superiority of games or platforms.

Yes. I've just perused the thread, and the comparisons to games from other companies just needs to stop.

Please.

 

[patsu]

Correct. Yosuke Hayashi was NG AI planner. I don't know that much about him though: all there is is that he did Sigma and it seems he worked on Dragon Sword for DS too. And yes, he seems to like Wii which he said on multiple occasions.

Found a 4-page Hayashi interview on GamesInformer (for NG Sigma). The young men puts gameplay first, and is outspoken, confident and yet reserved. He should do just fine if Tecmo grooms him well. If people say enemy AI in NG is one of its strongest points, Hayashi may know a thing or two about gameplay ;-)

 

[Rockster]

I think sometimes, (not this letter obviously), people take Itagaki's comments too serious. I actually saw him once at E3 a few years ago. Lots of people around him. He's known for partying it up and great quotes. But if you watch him, you know half of what he says isn't serious, and that he enjoys feeding his public image.

 

[Akumajou]

Like hell it is.

Don't know about DOA4, but I wore out a gamepad playing DOA3 on the old XBOX. It is vastly more enjoyable than Tekken, - better in every way. Haven't played enough Virtua Fighter to form an opinion on how that compares but Dead or Alive is a rock solid fighter franchise IMO.

Cheers

When you play DOA in the arcades, thats where you get your following and thats where you face player behaviour that can really make or break the game.

As a veteran Tekken and Virtua Fighter player prior to DOA 2's release I highly looked forward to getting a head start by mastering DOA but a nasty reality set in, the cheap reversal system broke the game for me then and since then its been more of the same imho.

Thats where VF and Tekken differ greatly and cheap tricks can be punished severely, I just don't believe Tecmo ever got it since they were more worried about bouncing.

Itagaki is over-rated, his team is where the talent lies, lets face it he's no Kojima.

If Ninja Gaiden was released on PS2, not xbox I doubt anyone would even know who he is. Lack of decent competition on the xbox really did him a huge favour.

Tecmo will still have his team, it's only Itagaki that's leaving.

I agree with this post but I wanted to add that it basically explains why Tecmo chose to try for a higher spec console to make their games look better specially when they don't have to worry a Tekken crowd or a Virtua Fighter crowd or even a Street Fighter crowd.

With NG my experience (I played NG Black) was that it was just an average game and believe me I mastered Kidou Senshi Gundam Ichinen Sensou by Project Pegasus on hard mode, although a very pretty one in comparison to the games I played on PS2 however Itagaki's comments or complaints (as far as porting is concerned) do not make sense with all of the other game devs that constantly complain about how expensive it is as well as difficulty of making games in current gen consoles.

It seems to me that Itagaki san was worried more of Sigma or a 360 port canibalizing sales of NGII on 360 and felt that it should not be done but at the same time given the fact that for over two years since the 360 launched that neither Ninja Gaiden nor Black were BC or even sold that great and you gotta wonder what the hell he was thinking/smoking.

 

[rbushner]

Overrated or not, Itagaki led the projects that gave some new life to Tecmo. It is a huge loss for them. I'm glad that he did manage to get out NG2 and NG: DS before leaving.

I can't wait to see what his next project is. I have a feeling Tecmo is going to start pumping out NG's, DOA's, DOAX's in EA style.

If people say enemy AI in NG is one of its strongest points, Hayashi may know a thing or two about gameplay ;-)

Sigma was broken in a couple of ways, and the added Rachel levels were pretty horrible gameplay wise. So I remain a bit skeptical on that. On the other hand, I'm not completely convinced Hayashi wasn't forced into timelines/features, and could've done better if allowed more freedom.

 

[patsu]

Sigma was broken in a couple of ways, and the added Rachel levels were pretty horrible gameplay wise. So I remain a bit skeptical on that. On the other hand, I'm not completely convinced Hayashi wasn't forced into timelines/features, and could've done better if allowed more freedom.

I see. Thanks for answering my question
Looks like he still need some more Ninja training.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I actually doubt he will ever run a game studio again.

In Japan, his kind of behavior is not respected. I'm sure his fans in the US or elsewhere will cheer him on. But it's not like any of his staff are going to be following him out the door.

No getting screwed by your boss that is showing respect The respect things are hard to get no matter where you go. They always want you to show respect however showing respect back is a whole other story. Especially with bosses.

Well, cant say I blame the guy. I think he's a cocky little basterd but if the story is true that imo he's right flipping the finger to his boss.

Thats what I suspect too. He doesnt look like the kind of guy that others would like working with. He attributes any accomplishment to himself probably too and he is too arrogant. I am sure many might have complained about him and lets not forget the sexual harassment hid did to one of his female colleagues. Such attitude and being arrogant is totally against the working culture of the Japanese I think. Probably someone who knows better can tell us if its true. I think modesty and humbleness is a virtue in Japan.

Did he actually got convicted for sexual harasment? I believe he didnt. (I wonder what you have to do in Japan to get convicted for that if you see some of their weird stuff ). But yeah he's too arrogant. I think that would hurt him just as much in the west as in Japan. People here generally dont like to work with cocky basterds either.

 

[PARANOiA]

I agree however that most of the talent is within the team behind Itagaki. It's not that he crafted all the games himself. I also find it unlikely that they will follow him - official statement has some info about "Yasuda [making] demeaning remarks about [Itagaki] to [his] subordinates and colleagues, causing [him] significant emotional distress and worsening [his] personal relationships and work environment".

Here's another point to consider... how do you think the morale at Tecmo is that the one person who breathed life into the company has just departed, and that he's suing them for not paying what he's contractually owed?

I'm sure there's talented people there... however if my boss and mentor resigned after being denied the bonus he was promised, I'd certainly be rethinking my options. I'd certainly be doing it a lot harder if I thought about what Tecmo would have been without Itagaki.

And now for fantasy-land... if Tecmo own Ninja Gaiden, imagine Sega plucking up Itagaki and making a Shinobi game based on the NG style gameplay.

 

[PARANOiA]

Oh, and an interesting snippet from an interview:

Kikizo: Dead or Alive 5, obviously you have announced it - do you think it will be another Xbox 360 exclusive, will you work with Microsoft once more?

Itagaki: That will be part of our announcement later in the summer.

Kikizo: We look forward to that. Thanks for your time.

I wonder if he'll be joining the MS ranks at all. It's certainly ambiguous.

 

[Dominik D]

Here's another point to consider... how do you think the morale at Tecmo is that the one person who breathed life into the company has just departed, and that he's suing them for not paying what he's contractually owed?

[...]

And now for fantasy-land... if Tecmo own Ninja Gaiden, imagine Sega plucking up Itagaki and making a Shinobi game based on the NG style gameplay.

If he's right and management was dissing him in the eyes of his reports, then I don't think morale went down that much. That said - it's Japan, I don't know their work culture and based on my exposure to two different work cultures so far, I'm not even going to speculate on their morale.

Also please note that we know only one side of the story. I like Itagaki and his work but I'm far from drawing conclusions based on his POV alone. It's like with Gerstmann - we'll never know what happened.

As for the Shinobi game - I'd buy Shadow Dancer Black for any price.

 

[Nesh]

as for Sigma, read this:



http://games.kikizo.com/features/itagaki_iv_jun08_p2.asp

he is right, Hayashi did few things right and a lot of things wrong.

and if you read the 1up link, they say he was against Tecmo's decision to milk the franchise, they are also porting Rygar PS2 to the wii without changing much just for profit.

I didnt like that attitude:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/21/itagaki-ninja-gaiden-sigma-is-no-good/

We thought Ninja Gaiden Sigma was pretty good. You know, nothing revolutionary, but at least worth a spin for PS3 owners, especially those who hadn't played through Ninja Gaiden. But we've just received word (via CVG) from Ninja Gaiden I and II developer Tomonobu Itagaki that we're wrong, wrong, totally wrong.

When asked about the game, Itagaki said simply, "It was no good." Apparently not into the whole brevity thing, CVG continued the line of questioning, prompting Itagaki to add, "Despite the fact that it's on a 'next-generation' console there's no evolution whatsoever. That was made not by me, but one of my sub-ordinates who basically tried to copy the success of Ninja Gaiden." You think that's pretty rough, right? Well get this: That guy was sitting next to him. And he was making Itagaki a fancy birthday cake. No, that stuff isn't true. But it's still fairly icy.

Oh, and he dropped a preemptive burn, saying that a PS3 port of Ninja Gaiden II "would be a loss of face for everyone involved." ... So, yeah. Remind us not to cut him off in traffic.

 

[V3]

Here's another point to consider... how do you think the morale at Tecmo is that the one person who breathed life into the company has just departed, and that he's suing them for not paying what he's contractually owed?

Who knows, in some of the interview he did described how much he overworked his co-workers, maybe they are glad that he is leaving.

Well I'll miss his interviews. They were always entertaining compare to other figures in the industry.

But I understand why he wanted to quit. If I was refused a promised bonus that I deserved, I would resign too. And if I am not wrong Japanese games developers are very reliant on bonuses to make ends meet. Their normal salary isn't very high.

I think he'll go the way of Naka or Mikami and start his own studio.

 

[AlNom]

Clearly some of you cannot stick to the topic at hand and are instead going on tangents with conspiracy theories. This thread has been on the moderator's targeting scopes enough for just one day, and this is a final warning that further derailment from the news regarding Itagaki's departure will be met with Level 4 Ultimate Techniques!

 

[Nesh]

Clearly some of you cannot stick to the topic at hand and are instead going on tangents with conspiracy theories. This thread has been on the moderator's targeting scopes enough for just one day, and this is a final warning that further derailment from the news regarding Itagaki's departure will be met with Level 4 Ultimate Techniques!

If you are referring to my post I wasnt pointing to any conspiracy theory. I solely referring to the incident with his female colleague as mentioned here:

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/07/scalding-sake-itagaki-charged-with-sexual-harassment-by-real-w/

I did not suggest in any way any kind of conspiracy, bribery or anything of the kind. It is others that tried to come up with a conclusion relying on court decision or assumed that I implied some kind of bribery or conspiracy of some sorts. The incident and the lawsuit itself shows that his relations in his working environment were probably not that good. Court decision is not necessarily evidence for conclusion nor it is relevant.

Or are you referring to the possibility that he was indirectly pushed out of the company as the conspiracy theory? If this is the case I do not see this as a conspiracy theory, and it is relevant with the topic as this is related to his character, his working style probably and it is common practice for "special" employees to make them resign under their (the employees) own decision than of the higher executives'.