Itagaki Leaving Team Ninja, Suing Tecmo
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Tecmo issued a comment, and here's my translation.
http://www.tecmo.co.jp/company/pdf/20080604.pdf
http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1215592_1124.html
I mentioned the previous Tecmo CEO (Junji Nakamura) before. Yasuda, who was a banker, took over in 2006 and Itagaki was demoted at that time.
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=673344&postcount=20
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=16767
Interestingly, according to another press release at Tecmo's web, Nakamura was also suing Tecmo for his retirement allowance money and settled this March.
http://www.tecmo.co.jp/company/pdf/20080403_1.pdf
Another recent PR on May 23 about Itagaki's sexual harassment case says, though it's found Itagaki was innocent of sexual harassment itself, it was disclosed at the court that other immoral acts were repeated by him at work environments (Maybe he, a married man, had fun with a female staffer?). I guess it triggered this drama.
http://www.tecmo.co.jp/company/pdf/2008052303.pdf
BTW, Tecmo's stock price went down 10% today
http://www.tecmo.co.jp/company/pdf/20080604.pdf
http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1215592_1124.html
I mentioned the previous Tecmo CEO (Junji Nakamura) before. Yasuda, who was a banker, took over in 2006 and Itagaki was demoted at that time.
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=673344&postcount=20
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=16767
Interestingly, according to another press release at Tecmo's web, Nakamura was also suing Tecmo for his retirement allowance money and settled this March.
http://www.tecmo.co.jp/company/pdf/20080403_1.pdf
Another recent PR on May 23 about Itagaki's sexual harassment case says, though it's found Itagaki was innocent of sexual harassment itself, it was disclosed at the court that other immoral acts were repeated by him at work environments (Maybe he, a married man, had fun with a female staffer?). I guess it triggered this drama.
http://www.tecmo.co.jp/company/pdf/2008052303.pdf
BTW, Tecmo's stock price went down 10% today
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But...it was a remake. All remakes are copies of the original. And for a next-generation NG2 certainly hasn't pushed the next-gen visuals. I don't know about gameplay.
"After the end of the case at the court of appeal about sexual harassment in which the Employee was one of the litigants, we explained the course of it to our employees while urging the Employee to concentrate on his duties by complying with the rule of our company, during when the Employee has one-sidedly brought this legal action against us."
Why is his sexual harassment suit important to mention and when is there a time where filing a lawsuit is not one sided. Who brings a law suit with the permission or consideration of the defendants.
"Though we've been considering the legal action brought by the Employee to be an important issue, we've abstained from making a public statement as the legal action is due to a personal cause."
How do you abstain from making a public statement while issuing a public statement on the very subject you claim you're suppose to be abstaining from making a public statment?
Tecmo needs better PR people because a statement simply disputing Itagaki version of events would have sufficed. It seems a little unprofessional especially for Tecmo as a public corporation to lace a public statement with wording meant to characterize Itagaki as a sexual harassing ego maniac.
I agree about that but the way he stated it shows no respect to the person who worked on it. If I were him I wouldnt have said such a thing in public especially if that person was present. It is insulting and discouraging for the person who works under you.
Yeah, I was agreeing with you. He's seemed to be complaining about someone remaking a game in the same vein as many a remake. Clearly NGS wasn't supposed to be a new game, and I presume Tecmo were paying for a reduced-cost remake.
I wonder if you pit Itagaki and Eggbricht in a critique of each other's work and abilities, who'd come out on top
I wonder if you pit Itagaki and Eggbricht in a critique of each other's work and abilities, who'd come out on top
I wonder if you pit Itagaki and Eggbricht in a critique of each other's work and abilities, who'd come out on top
And if you put it on Qore, I'd pay for an episode
I totally understand it and would have no problem repeating it (if I was Itagaki) even if I was sitting with the whole Sigma team with the president and CEO of Tecmo sitting right beside me.
I think the timing and release of Ninja Gaiden Sigma is very problematic and the underlying issue of this whole fiasco and I think Itagaki being uninvolved in the PS3 port is a testament to that issue.
A remake should never appear on a next gen console when the release of its sequel is right around the corner. I can't figure out how Tecmo thought that this would be a good ideal and would have no impact on Ninja Gaiden II.
Ninja Gaiden II was guaranteed not to be critically received as well with Sigma being just a year old versus Sigma never being released. Ninja Gaiden II would have had to been a major major upgrade to overcome the release of Sigma. Sigma being released only on the PS3 isn't going to change the fact that anyone who reviewed Ninja Gaiden 2 would have used Sigma as the baseline of judgement not Ninja Gaiden on the xbox from 2004 as reviewers aren't typically limited to one console.
Halo 3, GTA4, MGS4, KZ2, GT5 and any other big name sequel would have faced similar issues if remakes with upgraded graphics and new additional features to each franchise would have appeared on the 360 or PS3 before the sequel. And Im sure every dev of those before mentioned franchise would have blown a gasket if not publicly but definitely privately if their publishers would have ok'd next gen remake ports.
From a critical reception and business standpoint releasing Sigma before Ninja Gaiden II made no practical sense, even if the goal was to maximize profits.
I understand the reasons why a remake may not have been a good choice, and I would have said the reasons in front of others too if I were him but I wouldnt have stated them in such a way. No really.
It is not that he said he didnt like that Ninja Gaiden was remade by someone but the way he stated it.
If it wasn't a major upgrade (and I'm not saying it wasn't), isn't that his own fault, though? Itadaki must've know everything that would be in Sigma, and would be very well-positioned to raise the bar on his own game, if it was necessary.
Neither of us really knows what his motivation was to dislike Sigma, but if it was that, it seems lazy. Are we really making excuses for sequelitis on behalf of developers?
In terms of graphics, he may not have been able to raise the bar, the Sigma team built the engine from the ground up for PS3 and were pushing it as hard as their knowledge allowed.
Pushed in such a fashion the PS3 is easily on par with 360.
He wouldn't alter the game that much as he believes the original is the greatest game ever.
Pushed in such a fashion the PS3 is easily on par with 360.
He wouldn't alter the game that much as he believes the original is the greatest game ever.
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How is it his own fault? He didn't work on it and didn't push to get it made.
It seems to me that when MS got the publishing rights to Ninja Gaiden II someone at Tecmo didn't like that too much and pushed for Ninja Gaiden Sigma. I sure MS doesn't like the fact that Sigma was released just a year before Ninja Gaiden II's release. I bet if Tecmo had published II, Sigma would have not seen the light of days before the release of II if at all.
For any sequel thats been released or will be released a remake with upgraded graphics released earlier would have an negative effect on critical reception and sales. No matter how far along you move the gameplay of a game along, a upgraded remake release before will have a diluting effect on your franchise.
What is Itagaki suppose to do reinvent the franchise? Fans of a franchise expects some familiarity with their sequels. It makes sense to take a winning formula making a some gameplay tweaks, add in a new storyline, throw in some new features and add in a new graphics engine. You shouldn't expect your own company to undermine you with the same winning formula, new gameplay tweaks, new features and new graphics engine but the same old storyline.
Take MGS4 for example. Its going to come out with huge amounts of anticipation. Now imagine if Konami without the approval of Kojima took MGS3 Substinence and ported it the 360 and called it MGS3 Overindulegence and launches it summer 07.
Now this new MGS3 isn't a simple straight port. Its on a updated graphics engine built from the ground up for the 360 that rivals anything on that platform. Its got updated features such as new CQC moves, new bosses, new enemies AI, new levels and a host of other additions.
Guess what happens? This new and improved version of MGS3 becomes the new baseline of comparsion. Now the vast amount of differences between MGS3 and MGS4 gets wittled down to a new storyline, different features and the fact thats MGS4 is the last of the franchise.
You go from admiring the impressive visuals of MGS4 to nitpicking the differences between 3 and 4. You go from looking how far MGS has come in 2-4 years to how minute the it has come in 11 months.
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As I was writing this, I noticed the disconnect. From where I'm standing, NGS is just a mostly okay game, so saying 'Tecmo's fault that they released an okay game in 2007, Itagaki would never be able to improve significantly on it by 2008' didn't make any sense. But I assume now that you (and most other people, by its 88 metacritic score) think NGS was a pretty good game, so yeah, I can see your point, though I don't really agree with it (but that's OT).
I bet that if he works with them hell will brake lose in their offices. He seems more like a guy who wants things go his way than a guy that collaborates and likes taking orders
Naw, he just has some fanboy type loyalty to whatever platform he feels is the strongest.
I bet that if he works with them hell will brake lose in their offices. He seems more like a guy who wants things go his way than a guy that collaborates and likes taking orders
the doa and ninja gaiden titles are both million sellers.
I'm sure ms could give him office space down the road from everyone else . That way no one has to bother him and he can push out a few more million sellers
