Tomonobu Itagaki passed away at 58 years old this week. A legend in game design, Itagaki was once one of the pillars of what we know as Team Ninja today, having created Dead or Alive and directed most of the series, as well as directing the 2004 reboot of Ninja Gaiden. He was still active in game design under his own studio, Itagaki Games, before his passing. Itagaki’s final message is as follows: Tomonobu Itagaki was a rockstar force in the Japanese gaming industry. Beginning his work at Tecmo in the early 1990s, his first credit is on Tecmo Super Bowl as a Graphic Engineer. As mentioned prior, he created Dead or Alive and directed most of the series up to Dead or Alive Xtreme 2. He also led the reboot of Ninja Gaiden and worked on its games through Ninja Gaiden 2’s release in 2008. In 2008, Itagaki left Tecmo and sued the company and its president for unpaid bonuses and claimed that the group had been unfair in business and the release of his games, particularly Dead or Alive 2. He would go on to work at Valhalla Games, where he directed cult classic Devil’s Third and eventually formed Itagaki Games, where he was presumably working on his latest creation before his passing.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146378/tomonobu-itagaki-obituary-dead-or-alive-ninja-gaiden
Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki passes away at 58
