When Tomonobu Itagaki dropped a bombshell late last night telling us through a translator that he was not only leaving Team Ninja but suing his former employer, it was pretty stunning.
Temco later declined to comment saying that they were aware of his statement but unwilling to say more. Now Microsoft is chiming in, responding to our request for comment, thanking Itagaki for his years of Xbox support.
Tomonobu Itagaki has decided to leave TECMO and Team NINJA to pursue other opportunities. We thank Tomonobu Itagaki for the many years he has supported Xbox as he has contributed immensely to the success of the videogame industry as a whole.
I'm sure that if Itagaki carries out his threats and leaves Team Ninja he won't be leaving game development. In fact he told us as much last month when he decided to drop another bomb, saying that Ninja Gaiden II was his swan song and that he was thinking of creating a shooter set in the Pacific Theater during World War II, perhaps one from the Japanese perspective. The question now is will he form his own studio or latch on to another collection of disenfranchised, but artistic developers. Yeah, probably not, I think it's more likely he's going to Microsoft, but I can dream.