Tomonobu Itagaki, the legendary creator of the Dead or Alive series and the writer of the 2004 version of Ninja Gaiden, has died at the age of 58.
The news was shared on my personal page on Facebookand independently verified by members of the developer community. The cause of death has not been announced.
The elegiac Facebook post was written by Itagaki to be shared in the event of his death. English translation was later shared his compatriot and rival Katsuhiro Harada:
The words that I leave behind
The flame of my life will finally go out.
If this message has been published, then the time has come. I am no longer in this world.
(This last post was entrusted to someone dear to me.)
My life has been a series of battles. And I continued to win.
I know I have caused trouble for many along the way.
But I followed my convictions and fought until the very end.
I don't regret anything.
There is only one thing that weighs on me – I am deeply sorry to all my fans that I could not bring you a new work. I really am.
That's how it is.
That's how it is.
Banobu Itagaki
Always wearing his signature sunglasses wherever he went, Itagaki was a legendary figure in the Japanese development scene. He joined Tecmo in 1992 and rose to head the development team for Team Ninja. He was a producer and director on the first seven Dead or Alive games, and also consulted on other Tecmo games.
After leaving the company in 2008 after the launch of Ninja Gaiden 2, he founded Valhalla Game Studios and released Devil's Third in 2015 and the 3DS game Momotaro Dentetsu 2017: Tachiagare Nippon in 2016. Valhalla closed in 2021 and he launched Itagaki Games, which has yet to release a game.
His departure from Tecmo was abrupt. as our Brendan Sinclair told us back in 2018. He sued the company and its president for unpaid bonusesand later said that the company had tricked him into releasing the PS2 version of Dead or Alive 2.which he said caused him to fall into an alcoholic depression. In 2006, another Tecmo employee named him in sexual harassment allegationsalthough Tecmo denied these claims after an internal investigation.
Never one to shy away from the spotlight, he brought his signature style to Valhalla Games and made his presence known during the development and launch of Devil's Third.
Other developers shared their grief and memories of Itagaki on social media. James Mielke, co-founder of BitSummit, wrote: “Today I lost a man who was truly like a brother to me. I'm shocked to the core… He even listed himself as my real brother on Facebook. Anyone who knows me knows how close we were. Rest in peace, senpai. You will always be a ninja.”
Katsuhiro Harada, leader of the Tekken franchise and the subject of a long-standing public rivalry fostered by Itagaki during his leadership of Dead or Alive (and detail Harada in January), published emotional response on Twitter. “To think that he died at only 58 years old…” he wrote. “I didn’t even have the opportunity to consult you about anything. Honestly… I'm really depressed.”
