Shades-clad Itagaki leaving and suing Tecmo
 

Um, wow.

I am extremely surprised to hear that he's basically giving Tecmo the finger.

I do wonder if he owns the individual property behind Ninja Gaiden and DOA, thereby 'killing' the series. I hope not.

Oh wow, he can never stop being in the spotlight.

That guy is more amusing to me than his games. I love him.

If I remember my Dave Barry correctly, in Japan shades = gansta.

EDIT: and I wrote that before clicking through to the article with a photo of biker-dude!game-designer.

My favorite element of the story: “if you are dissatisfied with the decision not to pay the bonuses, either quit the company or sue it.” And then he quits the company AND sues.

Who thinks he's going to start giving MS more blowjobs development-wise? <_<

I'm not saying he shouldn't leave the company, but I'm pretty sure a part of the reason why he left was due to the constant remakes and such, one of the last ones on a non-Xbox.

For some reason, that 1UP article made me think Xbox = Itagaki.

Itagaki has and remains one of the most awesome producers in gaming history... For leaving, just like that, that takes some serious cajones. He should be picked up by someone however. I believe Tecmo really has their work cut out for them. Other than Bubble Bobble (*guffaws*) they don't really have some marketable property other than NG.

But does Ninja Gaiden and DOA belong to him?

Last I checked the game was a copyright of the company not just one guy. I don't think that NG/DOA are 'cancelled from this point on' because of his lack of involvement.

They belong to Tecmo, and now Tecmo can do whatever they want with them.

Quite right, IP belonds to Tecmo. That being said, I used to really like Itagaki. Then he started to take his "bad boy/rockstar of game making" a bit too far and I could've sworn there was an article whereby it was shown he was heavily involved in the DOA film. While I do love the DOA games, 3 seemed like a step backwards and 4 was just...bland. It added nothing really new to it. Sure it was pretty, sure there were new characters but I'm talking core game wise there.

I rather doubt that the President of Tecmo actually said that too. If he did have rights to that bonus under contract, it'll be pretty damn easy to show. Again, it just smells of him doing a rock star-esque thing where he plays the "put upon artist". If 'his' staff was really being treated that way then I'll guess we'll see a few more official complaints from those team members.

This will probably mean PS3 ports og NG2 and DoA4, and probably Wii as well.

Ah, Itagaki.

Who will scoop him up, I wonder...? Or will he start his own company?

That guy cracks me up in a, "I wish I could slap him," sort of way. He's been a pompous ass for a long time, and I have problems with the games he develops, but the gameplay is always good. Good enough that I'd keep track of what he does in the industry after the Tecmo-fallout is over.