Tomonobu Itagaki says he has created a new studio Itagaki Games • Eurogamer.net

Tomonobu Itagaki has created a new video game studio, he said.

In a Facebook post, the famous Japanese developer said he recently founded Itagaki Games. It’s not Tecmo, nor Valhalla, Itagaki said.

Itagaki, of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden, revealed the news in a self-published question-and-answer interview between him and Bloomberg that didn’t make the cut for a January post on the original Xbox.

Itagaki has worked with Microsoft for a long time. At Tecmo, Itagaki made the OG Xbox launch title Dead or Alive 3, the OG 2003 exclusive Dead or Alive Xtreme beach volleyball and Ninja Gaiden, an Xbox 2004 exclusive. A revamped version of the latter, Ninja Gaiden Black, was released exclusively for Xbox in 2005.

Itagaki went on to make Dead or Alive 4, an Xbox 360 exclusive from 2005, Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, an Xbox 360 exclusive from 2006, and Ninja Gaiden 2, an Xbox 360 exclusive from 2008.

After Itagaki left Tecmo in 2008, he founded Valhalla Game Studios, and in 2015 released the ill-received Devil’s Third for the Wii U.

Itagaki said he has spent the last four years teaching, “but now I want to remake a game and I just started a business for that purpose.”

Itagaki was asked how he would react if Microsoft showed interest in purchasing this new studio.

“I know Microsoft is still aggressive,” he replied. “If they contact me, it will be an honor for me.”