Native name チームニンジャ Industry Video games Website teamninja-studio.com Founded 1 January 1995, Japan Parent organizations Koei Tecmo, Tecmo | Type Division Key people Tomonobu Itagaki Headquarters Tokyo, Japan Key person Tomonobu Itagaki | |
Products Dead or Alive series
Ninja Gaiden series Video games Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, Dead or Alive 5, Nioh, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, Ninja Gaiden 3 | ||
Team Ninja (Japanese: チームニンジャ) (stylised as Team NINJA) is a Japanese video game developer and a division of Koei Tecmo, founded in 1995. It was formerly led by Tomonobu Itagaki and is best known for the Ninja Gaiden action-adventure game series and the Dead or Alive fighting game series.
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Developer team ninja to make dissidia final fantasy game ign news
History
Team Ninja was originally formed by Itagaki from game designers working at Tecmo, specifically for the purpose of creating the home versions of the fighting game Dead or Alive and its sequel, Dead or Alive 2. In 2008, the action-adventure game Ninja Gaiden II for the Xbox 360 was published by Microsoft Game Studios, making it the first game created by Team Ninja to not be published by Tecmo; Tecmo Koei later released an enhanced version of Ninja Gaiden II on the PlayStation 3 as Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.
On June 3, 2008, Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki announced that he would be leaving Tecmo and Team Ninja on July 1, 2008, citing difficulties with the company. In the same statement announcing his resignation, he also announced that he was filing a lawsuit against Tecmo over unpaid bonuses for his work on Dead or Alive 4 for the Xbox 360. It was later reported that he was fired from Tecmo on June 18, 2008 in retaliation for his lawsuit. Many of his colleagues at Team Ninja quit as well to join him at his new game development team, Valhalla Game Studios. Some ex-Team Ninja members also helped with Ubisoft's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up.
Team Ninja also worked on multiple titles for Nintendo. In 2010, Team Ninja co-developed a new Metroid action-adventure game for Nintendo's Wii console, titled Metroid: Other M (a playable Stage from Other M later appeared in Dead or Alive: Dimensions). They collaborated with Omega Force for Hyrule Warriors, an action game set in The Legend of Zelda universe, in 2014.
In 2013, following a reconstructing of Koei Tecmo, Team Ninja was split into two distinct development teams, one led by Ninja Gaiden Sigma director Yosuke Hayashi, the other by Fatal Frame producer Keisuke Kikuchi, dubbed Ichigaya Development Group 1 and 2 respectively.
In 2016, Team Ninja garnered public attention after their decision to not release Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 in North America or Europe, resulting in a controversy within the video game industry about the sexualised portrayal of female characters within their games. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Shuhei Yoshida said in a statement; "It's due to cultural differences. The West has its own thinking about how to depict women in games media which is different from Japan."
In 2017, they released Nioh, which has infamously received multiple revisions and has been in development since 2004, to great critical response.
They're currently working with Square Enix on the Arcade game Dissidia Final Fantasy, as well as Fire Emblem Warriors with Nintendo and Omega Force.