Creator of Ninja Gaiden and DoA series, Itagaki Tomonobu, has just died at the age of 58.

[GuyZero32k4]

RIP
God damn it, just found somewhere else. Didn't hop on here to see this due to damn job.

Oh how I'd prayed that after the fail of DOA 6, Tecmo would have called him up and asked for his help to course correct the franchise. The world needs a new Itagaki - style DOA now more than ever. Damn...

 

[JoueurCitoyen]

It's a sad loss we gamers face here. His impact was huge for me (Dead or Alive 2 for Dreamcast, Ninja Gaiden for Xbox), this is the least I can say! I feel so sorry that he didn't have one last chance to make a game. So it goes…

 

[CG4R12I4N]

His contribution for gaming were so profound, I think almost every gamer who gamed in the early millenium at least heard of Dead or Alive and 3D Ninja Gaiden. Even with Nioh series, Team Ninja without him at helm just wasn't the same dev anymore.

 

[iamthemilkman]

Very sad. Now we probably won't ever get a Devil's Third remaster and it'll be stuck on the Wii U forever. At least we got the spiritual successor with Wanted Dead. Ninja Gaiden and DOA 3 pushed the OG Xbox so hard back in the day. Those games still look tremendous. I feel like Ninja Gaiden 2, compared to the first game and especially its improved version Ninja Gaiden Black, was slightly underrated/underappreciated. I still prefer vanilla Ninja Gaiden 2 to its UE5-powered Black version that released this year.

RIP