Tomonobu Itagaki from Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive started a new studio

Tomonobu Itagaki, director of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, has formed a new studio – Itagaki Games – and said ‘it will be an honor for me’ to work with Microsoft again. Itagaki shared the news on Facebook, revealing that this announcement was supposed to be part of a recent Bloomberg article, but was omitted “because of its character restriction.”

He discusses how he has taught a younger generation of game development over the past four years since leaving Devil’s Third’s Valhalla Game Studios, which he co-founded. However, he now feels that he ‘wants to make a game again and just set up a business for it’.

He further explained that although Itagaki Games is not part of Koei Tecmo or Valhalla Games Studios, he will not again work against Microsoft.

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“I know Microsoft is still aggressive,” Itagaki said. “If they reach out to me, it will be an honor for me.”

Several Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive titles under Itagaki were Xbox exclusive, so the established relationship is already there.

Itagaki resigned from Tecmo in 2008 following the release of Ninja Gaiden 2 and filed a lawsuit against the company and its president Yoshimi Yasuda over unpaid bonuses.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.