Tomonobu Itagaki

Tomonobu Itagaki-san is a videogame designer from Tecmo and is the creator of the Dead or Alive series. Because of the fact that his employer was mistreating him, he parted ways with Tecmo in June of 2008.

Biography
Tomonobu Itagaki was born in 1967. He graduated from Waseda University Senior High School on March 1985. Following that, he entered Waseda University and graduated from its School of Law on March 1992.

He is married, and has a daughter, born in 1997, whom he has mentioned as one of the primary influences on his projects, including developing Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword for the Nintendo DS, and a constant gaming partner in games like the Halo series. Itagaki has in his office a set of katanas his father made for him, which he tends to take out to show to his visitors. As he wishes to stop people from reading his expressions during gambling-type games, he is always seen wearing sunglasses, a habit that has become his trademark in the video game community.

Career at Tecmo
Tomonobu Itagaki joined Tecmo in 1992 as a graphics programmer, and initially worked on the Super Famicom version of the American football video game, Tecmo Bowl. His career breakthrough came in 1996 with his first Dead or Alive game - a game based on Virtua Fighter created in response to Tecmo management's request. He was mentored by Yoshiaki Inose (of Solomon's Key's, Bomb Jack's, Rygar's and the Nintendo Entertainment System Ninja Gaiden's fame) and Akihiko Shimoji (of Tecmo Bowl's fame) in his early years at Tecmo, and was impressed by them to include fun as a necessary component in his projects.

His rise through the company has been steady since then. He was appointed as the head of the third creative department in April 2001. He then assumed the post of Team Ninja Leader in July 2001. Tecmo appointed him as an Executive Officer in June, 2004. He later assumed the position of General Manager of the high-end production department in February, 2006. His Executive Officer position was however taken away in August the same year, due to his involvement in a sexual harassment scandal.

The release of Dead or Alive 2 had greatly increased the series popularity, as well as Itagaki's. He had sought to create fighting games with details he felt were lacking in other games. In the later iterations, Itagaki has built the story of the games around themes of family - Kasumi and Ayane in Dead or Alive 3, and Helena in Dead or Alive 4. To date, the series has gone through four iterations with various enhanced editions. A fifth iteration has also been announced to be in the works.

In Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, Itagaki brought together the girls of Dead or Alive onto an island. The player is to foster good relationship between the girls to create a harmonius winning beach volleyball duo. In the second iteration of the series, the focus is shifted by expanding the number of activities the player can have the girls take part in. He explains the core of the game as a paradise where the player can watch the girls they 'love' enjoy simple activities.

Ninja Gaiden is Itagaki's efforts to develop a game centered on violent gameplay, with super ninja Ryu Hayabusa as the protagonist. Capitalizing on the brand name of the earlier NES series, Itagaki developed a critically acclaimed action-adventure game for the Xbox which also had an international online tournament held for it. He continued work on it to release Ninja Gaiden Black as the opus of his Ninja Gaiden work. He is continuing the series on the Nintendo DS as Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, partly due to a promise made to his daughter. At the same time, he is bringing the series' next chapter onto the Xbox 360 as Ninja Gaiden II.

Itagaki claims to be one of the very few in the Japanese video game industry to establish communications with the Western world. He suggests other Japanese developers should do like-wise and be aware of the gaming tastes outside of Japan, so as to be able to reverse the Japanese gaming industry slump of 2005.

On June 2, 2008, just before the release of Ninja Gaiden II for the Xbox 360, Itagaki announced that he was resigning from Tecmo and was suing the company for withholding a bonus promised for his previous works. He was also suing Tecmo's president Yoshimi Yasuda for damages based on "unreasonable and disingenuous statements" made in front of Itagaki's colleagues.

Reasons for Leaving Tecmo
In a recent interview, Itagaki said this about his reason for leaving Tecmo:


 * "Before the start of development on DEAD OR ALIVE 4, Tecmo Co., Ltd. had agreed to pay a completion bonus to me for the Xbox 360 title, which I produced. However, when the time came for the actual payment, Tecmo Co., Ltd. went against its previous agreement and refused payment. President Yoshimi Yasuda chose not only to violate this agreement, but also turned defiant, telling me if you are dissatisfied with the decision not to pay the bonuses, either quit the company or sue it. In addition, he made demeaning remarks about me to my subordinates and colleagues, causing me significant emotional distress and worsening my personal relationships and work environment. Thus, I have no choice but to resign from Tecmo Co., Ltd."

Credits

 * Dead or Alive
 * Dead or Alive 3
 * Dead or Alive 4
 * Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
 * Tecmo Super Bowl
 * Ninja Gaiden Black