Tomonobu Itagaki, one of the original founders of developer Team Ninja, as well as the creator of Dead or Alive and the Ninja Gaiden reboot series, has sadly passed away at just 58 years of age.
Itagaki was known for his largely outspoken nature, and had infamous beef with the Tekken franchise in an effort to help Dead or Alive stand out in the then intensely competitive 3D fighting game space. Something Tekken director and producer Katsuhiro Harada provided further context on in a post to X / Twitter some months ago, where he discussed Itagaki being his university senior, his fiercely competitive nature, and the respect the two grew to have for one another.
