Tomonobu Itagaki

Tomonobu Itagaki (板垣 伴信) (born April 1, 1967) is a Japanese video game designer best known for creating the Dead or Alive series and also reviving the Ninja Gaiden franchise in 2004.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Tomonobu Itagaki graduated from Waseda University Senior High School in March 1985.

Joining Tecmo in 1992, Itagaki produced two video game franchises that were commercial successes and earned him several promotions; he headed Tecmo's development team, Team Ninja, and sat on the executive board.

He left the company after 16 years of service, filing a lawsuit against it for withholding bonus pay.

He formed a new company Valhalla Game Studios with several Team Ninja members and released Devil's Third.

The company dissolved in December 2021 and he has now formed a new one called Apex Games.

He enrolled in Waseda University and graduated from its School of Law in 1992.

Itagaki is married and has a daughter, 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 katana Japanese swords 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.

Itagaki joined Tecmo in 1992 as a graphics programmer, and initially worked on the Super Famicom version of the American football video game, Tecmo Super Bowl.

His career breakthrough came in 1996 with his first Dead or Alive game, a game based on Sega Model 2 hardware (Virtua Fighter) created in response to Tecmo management's request.

He was mentored by Yoshiaki Inose (of Solomon's Key, Bomb Jack, Rygar and original Ninja Gaiden fame) and Akihiko Shimoji (Tecmo Bowl) in his early years at Tecmo, and learned from them to include fun as a necessary component in his projects.

His rise through the company had 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 suggests other Japanese developers should do like-wise and be aware of the gaming tastes outside Japan, so as to be able to reverse the Japanese gaming industry slump of 2005.

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 him being accused of sexual harassment.

He was later judged innocent by a Tokyo district court in June 2007.

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.

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.

In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.

A fifth iteration, Dead or Alive 5, was made in his absence and released in September 2012.

Dead or Alive 5 received two additional releases of the base title; Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, which released in September 2013, a year after the original release.

The second and final iteration of the game was titled Dead or Alive 5 Last Round and released in February 2015.

Given the success of Dead or Alive 5, Team Ninja created a sequel, also without Itagaki's inclusion, and Dead or Alive 6 released in March 2019 and is currently the latest release in the franchise.

In the Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball series, 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 harmonious 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 was Itagaki's effort 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 continued the series on the Nintendo DS with Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, partly due to a promise made to his daughter.

At the same time, he brought 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.