Veteran game designer Tomonobu Itagaki has passed away at 58. The sad and unexpected news comes directly from his own Facebook page, where he had asked a friend to post a message in the event of his passing, which he must have seen coming.
The flame of my life is finally about to be extinguished.
The fact that this message has been posted means that time has finally come. I am no longer in this world. (I have asked someone important to post this final message.)
My life was a continuous battle. I kept winning.
I also caused a lot of trouble.
I take pride in having fought to the end, following my convictions.
I have no regrets.
But I am filled with regret that I could not deliver new work to all my fans. I'm sorry.
That's how it is.
So it goes.
This is a hard-hitting message, to be sure, and one that is undoubtedly in line with Tomonobu Itagaki's unique personality, just like when he criticized Sony for making the PlayStation 4 Pro console. The game designer was mainly known as the creator of the Dead or Alive fighting game franchise and also as the man responsible for the successful reboot of the Ninja Gaiden series. Itagaki left KOEI TECMO in 2008 after sixteen years and filed a lawsuit against the company due to them withholding pay.
He then quickly launched a new game developer called Valhalla Game Studios alongside other former Team Ninja members. This studio released Devil's Third, an action/adventure game for the Nintendo Wii U. However, the game wasn't well received both critically and commercially. In November 2021, Tencent acquired Valhalla's parent company, Wake Up Interactive, for $44 million. The following month, Wake Up merged Valhalla Game Studios' staff and operations into another subsidiary, Soleil Ltd., effectively closing down Valhalla.
Tomonobu Itagaki once again did not despair and founded another company called Itagaki Games. The final news tidbit about the company was shared by Itagaki around a year ago, when he revealed that the company name had been slightly changed to Itagaki Games, Inc. Unfortunately, the studio never released a game before Itagaki's passing.
The news comes just days before the release of the fourth installment in the Ninja Gaiden franchise, many years after the previous iteration.
Wccftech would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the friends and family of this important figure in the games industry.
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