Tomonobu Itagaki was interviewed about his new studio, experiences, and titles over on Gamasutra.com. Just because the man no longer works for Tecmo doesn't mean he's been forgotten by the fans of this series. If you're interested in seeing what Itagaki has been up to these days, pop on over to read the full article:
Gamasutra said:Last year, veteran Tecmo game developer and creator of the Dead or Alive and the relaunched Ninja Gaiden franchises, finally announced his new company, Valhalla Game Studios, after resigning from longtime employer Tecmo in 2008. In 2010, the studio announced that it had signed a contract with THQ to release its first game, a third person action-shooter hybrid called Devil's Third.
Itagaki has long been an outspoken critic of both the works of other developers and the industry at large. Fair enough, because he also seems content to follow his own path rather than worrying about what other developers do. He didn't even seem too interested in worrying about the legacy of the Ninja Gaiden franchise on the NES when he relaunched the series, preferring to go his own route with the IP -- and still meeting with success.
Gamasutra got a chance to speak to Itagaki at the show, and queried him about his move to work with a Western publisher, his thoughts on the high profile talent defections from other Japanese publishers, and discussed what his goal is for his game.So confident was he that he didn't show his game at E3, and instead simply handed THQ a bizarre video that starred notorious Japanese comedian Hard Gay -- on a visit to the Valhalla Game Studios offices.