Itagaki’s New Studio Has A Name

After creating memorable franchises like Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, the outspoken Tomonobu Itagaki left Team Ninja, severing ties with its parent company Tecmo on less than pleasant terms (he sued them). Now less than a week after reaching an out of court settlement that ended his lawsuit with Tecmo, Itagaki has revealed the name of his new development team: Valhalla Game Studios.

The announcement was made in an interview in this month’s Famitsu, in which Itagaki reveals the team has about 50 people on staff, and that they plan to stay small. “50 people working for two years can produce something better than 100 people working for one year…” he said, explaining “…publicly-traded companies have to prove their worth to the stock market on a year-by-year basis, and that means they can't focus all-out on quality. We're creators here; we like making things more than doing math.”

Itagaki isn’t saying yet what Valhalla’s first project will be, but said that whatever it is, it won’t be a fighting game. "I already made Dead or Alive, the best fighting game in the world, in my last company. Trying to compete against my own daughter wouldn't be worth the fight.”

Itagaki also stated that he hopes his next game will sell at least four million copies, doubling that of his most successful title yet, Dead or Alive 3.

What genre would you like to see Itagaki try his hand at?

[Translation via 1Up]