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[Elios83]

http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200505/N05.0527.1547.11964.htm

GI: You initially said that you want to games for the most powerful console on the market. And, this rang true with the Xbox. Have you yet considered developing for the PS3, particularly if it ends up being more powerful than the Xbox 360?

Itagaki: I think it’s not yet time to talk about the PS3 since it’s at such an infant stage of its life. For us to make comments or decisions on such an unknown system would not make any sense. Of course, I’m hoping that the PS3 turns out to be what Sony says it is. Think of Moore’s theory of computer evolution, where technology will double every one and half years. So, I hope and pray that the PS3 will develop at a faster rate than Moore put in his theory.

 

[Suikoguy]

Wow, congrats to GI for asking good questions!

as for the response.. blah

 

[sol5377]

Tecmo doesn't really like Sony and the way they've been treated in regards to the PS3 and Itagaki isn't a big fan of Sony either, so I think Tecmo/Team Ninja will be pretty solidly behind 360 this generation.

 

[Laurent]

Tecmo doesn't really like Sony and the way they've been treated in regards to the PS3 and Itagaki isn't a big fan of Sony either, so I think Tecmo/Team Ninja will be pretty solidly behind 360 this generation.

I think Itagaki is more clever than he seems, and will choose the most powerfull system if the contrast between PS3 and X360 is as real as Sony demonstrated...

 

[sol5377]

I think Itagaki is more clever than he seems, and will choose the most powerfull system if the contrast between PS3 and X360 is as real as Sony demonstrated...

anything's possible.

 

[sly]

Itagaki: No games for the PS3. Period

Fixed :lol

 

[jett]

A predictable non-answer from the hypocrite.

 

[Elios83]

I think Itagaki is really focused on DOA4 at the moment.
After that he will think about the future.I don't see him betraying X360 but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of having his games also on other platforms.

 

[fortified_concept]

The last two questions were difficult for Itaragi. I usually enjoy his interviews but he got seriously cornered there. Can't he just admit that he's doing it for the moneyhats?

 

[SolidSnakex]

He'll probably port DoA4 to the PS3, it'll get outsold by a new Tekken which will cause him to grow to hate Sony and NAMCO more.

 

[Elios83]

He'll probably port DoA4 to the PS3, it'll get outsold by a new Tekken which will cause him to grow to hate Sony and NAMCO more.

I suspect that will happen :lol :lol
A Doa 4 Hardcore will come out on PS3 a year after the X360 version,it will be identical to the original version,he will claim he has put PS3 to its limits and the game will be crushed by the other PS3 fighting games on sales.

 

[Laurent]

What's that shit about BETRAYING Xbox 360? He never praised that system... How can you betray a community which you never fully joined to begin with?

 

[Andy787]

He'll probably port DoA4 to the PS3, it'll get outsold by a new Tekken which will cause him to grow to hate Sony and NAMCO more.

Now, if VF5 indeed turns out to be a 360 title and outsells DoA4, it's titty time for Nintendo!

 

[CrimsonSkies]

Maybe he would prefer developing on the R500 graphics chip. Sounds like most folks still don't fully understand this gem of a GPU. Looking forward to reading all about it as I think its the cream of the crop GPU wise next gen.

 

[Laurent]

Maybe he would prefer developing on the R500 graphics chip. Sounds like most folks still don't fully understand this gem of a GPU. Looking forward to reading all about it as I think its the cream of the crop GPU wise next gen.

Well at least it something that both Xbox 360 and Revolution could have in common...

 

[CrimsonSkies]

Hard to imagine you could ever keep a GPU like that cool in a box that small, but who knows.

 

[Twix]

hey Itagaki hates Sony, I do not expect anything.

 

[Redbeard]

What's that shit about BETRAYING Xbox 360? He never praised that system... How can you betray a community which you never fully joined to begin with?

He's praised it plenty.

 

[gofreak]

He didn't really express an opinion at all here He seems to be hedging his bets for now.

 

[Wax Free Vanilla]

Itagaki: I think it’s not yet time to talk about the PS3 since it’s at such an infant stage of its life. For us to make comments or decisions on such an unknown system would not make any sense. Of course, I’m hoping that the PS3 turns out to be what Sony says it is. Think of Moore’s theory of computer evolution, where technology will double every one and half years. So, I hope and pray that the PS3 will develop at a faster rate than Moore put in his theory.

I'll look forward to seeing your Playstation 3 game at the Tokyo Game Show Mr. Itagaki.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Ever since Kutaragi and Hirai ran the man train on his wife and daughter (Hey, he gives that impression in his interviews); I full well expect him to remain the loyal Itadoggy of Allard. Their mid-life crisis's compliment each other well. :lol

 

[Laurent]

He's praised it plenty.

Your mistaking Xbox for Xbox 360... And this is a business were talking about. Some of us may be Xbot, Sonyfanboys or Nintendofans, but game creators sure aren't... They go where the money is...

 

[krypt0nian]

Ever since Kutaragi and Hirai ran the man train on his wife and daughter (Hey, he gives that impression in his interviews); I full well expect him to remain the loyal Itadoggy of Allard. Their mid-life crisis's compliment each other well. :lol

What?

 

[Bob White]

Their mid-life crisis's compliment each other well.

:lol

 

[Redbeard]

Your mistaking Xbox for Xbox 360... And this is a business were talking about. Some of us may be Xbot, Sonyfanboys or Nintendofans, but game creators sure aren't... They go where the money is...

Itagaki-san: It's a wonderful machine to work with. I never lied about my impression of the hardware. It's definitely software-friendly hardware. From a developer's perspective, it's exactly the kind of hardware you want to work with.

Itagaki-san: 360 is the best.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

What?

Look at the parallels:

Allard / Xbox circa 2001, big fat wanna-be.
Allard / Xbox circa 2005, bariatric wanna-be.

Itagaki, wanna-be rock star.

Microsoft's deep pockets subsidize both of these losers public one man shows.

 

[sol5377]

Your mistaking Xbox for Xbox 360... And this is a business were talking about. Some of us may be Xbot, Sonyfanboys or Nintendofans, but game creators sure aren't... They go where the money is...

I didn't want to have to do this. The evidence:

-Itagaki and Team Ninja are very, very close to Microsoft and all things Xbox. They are the premier Japanese Xbox developer and they've enjoyed plenty of success (critically and financially) on the Xbox with the Ninja Gaiden series, Dead or Alive series, and DOAX. Before each of these games were released/revealed, it was speculated by many that they would be multiplatform or on platforms other than the Xbox.

-Itagaki was consulted early on in the Xbox 360's development. He's very much involved with the hardware in terms of supporting it's online features, controller, and its power. He's been quoted in interviews as saying "Xbox 360 is the best" and "You will love the Xbox 360" and other favorable impressions.

-Dead or Alive 4 is in development for Xbox 360 launch. Code Chronus (action/adventure game), DOA X2 and Ninja Gaiden 2 have also been confirmed to be in development for Xbox 360 for post-launch 2006-2007 timeframe. That's a total of 4 games that Team Ninja has in the pipe for Xbox 360. They were one of the early recipients of 360 development kits.

-Throughout Team Ninja's history, they have never had never worked on more than 3 or 4
simultaneously. Furthermore, they haven't released more than 1 or 2 games per year for the last decade or so. Therefore, it could be inferred that there are no non-360 or Xbox games in development at the moment and if/when there are non-360 games in development, they won't see the light of day until well into next-generation (unless ports are outsourced or games development platforms are switched mid-development).

-An executive of Tecmo (Team Ninja's parent company) expressed high praise for Microsoft's friendly approach and the sharing of it's Xbox 360 development kits and information early on as opposed to Sony's lack of cooperation / respect with its PS3. This was late last year. Rygar, Gallop Racer, and Fatal Frame 360's in the works?? I wouldn't be surprised

So before the cycle continues yet again and fanboys get their hopes way too high on Team Ninja "betraying" Microsoft anytime soon, let me be the one to say: Don't count on it.

 

[dark10x]

Tecmo doesn't really like Sony and the way they've been treated in regards to the PS3 and Itagaki isn't a big fan of Sony either, so I think Tecmo/Team Ninja will be pretty solidly behind 360 this generation.

You sure about that? Tecmo has released an awful lot of games on the PS2 this gen. Team Ninja seems to be rather against Sony, not Tecmo as a whole...

 

[ThirdEye]

Code Chronus (action/adventure game), DOA X2 and Ninja Gaiden 2 have also been confirmed to be in development for Xbox 360 for post-launch 2006-2007 timeframe.

Code Chronus is an Xbox 1 game.

 

[sol5377]

You sure about that? Tecmo has released an awful lot of games on the PS2 this gen. Team Ninja seems to be rather against Sony, not Tecmo as a whole...

The displeasure was expressed late last year about the way they were treated by Sony, after most of their PS2 games were released. And they've only released a few more games on the PS2 than on Xbox, but biggest games were exclusively on Xbox.

Also:

Xbox 360 is Team Ninja's current focus, though, with Itagaki commenting that development for next generation hardware is taking up 90% of the team's time. This has been the case since the end of development on Dead or Alive Ultimate.

Itagaki comments that he himself is spending 99% of his time on Dead or Alive 4, for which he's acting as project manager.

Regarding the Xbox 360 in general, Itagaki seems to have confidence in Microsoft this time around. "In a word, Microsoft is serious," proclaims Itagaki. "Make no mistake, they will make an excellent machine. I think I said the same thing four years ago about the Xbox, but at that time there weren't too many people who believed me."

Asked if the next generation Xbox is easy to work with, Itagaki offers up this perspective: "I've worked with various systems over the years, but I've not once felt difficulty. Even speaking generally, there are plenty of templates and libraries, so perhaps [the systems] are easy to work with. This is, of course, Microsoft's strength. Microsoft is a software developer, so it understands how we feel. I believe that, in the end, hardware is just a box, and to make it move, you need software."

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/609/609713p1.html

Itagaki later admits that one of these two promises cannot be fulfilled on the current generation and all but flat-out-states that Code Cronus is the one that's been bumped up to the Xbox 360. That leaves us with the strong possibility of Ninja Gaiden Perfect Edition joining at least one more title as Team Ninja's swan song for the current generation.

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/609/609693p1.html

 

[SolidSnakex]

-An executive of Tecmo (Team Ninja's parent company) expressed high praise for Microsoft's friendly approach and the sharing of it's Xbox 360 development kits and information early on as opposed to Sony's lack of cooperation / respect with its PS3. This was late last year. Rygar, Gallop Racer, and Fatal Frame 360's in the works?? I wouldn't be surprised

What was funny about that is that about a day or so after that interview came out, a few reports surfaced that Sony had sent out kits to developers they considered to be the best in the industry. Basically a quick backhand to Tecmo.

 

[Laurent]

So before the cycle continues yet again and fanboys get their hopes way too high on Team Ninja "betraying" Microsoft anytime soon, let me be the one to say: Don't count on it.

The whole betraying comment is ridiculous... This would be true if Tecmo was 2nd party, but that's not the case. I thought we learned to never take something for granted with past experiences...

-An executive of Tecmo (Team Ninja's parent company)

Thanks for the insult...

 

[DarienA]

People are kidding themselves if they think Team Ninja is going to switch focus to the PS3... Tecmo as a company though has had most of it's IP's debuting on the PS2, with some never coming over to the Xbox.

 

[Drek]

The displeasure was expressed late last year about the way they were treated by Sony, after most of their PS2 games were released. And they've only released a few more games on the PS2 than on Xbox, but biggest games were exclusively on Xbox.

They were bitching about how Sony treated them since the start of the PS2 generation. Crap like "oh, why does Square and EA get dev. kits before us. "

The company as a whole, especially Itagaki, has an overinflated sense of self worth. Ninja Gaiden is the only series they have with real million seller potential. DOA can do it as long as they keep the eye candy and keep it on consoles with small fighting game libraries.

 

[Mrbob]

To add more fuel to the X360/PS3 fire, I think Itagaki is head of all Tecmo software development now. Not just his Team Ninja. Between the comments of the Tecmo exec of Sony slapping them in the face, to Itagaki handling all Tecmo game development, I wonder if there will be a bigger focus on non Sony platforms next gen? Maybe Tecmo offers some of these games for Revolution instead.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

DOA X2 and Ninja Gaiden 2 have also been confirmed to be in development for Xbox 360 for post-launch 2006-2007 timeframe. That's a total of 4 games that Team Ninja has in the pipe for Xbox 360. They were one of the early recipients of 360 development kits.

yeah... and about this time in 1999, Resident Evil 4 and Dino Crisis 3 were 'confirmed' for development for PS2 and had Mikami's assumed full support.

Things change- and I think the only people who would be shocked and surprised if Itagaki made games for PS3 would be Xbots in denial.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the guy's games, so I couldn't care less. I would be far more interested in BioWare making PS3 games.

 

[sol5377]

yeah, I don't mind seeing peoples' hopes come crashing to the ground either

lots of ownage still to be had.

 

[trmas]

The only question here is simple. Did Tecmo get one of the fewer PS3 kits that were sent out? If not, they won't be on the PS3. I don't think they did. So TN Xbots can rejoice...

Personally, the only game they make I'm interested in is NG. DOA and the rest of his games just suck rocks. At least this generation they did.

 

[Duckhuntdog]

I can't believe you guy get so worked up over this guy. He acts like a badass, yet he runs away from the competition. His game couldn't hack it against Tekken, even though he said it was better, and ran away from facing them on the PS2 for the safety of near zero competition on the Xbox, with the excuse of "I only make games for the most powerful hardware." Now the rolls are reversed and he gives the most ass-covering answer I have ever seen. That's not the Itagaki I remember. That's not the words of a "Master Ninja", it's the words of a pussy, or in his case, "dog" mode in Ninja Gaiden.*



*Granted I know most of his comments are influcenced by the MS money hat.

 

[monchi-kun]

there's no way he's gonna develop for the PS3. My inside source at Microsoft says that old Billy himself is funding Itagaki's rejuvination process starting with this newly developed facial peeling system out of Europe.

 

[Link316]

I can't believe you guy get so worked up over this guy.

nah its just funny to see him contradict himself, I really don't care if he's pro-MS, anti-Sony, but he should just come clean about it instead of hiding behind some BS about only developing for the most powerful console

 

[Pimpwerx]

Itagaki is a good interview, but not very valuable to the PS line. DOA will probably stay with MS, which makes sense. As was mentioned, there's less competition there, which is a positive financially. Devs don't always want/need to seek out competition. Making money is the name of the game. That said, DOA is trash, so no loss there. PEACE.

 

[sly]

nah its just funny to see him contradict himself, I really don't care if he's pro-MS, anti-Sony, but he should just come clean about it instead of hiding behind some BS about only developing for the most powerful console

He can give his excuse a new twist: The Xbox 360 is the most developer friendly system :lol

 

[cvxfreak]

Does Itagaki speak English?