Ex-Team Ninja staff form Tokyo Vikings

A new Japanese game development group has been established at the helm of overcompensating game designer Tomonobu Itagaki.

Itagaki, who previously headed up Tecmo subsidiary Team Ninja, was involved in the development of a number of popular fighting titles such as Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive.

Last year Itagaki parted ways with employer Tecmo under a lawsuit-shaped cloud, claiming that the group had not honoured its completion bonus agreements. Following this, a number of Tecmo employees left the company.

It has now emerged that many of the developers who had left Tecmo last year have formed a new group, the tentatively-named Tokyo Vikings.

An interview with games site 1UP suggests that at least 20 ex-Team Ninja employees are now ready to work at Tokyo Vikings.

Two of which are Ninja Gaiden 2 producer Yoshifuru Okamoto as well as Katsunori Ehara, another alpha male from Team Ninja. The group says it is working on new IP that will depart from the team’s tradition of designing fighting titles.