(Update) Former Team Ninja leader Tomonobu Itagaki’s game studio Itagaki Games quietly shuts down
Update (October 7, 2024 14:40 JST): While Itagaki Games LLC, which Tomonobu Itagaki founded in 2021, has been dissolved as initially reported, another company owned by Itagaki (Itagaki Productions) has been renamed to Itagaki Games Co., Ltd. This implies that the business has been consolidated, rather than shut down (source: Gamebiz).
Itagaki Games has shut down, according to a notice published via Japan’s government gazette on October 7.
The studio was originally established in 2021 by Tomonobu Itagaki, the former leader of Koei Tecmo’s Team Ninja. Itagaki left Team Ninja in 2008, after working on the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive series.
Following his departure from Koei Tecmo, Itagaki originally joined Vallhala Game Studios together with Team Ninja’s Yoshiki Okamoto. He stayed there until 2017, when he stepped down from his position as CEO for personal reasons. Valhalla Game Studios went on to get merged with Soleil in December 2021.
After leaving Valhalla Game Studios, Itagaki announced the establishment of Itagaki Games in January 2021. At the time of its establishment, the company announced that it would develop new IPs for the PS5/Xbox Series X|S and PC. However, it seems that Itagaki Games has been quietly dissolved without ever having made a game announcement.
