Koei Tecmo’s Team Ninja recently announced Nioh 3, the Nioh series’ first new entry in five years. The Sengoku period dark fantasy action RPG is set to launch in early 2026. With Rise of the Ronin being released in 2024 and Ninja Gaiden 4 coming later in 2025 – Team Ninja is noticeably ramping up their development pace. The studio’s president Fumihiko Yasuda recently talked about this growth in an interview with Famitsu.
According to Yasuda, development of Nioh 3 started around the end of 2021/beginning of 2022, after the team was done working on Nioh 2’s DLC. But in the meantime, Team Ninja released Wo Long: Fallen Destiny, Rise of the Ronin, and started work on Ninja Gaiden 4 alongside PlatinumGames. Yasuda says that this fast pace became possible thanks to Koei Tecmo’s recent policy of upsizing its workforce.
As a result, Team Ninja has been able to “bring in a lot of young talent,” with their overall staff size continuing to grow year by year. Yasuda also notes that rather than simply adding new people, Team Ninja has been successful in effectively distributing its experienced veterans across different projects. For example, Nioh 3 has a bigger and younger development team behind it than past entries, but most of its key development staff, including the director, are members who have been working on the franchise since the beginning.
“We can produce a greater number of games now. In addition to working with PlatinumGames on Ninja Gaiden 4, we’re planning to continue releasing one major title each year. For 2026, this will be Nioh 3,” Yasuda says.
Ninja Gaiden 4 releases in late 2025 on PC (Steam), PS5 and Xbox Series X❘S. Nioh 3 is slated to launch on PC (Steam) and PS5 in early 2026. A free demo is available on PS5 until June 18.
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