Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden director Tomonobu Itagaki dies aged 58

The colorful Team Ninja founder was the epitome of the rockstar Japanese game developer

Tomonobu Itagaki — the flamboyant founder of developer Team Ninja, creator of fighting game series Dead or Alive, and director of the influential 2004 action game Ninja Gaiden — has died at the age of 58.

The announcement was made on Itagaki's Facebook page in a statement entitled "Last Words," apparently pre-written by the man himself.

"The flame of my life is finally about to go out," Itagaki wrote, according to an English-language translation of his final note posted by friend (and occasional Polygon contributor) James Mielke on Instagram. "If this message has been posted, that means the time has come — I am no longer in this world. (This final post has been entrusted to someone dear to me.)

"My life was a constant battle. And I kept on winning. I also caused a lot of trouble along the way. I take pride in having fought through it all, following my own convictions. I have no regrets. I only feel deep sorrow that I couldn’t deliver a new work to all my fans. That’s just how it is."

Itagaki ended the message in English, quoting the author Kurt Vonnegut's response to any death in his novel Slaughterhouse Five: "So it goes."

Itagaki joined developer Tecmo in 1992 and rose to prominence with the release of the first Dead or Alive in 1996. Unafraid of controversy, he leaned into the series' lascivious representations of its female fighters with the spinoff series Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball — the video game equivalent of a swimwear calendar. His team within Tecmo was named Team Ninja in 1999, and in 2004 released Ninja Gaiden, a critically acclaimed, intensely violent, and famously tough action game based on an old Tecmo series. (Ninja Gaiden 4, a new entry in the series co-developed by Team Ninja and PlatinumGames, is just days from release.)

Itagaki left Tecmo and Team Ninja in 2008 in a dispute over what he said were unpaid bonuses. In the years after his departure, he struggled to find the same level of success. He founded Valhalla Game Studios with other Team Ninja veterans, but the studio was dissolved after releasing just one title, the 2015 Wii U action game Devil's Third. His next company, Itagaki Games, has yet to release a game.

Itagaki, who was seldom seen in public without his trademark sunglasses, epitomized the rockstar style and rebel attitude of a generation of Japanese game creatives that includes Toshihiro Nagoshi (Super Monkey Ball, the Yakuza series), Hideki Kamiya (Okami, Bayonetta) and Itagaki's archrival Katsuhiro Harada (Tekken). He cultivated an antagonistic persona and maintained a longstanding beef with Harada over their rival fighting game franchises. In January, Harada detailed their relationship and said that Itagaki, with whom he was now friendly, had told him the beef was all a marketing ploy.

Responding to news of the death on Thursday, Harada posted, "It’s hard to believe, but Itagaki-san… my senior from university and my rival as a creator has passed away. The last message I ever received from him was, 'Let’s go drinking. Let’s make some noise soon!'

"To think that he’s gone at just 58 years old… Yes, everyone dies eventually …that’s inevitable. But you… isn’t it a bit too soon?

"Didn’t you say you were going to defeat me someday? Didn’t you come to my wedding, wearing your usual black leather jacket and sunglasses, and call me your comrade-in-arms? Didn’t you tell me to come to you whenever I was in trouble? I never even got the chance to consult you about anything.

"Honestly… I’m really depressed."