Dead or Alive Series Creator Tomonobu Itagaki Has Died

Image via Tomonobu Itagaki's Facebook account

The final message from Tomonobu Itagaki has been published on his Facebook account. This heavily suggests that the creator of the Dead or Alive game series has already died.

Here is our translation of Tomonobu Itagaki’s final message:

Bequeathed Statement

My light of life is about to run out.

If this letter has been posted, it means that time has finally come. I am no longer in this world.
(I entrust this final post to an important person)

My life consisted of successive battles. I kept on winning.
I caused a lot of inconveniences.

I’m proud of myself for fighting to the end while following my own belief.
I have no regrets.

However, to all my fans, I’m full of inexcusable feelings as I cannot deliver a new game. I’m sorry.

That’s the way it is.
So it goes.

Tomonobu Itagaki

Tomonobu Itagaki was born on April 1, 1967, so he would be 58 years old at the time of death. He was best known for his tenure at Tecmo, which ran from 1992 until 2008. He founded and led Team Ninja in the company, and released the fighting game Dead or Alive as its first title for arcades in October 1996. The same team would also later reboot the 2D action game series Ninja Ryukenden to Ninja Gaiden as a 3D action game for Xbox in 2004.

Team Ninja has also published a statement about Tomonobu Itagaki’s death on its social media account:

After leaving Team Ninja and Tecmo in 2008, Itagaki joined Valhalla Game Studios. The latter company eventually released Devil’s Third for Wii U in 2015. Itagaki stepped down as Valhalla’s representative director in 2017, and the company was eventually absorbed by Soleil in 2021.

In 2021, Tomonobu Itagaki also revealed that he was establishing a new studio named Itagaki Games. Although he aspired to make more games in the studio, he could not release a new game at the time of his death, as written in his final letter.