We haven’t heard much about Team Ninja’s Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises for some time. However, if Fumihiko Yasuda has his way, that may be about to change. Last we heard from Yasuda, Team Ninja hoped to “deliver some good news” regarding Ninja Gaiden, which hasn’t seen a mainline installment since 2012 and nothing has happened since then.
That’s until now. A recent panel Yasuda presented at the G-Star conference in Busan was reported by Ruliweb. He wasn’t specific about details, but he did share a slide with screenshots from Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, hinting he’d have more news soon. Even though the slide itself doesn’t show anything unseen from either series, the slide’s title hints that a “reboot” of either or both franchises might be in the works.
Are there any Ninja Gaiden or Dead or Alive projects in the works? I don’t know. You never know. Yasuda seems to want to tell us more soon. Let’s keep an eye on this However, Team Ninja has plenty of work to do. One of the standouts from Sony’s State of Play stream was Rise of the Ronin, a new action RPG from Team Ninja. Besides fans, Koei Tecmo is equally optimistic about the game’s future as well. As part of Koei Tecmo’s mid-term growth strategy, the company hopes Rise of the Ronin will sell five million copies. In a Sony blog, Yasuda said work on Rise of the Ronin started seven years ago, with Sony providing support. As Yasuda said at the time, “the development has progressed slowly and freely.”
