WHAT?!

[Dark Jaguar]

http://kotaku.com/5012535/itagaki-leavin...uing-tecmo

Wow...

Granted, I alway considered this guy a total jerk (and NOT in a "he's cool that he's a jerk" way that JERKS seem to appreciate for some weird reason), but I liked Ninja Gaiden Black.

[A Black Falcon]

Japanese developer not only leaving his company, but also suing it? Wow, that's really rare... company loyalty is very strong there, generally...

But yeah, agreed about Itagaki, but he does make good games. The big question is, what does he do now... and what does he do without DOA and Ninja Gaiden? They're all he's done for a long time now...

[Dark Jaguar]

What gets me is he left before giving his last game a proper name, like Ninja Gaiden BLACK 2. There's ALREADY a Ninja Gaiden 2, and it was for the NES!

[Dark Jaguar]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/all-te...sue-tecmo/

It would appear a much larger number of people are leaving, apparently the entire force of programmers at least. I would suspect that the management that (very likely at this point) has been snubbing them of their monies may soon learn that the people that actually do real work are kinda important.

[A Black Falcon]

Evidently, in completely shocking news considering these developments, Tecmo's stock is going down fast...

[Great Rumbler]

Things are looking really bad for Tecmo right now.

[A Black Falcon]

Considering the charges, though, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

[Dark Jaguar]

I'd say if the charges hold up, then Tecmo deserves what they get. They might end up holding onto their trademarks out of spite though... (I'm envisioning a scenario in which Tecmo collapses in on itself and the 300 or so employees form a new company.)