Ninja Gaiden 4 collaboration was Phil Spencer’s idea, producer says
It was the Xbox boss who proposed having Team Ninja and PlatinumGames work together
The forming of a partnership between Team Ninja and PlatinumGames to work together on Ninja Gaiden 4 was Phil Spencer’s idea, the game’s producer says.
Xbox announced last week that Ninja Gaiden 4 is in development, with both studios collaborating on the game, and that it’s set for release later this year.
In an interview with Game Watch, Team Ninja producer Fumihiko Yasuda explained that the studio had been trying to make a new Ninja Gaiden game for some time but couldn’t come up with any definitive plans.
However, according to Yasuda, it was Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer who proposed that Team Ninja team up with PlatinumGames to make a Ninja Gaiden game together.
“I think everyone knows that the Ninja Gaiden series has been on hold for more than a decade, but Team Ninja has been considering making a new title for a long time,” Yasuda said (via machine translation).
“However, we were having difficult deciding on a plan. Then [Team Ninja parent company] Koei Tecmo president Hisashi Koinuma and PlatinumGames president Atsushi Inaba, who are from the same generation and are good friends, had a chance to discuss the matter.
“After that, Phil Spencer from Microsoft suggested that the three companies – PlatinumGames, Koei Tecmo and Microsoft – work together on a new numbered title in the Ninja Gaiden series, and that’s how the project got started.
“We have developed action games ourselves, but because we were going to be making a new Ninja Gaiden for the first time in over a decade, PlatinumGames had already made a number of great action titles, such as Bayonetta and NieR: Automata, so we wanted to work with them, and that’s how the collaboration began.”
Spencer also touched on the initial deal in an interview on journliast Destin Legarie’s YouTube channel posted on Monday, in which he explained that the plans to bring back Ninja Gaiden started around eight years ago.
“It was multiple trips [to Japan],” Spencer explained. “I think I have a picture of me in their offices holding a Ryu [Hayabusa] statue – that was probably 2017, when we started going ‘hey, we should go do something’.
“Then I’d go over, Sarah Bond and I, multiple times a year, we needed to find the right studio to do the game. So with Platinum, when we got them signed up, it’s been a good journey.
“It’s been a long journey, but we waited, because obviously the game’s coming out in 2025, so in terms of announce then launch this is a pretty tight turn for us.”
Accompanying last week’s news that Ninja Gaiden 4 is in development, a surprise remaster of Xbox 360 Ninja Gaiden 2, titled Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, was released on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC.
