Team Ninja is a storied Japanese game developer that has been creating high-profile games for a long time. Two of its most famous franchises are the Dead or Alive fighting game series and the action-heavy Ninja Gaiden series. Unfortunately, fans of both of these franchises have had to wait a long time to see a new entry. Team Ninja recently gave fans hope by discussing both franchises alongside the phrase “reboots of popular series” during a G-Star 2022 presentation. Fumihiko Yasuda, the studio head of Team Ninja, supposedly also said that the team was looking into reboots of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. However, the studio now wants to clarify what it meant by this.
Speaking to Video Games Chronicle, Team Ninja now says that it has no news that it can share about these two game series. Creative director Tom Lee spoke to VGC and said, “when speaking about the development of our past and future projects, both of these important titles cannot be left without mention. However, there are no details or information to share on either of these franchises at this present time.”
Lee went on to say that Team Ninja shares the fan enthusiasm around both Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive and that the studio “will be sure to provide a proper update (if and) when that day arrives.”
The most recent entry in the Dead or Alive series was Dead or Alive 6 which was released in 2019. However, it was met with a mixed reception from fans, so the idea of rebooting the series may be for the better if the studio wants Dead or Alive to succeed once more. Ninja Gaiden fans have been waiting for a lot longer, unfortunately. The last mainline entry in the Ninja Gaiden franchise was the original release of Ninja Gaiden 3 back in 2012.
While Team Ninja has not been creating new entries in either of these franchises much in the last decade, it has been hard at work on other successful games. It created the Souls-like action-RPG Nioh and Nioh 2. In addition, the studio also worked on the Nintendo Switch exclusive Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, and the more recent Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.
Team Ninja is currently developing Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty which is due to release in March next year across PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It will also be on Xbox Game Pass on release. The studio is also working on Rise of the Ronin which will be released exclusively on PlayStation 5 in 2024.
