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Itagaki Reveals His New Studio, Talks about Upcoming Game
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The interview, the first he's given to the Japanese game press in two years, gave Itagaki the chance to talk a bit more in detail on his game plans. For the first time, we've got a name for his new outfit -- Valhalla Game Studios, where he's running the development department and handling game design. The studio is being run by Satoshi Kanematsu, Itagaki's ex-comrade at Tecmo and the guy behind franchises like Monster Hunter and Rygar.
Valhalla isn't in a position to discuss its new game project yet, nor to say when it'll be revealed or what platform it'll be on (Itagaki is taking a "flexible approach" to that). One thing's for sure, though: It's not going to be another fighting game. "I already made Dead or Alive, the best fighting game in the world, in my last company," the ever-modest Itagaki commented. "Trying to compete against my own daughter wouldn't be worth the fight. Fighting games are kind of at another dead end right now, but you could say the genre would've died ages ago if DOA wasn't around. We saw ourselves as a counterbalance to the fighting-game norm back then, and without that sort of presence in the genre, it's just going to keep shrinking in size. Someone needs to step up and change things."
Valhalla's website isn't up yet, but should be available at www.valhallagamestudios.com within the next few days. Does Itagaki have any sales in target in mind for their inaugural game? "Dead or Alive 3 was the best game I made saleswise -- it did two million copies," he said. "For this game, I'd like to at least double that and get four million people to play it. You have games selling 10 million these days, after all, so I don't think throwing out the four-million figure's that outrageous."
