It hasn't been a great (near) decade for Valhalla game Studios. Founded all the way back in 2008, the studio from the action savant Tomonobu Itagaki was destined for great things -- until it wasn't.
Their first game, Devil's Third, was plagued with delays and poison deals, then eventually landed on the Wii U in a partnership with Nintendo. Now don't get me wrong the game was pretty mediocre, but the fact that hardly any physical copies were printed at launch, and that Nintendo basically buried it in all of its marketing materials (I have the Nintendo Download email to prove it), didn't help.
It was a multitude of factors that didn't work in its favor, and I doubt the move to free-to-play on PC helped much either. As it stands based on a Facebook post to his fans, Itagaki is stepping down as representative director at the company he helped create, and is now going to be a "prime advisory." Itagaki seems to be wistful, explaining that he just hit 50, and wants to share his experiences with a younger generation and is "looking forward to the future." The official explanation for his resignation is "personal reasons."
Well, whatever happens, I hope we get another Ninja Gaiden Black from him. Their latest project is a 3DS game that has farting chibi company men, so maybe their priorities are different.
Tomonobu Itagaki [Facebook]
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