Team Ninja

Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada has admitted that he misses the outspoken Dead Or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki, who left Team Ninja last year and is now working on Devil's Third, an action-adventure for publisher THQ. "In the past, Itagaki always mentioned various things about Tekken," Harada told 1UP, a reference to a feature the site ran in 2005 in which Itagaki listed his five most-loved and most-hated games, with his hate-list entirely comprised of Tekken games More >

Team Ninja is on record as saying that Ninja Gaiden 3 - the first game in the series to be developed away from the watchful eye of the departed Tomonobu Itagaki - will be less bloody, and will focus on the effects on protagonist Ryu Hayabusa of having killed so many people. That goes some way to explaining the below trailer, though we're wondering what heinous crimes we've unwittingly committed to deserve the British accent in the opening moments.

The smart money was always on another Dead Or Alive title when news broke last week that Tecmo Koei was to announce a new game at the Tokyo Game Show, and so it proved: Dead Or Alive 5 is in development for Xbox 360 and PS3. Attendees of the publisher's TGS event today were shown a teaser trailer of a pre-alpha build showing Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa battling Hayate. Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi hinted at a departure for the series, describing it as "fighting entertainment" instead of "just a fighting game."

The third game in Team Ninja's action-adventure series will support PlayStation 3 motion-sensing peripheral PS Move, publisher Tecmo Koei has announced. Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi said: "Ninja Gaiden 3 is all about slicing and chopping through flesh and bone and PlayStation Move brings players even closer to the game's protagonist Ryu Hayabusa. The game will be compatible with all Move peripherals and will feature full compatibility with this exciting new hardware."

Ryu Hayabusa returns, and it's very much business as usual - swinging swords, power chords, and fountains of blood. Coming to PS3, Xbox 360 - and Wii U, under the working title Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge.