Team Ninja ‘wants to make a new Ninja Gaiden game’

Team Ninja wants to make a new Ninja Gaiden game, according to a senior developer at the Koei Tecmo studio.

The fan-favourite action series hasn’t seen a mainline instalment since 2012’s Ninja Gaiden 3, not including 2014’s spin-off Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z.

According to Fumihiko Yasuda, the director of Team Ninja’s latest title, Nioh 2, the developer is aware of the amount of requests from fans for Ninja Gaiden’s return and would like to create a new game.

Yasuda said he’s also been keenly observing the rise of similar ninja-themed games such as From Software’s hugely successful Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima from PlayStation.

“The core members of the team that worked on Ninja Gaiden want to make a new game,” he told IGN.

“We are aware that some fans wanted Ninja Gaiden more than Nioh 2. Now we see a lot of ninja games like [Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice] as well, and we see a lot of good inspirations in those games, so we hope to deliver some good news one day.”

The Ninja Gaiden series has existed since the late 80s when it debuted on NES. In modern times it became popular with a number of critically acclaimed Xbox exclusives released between 2004 and 2008.

The director of those games, Tomonobu Itagaki, left Tecmo following the release of Ninja Gaiden 2 to form Valhalla Game Studios.