Itagaki: Tecmo Tricked Me Into Releasing Dead Or Alive 2 Itagaki: Tecmo Tricked Me Into Releasing Dead Or Alive 2

Photo courtesy AIAS

LAS VEGAS —Ninja Gaiden creator Tomonobu Itagaki nearly quit making videogames when his company tricked him into releasing an unfinished title, he said on Thursday.

Itagaki, who has since left Tecmo and started an independent game studio called Valhalla, said in his speech at the annual DICE Summit that he only had two and a half months to port the fighting gameDead or Alive 2 to the PlayStation 2 in time for the home platform’s launch in March 2000.

“All of the staff, led by me, fought for a victory with all their energy,” Itagaki said through an onstage translator. “But unfortunately, the result wasn’t what we expected.”

As the deadline of the PlayStation 2′s launch grew closer, the company’s sales all-purpose manager approached Itagaki at his desk.

“Can I borrow a copy of this so I can play it a small?” Itagaki remembers the manager saying.

“I said, sure, yeah, go on, and I handed him the disc which was subdue under enhancement,” Itagaki said. “But this disc was never played by them.”

Instead, Itagaki said to the crowd of game developers and executives, “it was taken into a factory for production on that day without me meaningful it.”

Tecmo, Itagaki said, “made a huge profit.” But the relief of what he called an unfinished game sent Itagaki into a spiral of depression.

“I plotting I would quit making games,” he said. He started saying home, drinking from morning until night. He’d weep as he watched the movieArmageddon over and over again with his then three-year-ancient daughter, listening to Aerosmith’s theme song “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.”

Eventually, he went back to work with a renewed sense of purpose, making the follow-up gameDead or Alive 2: Hardcore in the state that he and his team wanted it to be.

“No matter what anyone says, Aerosmith andArmageddon were the ones who saved my life, my company, my friends and my family,” Itagaki concluded.