Half a year ago, the highly charismatic, controversial, and highly talented developer Tomonobu Itagaki passed away at the age of just 58. He leaves behind a legacy consisting primarily of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden, which he created during his time at Tecmo.
The development process was often turbulent, and Itagaki himself never missed an opportunity to explain how overwhelmingly superior his own products were compared to everyone else's. After he left Tecmo in 2008, we didn't hear much more from him, and his only somewhat major title was the 2015 Wii U game Devil's Third.
But apparently, he continued to live like a rock star. This is according to one of his colleagues, Kengo Aoki, in an interview with 4Games (via Automaton) where he shares a memory of Itagaki. Apparently, Itagaki partied a bit too hard during a business trip to China, which led to him getting "completely wasted and started picking fights with random taxis passing by and shouting loudly in the middle of the street."
It ended in a quarrel between Aoki and Itagaki, though they patched things up on the flight home. But Aoki also says that Itagaki's health struggles were nothing new, and then shares another story from around 2015 that could have ended with Itagaki getting shot in the U.S.:
"Even in Los Angeles, where he was scheduled to speak at E3, he wound up hospitalized in an emergency. The night we arrived, we were having a pre-E3 party in our hotel room, and Itagaki stepped out onto the balcony and started shouting 'I'm gonna take over the world! Come on, you guys join in too!' Before long, there were about 10 Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) patrol cars surrounding us, and the officers had their guns drawn. It was a real Dead or Alive situation."
Itagaki remained in the hospital for a month and a half after that, and although he released a few smaller projects, he never seriously returned to the gaming world. However, a new Dead or Alive was announced earlier this year. Even though he hasn't been involved with the series for nearly two decades, his creations lives on, and judging by the first teaser, it will feature the same controversial and slightly offensive concept as Itagaki's games where always known for.
