Game designer and former Team Ninja boss, Tomonobu Itagaki, has passed away at the age of 58. Known for his distinctive style and unconventional metaphors, Itagaki joined Tecmo in 1992, leading the development of the successful fighting game series, Dead or Alive. He later sparked a public rivalry with Namco’s Tekken series, which helped his franchise gain global recognition in the early 2000s. After his work on Dead or Alive 3, he transitioned to beach volleyball games before creating Ninja Gaiden in 2004, a game that firmly established his legacy.