TEAM NINJA

The Ninja Gaiden and Nioh developer enters an exciting new era

- CHRIS SCHILLING

Founded 1995

Employees 200

Key staff Yosuke Hayashi (president), Fumihiko Yasuda (producer, Nioh franchise director)

URL teamninja-studio.com

Selected softography Dead Or Alive, Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden II, Metroid: Other M, Nioh, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, Nioh 2

Current projects TBA

The advent of a new console generation represents a beginning and an ending. With the release of Nioh: Complete Edition earlier this year, Team Ninja marked PS5’s birth by bidding farewell to the series that has defined its recent past. Franchise director Fumihiko Yasuda has previously said that Nioh’s story is over, but he’s keen to clarify that he doesn’t necessarily mean for good. “The Nioh team will continue to support the games through updates, but after that the team will take on the challenge of developing other new titles,” he tells us. “I don’t know when it will be, but I want to utilise the experience the team gains from these new titles in order to create a sequel that will surpass both Nioh and Nioh 2.”

For now, however, it’s time to move on. To quote Kenshin Himura, protagonist of Nobuhiro Watsuki’s manga Rurouni Kenshin, “New eras don’t come about because of swords, they’re created by the people who wield them.” The wielders, in this case, are Yasuda and Yosuke Hayashi, studio president and co-director of the