7 September 2006
Ferry

Ninja Gaiden 2 confirmed for Xbox 360 by Team Ninja’s lead designer

Team Ninja’s lead designer Tomonobu Itagaki got interviewed in Hawaii (lucky!) last week by IGN about the upcoming Xbox 360 sim/volleyball game Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (DOAX2). Luckily for us the interview strayed onto other topics as well, like Ninja Gaiden 2, DOA: Code Cronus, TGS announcements, and the possibility of Team Ninja’s entree into PlayStation 3 development. Singled out is the Ninja Gaiden 2 info (You can read our review of the first Ninja Gaiden for Xbox here).

IGN: Has it been interesting or difficult for your team or you to work around the three core processors?
Tomonobu Itagaki: Well, for anyone who is having a hard time programming the Xbox 360 on all three cores, they’re welcome to come over to Team Ninja and we’ll help them out. (Laughter.) No, I don’t think the Xbox 360 is difficult to program for.

IGN: It’s really interesting, some of the first developers didn’t get their kits until very late, and they were using G5 Macs to program for, and they weren’t used to programming for multiple processors. What do you use the six different threads on the three cores for?
Tomonobu Itagaki: Well, for instance, if you were to shut down two of the threads in the engine, then you wouldn’t see some of the hair blowing or some of the ribbons or strings moving in the wind. So even on the same hardware, how we really use the hardware really depends on the title. So if you’re working on a game like Ninja Gaiden 2, where it’s really important that enemies are smart and challenging, then we might use up to two threads on AI. But for a game like this, where our main goal is to make the girls look good, then we can use two threads for hair and cloth physics. So it’s really important to make the hardware do what you want to show.

IGN: So you said that this game will ship around Thanksgiving in North America. Will this game ship in Japan, Europe and North America simultaneously?
Tomonobu Itagaki: It will ship around the same time in all three regions.

IGN: Looking into the future, does Team Ninja have plans to develop PlayStation 3 games? And will there be any announcements of said games at TGS?
Tomonobu Itagaki: Yeah, we have seen the PlayStation 3 hardware and we’re studying it. We’re messing around with it right now. I think it’s a good machine. But I think the most important thing is for people to have good games that they want to play on good hardware, so if there is a demand for it, we may follow that path some time in the future. Obviously, we are big supporters of the Xbox platform. There are a lot of fans of the Xbox that support us and are with us because of that, so I just want everyone to know that we are going to continue bringing out the newest releases on the Xbox platform before they’re on other systems.

IGN: Nice. Are there any new announcements you are making at TGS that you’d like to tell us now instead? Like for instance, something about Dead Or Alive Code Cronus?
Tomonobu Itagaki: Yeah, at the moment I have a number of games for the Xbox platform in mind, enough to fill up the fingers on one hand. You know, Code Cronus is one of those. So, it’s a possibility.

IGN: So if Code Cronus is one of those, and Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 is on another, is Ninja Gaiden 2 on another finger?
Tomonobu Itagaki: I won’t upset anybody by denying your expectations. I like to see people’s expectations fulfilled.

You can read the full DOAX2 interview here.

27 October 2007 09:21
PS3Fan

Microsoft got a one year jump on PS3…

6 November 2007 15:27
no 1 reala

Da mic knos no style.My n!gg@ wait around da holladays or da year 08 or 09 and see what kind of style da X really haz.Oh and keep on wishin about NG2 going to your sexy PS3 because that $hI# is not gonna happen bro bro.

20 December 2007 13:22
PS3 4 Life

Most of you idiots bashing on the PS3 need to shut up. It’s a possibility, in my opinion that Ninja Gaiden 2 is gonna come for the PS3 after XBox. Maybe not now because Team Ninja’s developing for the 360 but in the near future it will. Sigma wasn’t created just to leave PS3 owners hanging.

13 January 2008 20:05
no 1 reala

Actually bro the reason why there was a NG game on the ps3 is to get the people to buy the real 2nd NG game,to the people that have a PS to get the X. And NGS was only met for the ps3 because ps2 was to weak for the first NG to be on it, that’s why we see NGS for ps3 so really ya’ll is gonna be hangin.And why is you mad for just get the X man damn

10 February 2008 14:00
PS3 4 lyfe

I could get a 360, yes but that’s unfair to someone who can only afford one system at a time. The game should have been released for BOTH, not just one. Team Ninja just created a bad name for themselves on the PS3 for that. I was blown away with Ninja Gaiden Sigma and it pisses ME off when they’re only making games for the 360 now. I don’t hate the console but it’s utter bullcrap.

12 February 2008 10:28
steve

I had xbox played gaiden thought was good… thought was really good. bought xbox 360 which has been replaced with ps3 now i hear there is ng2 coming to 360 lol would be good if came to ps3 sometime down the track worst thing i have to go to mates and use his 360

25 March 2008 08:20
andy

u 360 twats r pissin me off. you r only gettin gully cuz there are more NG titles for 360 while ps3 only has 1. why don’t u ppl realise that if there is only 1 NG title for da ps3 don’t u think there are more titles to come yet? also team ninja are LOST! this NG series is a high quality game it should be comming out on da ps3 as it is a more powerful machine, how can they put it out on da 360 and neglect ps3, clearly a more powerful and better console?! they need to understand the benifits are much higher on da ps3 more than da 360, F**k da 360!

7 June 2008 21:55
Gman

LOL its so funny watching all you PS3 fanboys crying your eyes out cos you aint getting NG2! Face it - the 360 owns your shitty PS3 console in every dept. There aren’t even any games on the PS3! And online is a f*cking joke!
360 all the way!!!

23 June 2008 18:06
me

Gman, go to walmart. Coming from a Nintendo fan, I’d have to say that the PS3 blows the Xbox 360 out of the water. That is, when the Xbox isn’t having a hardware failure.