A company dissolution notice was published in Japan's government gazette yesterday, with the Gematsu translation reading as follows: "Dissolution Notice: [Itagaki Games, LLC] has been dissolved, so if you have any claims against our company, please submit your claims within two months from the day this notice is published".
It would be reasonable to assume that this spelt the end for Itagaki's development studio, a team that never got around to releasing a game despite hinting one was on the way back in 2021. And yet, the end this was not...
As it turns out, the notice applies to Itagaki Production Co., Ltd., and not Itagaki Games Co., Ltd. which the studio legally changed its name to last month. The latter Games Co. studio is still alive and well, suggesting this wasn't so much a dissolution as it was a consolidation of the brand under one banner. Makes sense, really.
Having worked on the Dead or Alive series and modern-era Ninja Gaiden games at Tecmo, Itagaki left the company in 2008 to form Valhalla Game Studios — the team responsible for Devil's Third on Wii U. While he hasn't released a game since, his own development team was formed in 2020. Surely he's been cooking up something.
What this name change (however subtle) actually means for the studio remains to be seen, but we'd hope it implies a new game is on the cards. Devil's Fourth?
