Rumor: Three dozen Team Ninja devs leaving with Itagaki, suing Tecmo
by Griffin McElroy 
on Jun 15th 2008 7:45PM
Losing one of your company's most recognizable figureheads, especially one whose name is so closely associated with most of your best-selling properties, is bound to put a damper on things around the office. However, that last statement assumes that there
are still people in the office --
1UP recently printed a rumor that as many as three dozen Team Ninja higher-ups could be leaving the company following Tomonobu Itagaki's resignation, and will sue Tecmo to gain unpaid bonuses for the games they've completed (much like the class-action suit Itagaki planned to file against the company following his departure).
1UP's source for the rumor was the ever-present "word on the street", though that's likely just rumorese for "we have an inside source". Whoever it may be, we doubt it's the same hopeful Tecmo higher-up who
recently assured the public that Team Ninja was going to be just fine, as losing your poster boy,
a heartbreaking amount of stock market value, and supposedly, a healthy portion of your workforce in such a short period of time would surely make any game developer feel
anything but.
