All 300 employees suing Tecmo

Or, at least, representatives of all 300. As hard as it may be to believe, Team Ninja's departure isn't the worst thing to happen to Tecmo this week. The two executive officers of their labor union have filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, claiming, as both Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja (reportedly) have, that Tecmo owes them unpaid wages. Evidently, Tecmo used an illegal "flexible hours" pay scheme that denied employees overtime.

We would imagine that if Tecmo has to pay all these lawsuits out, they're done. It puts the future of their upcoming games -- Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, Monster Farm DS 2, the Rygar Wii port, and the Mighty Bomb Jack revival that only existed in our minds anyway. Beyond that stuff, it's sad to see such a classic game company on its way out, and it's terrible for all those employees whose jobs may be over (though perhaps they'll end up moving to a company who pays them).

Tecmo's response to Famitsu states that they have (coincidentally) phased out the flexi-time this year, and that they were "consulting with an external specialist to ensure compliance with labour laws" while devising their systems. The Tecmo rep said that the company had discussed the unpaid wages with its employees in April, and that Tecmo was "currently calculating those unpaid wages."