Itagaki: 'The era of pursuing technical strength has ended'

When he was at the top of Team Ninja, Tomonobu Itagaki was seemingly obsessed with high-end graphics and processing power, choosing to work exclusively on the first Xbox for technical reasons. With his new Valhalla studio, Itagaki has shed that aspect of his public persona as well.

At a party for Famitsu Xbox 360's hundredth issue, Itagaki and Shinji Mikami recorded an installment of Itagaki's "Valhalla Freaks" column, during which the Dead or Alive creator declared that "the era of pursuing technical strength has ended," adding, "From here on out, we should pursue what makes games interesting and fun." According to Andriasang, Itagaki suggested that Japanese developers should share technology like some Western companies do.

Xbox 360 marketing chief Jouji Sakaguchi then undercut Itagaki's message about pursuing technical strength by announcing that the monitors for Xbox game demos at this year's Tokyo Game Show would be larger than last year's.