Team NINJA is Planning to Reboot Dead or Alive and NINJA Gaiden

Some breaking news has been released today during Team NINJA's keynote at the South Korea G-Star conference by Fumihiko Yasuda that Dead or Alive and NINJA Gaiden reboots will be the future of the company after the release of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty & Rise of Ronin. The final image presented in the breaking story has been translated by key individuals in our community including @WAZAAAAA and @Matt Ponton respectively:

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Team NINJA's Future - Reboot of Popular Series - Images of NINJA Gaiden & Dead or Alive ​

There is a lot of information in this story, and we will break all of it down here at Free Step Dodge, but this looks like extremely positive evidence of a future and now is probably not the time to leave the DOA community if you were planning to jump the fence. We've been covering Team NINJA's Fumihiko Yasuda all year and he checks all of the boxes of a proper president: he's been honest, he's developed legendary games, he's focused on the present and the future.

We don't know all of the details yet, but everyone interested should be inclined to give Yasuda a chance after (in all due respect) the marketing blunder that Yohei Shimbori was vacuumed into as Team NINJA director and producer for Dead or Alive 6. Shimbori was put into a position where he could not excel with DOA6 and was unfortunately retired because of it not to dampen the rest of his career which was a legendary run on his part.

If we find out in ANYWAY that these translations are inaccurate, we will remove them, but as of now they have been double checked, fact checked, site checked and approved for this story release. Also, it's important to consider that the term 'reboot' can mean a wide array of different things, some elements that could have negative impact and some elements that could have positive impact and we ask that you consider that when discussing the future of the games. Seeing as how Yasuda has been as transparent as he can be to a global audience; this is a good indicator of things to come.

 

rollback and a proper PC release, lol

But one thing I will say that needs a reboot in DOA for sure is the stages. It's the #1 ask I have consistently in every survey they've ever done since DOA5. They need to remember that DOA used to have the best stages ever and that it needs to be a staple of the series going forward.

Also, from a google translate of the Korean article, I didn't see much mention of DOA specifically, just some NG stuff in regards to TN's philosophies when it comes to action games. One thing though, about Japan only being 10% of their sales... that's 10% from just 0.15% of the world population, I hope they know, lol (just did the math... wow, the world just recently hit 8B, eh?). Their very Japanese games is what their western fans love to buy.

 

do include rollback netcode please.

Sadly not gonna happen. Talking to Japanese game dev friends of mine, they are adamant that Harada is 100% right that it's impossible to do rollback for a 3d fighter. Their reasonings are wrong but they have always been stubborn about it. Reasons include that hit capsules are tied to non deterministic animation and particle systems, so they say it's impossible.

 

It's hard to put into words how I feel about this announcement.

Excited? Frustrated? Nervous?

Is it possible to have all these feelings at the same time?

 

Let's hope it doesn't suck <3

 

 

I want to feel optimistic about this news... but I dunno.

 

Plus, sorry to fellow fans of the fanservice, but the trend has been generally going against that even from Japanese devs ever since Sony changed its policies to be stricter and at the same time more vague towards sexual content, as devs don't want to deal with the back and forth with the people behind the most popular high-powered console (especially in Japan) as to what is ok and what isn't. So, there's that pressure as well as the pressure from wanting to appeal to the tourney scene (i.e. Evo, which is owned by Sony now, right?). This would also put NG/DOA more in line with TN's other recent, bigger hit games which are tonally far more "serious" and give it a more separate image from the DOAX series. If there's gonna be any chance for them to settle once and for all whither or not they want to "tone down" or continue to cater to fans of fanservice, a reboot in this decade is the best chance to do that. It worked for Uncharted Raider last decade, right? Meanwhile, MK: continue to unnecessarily rip people's innards out through their ass, that's fine. Just to be clear, this is not the way I want things to turn out, I'm just being a realist based on my knowledge of the industry the past few years.

A reboot is something you do when a series had had multiple failures, not when you had one badly received game that followed a very successful game. The thing that was ruining DOA's perception among the mainstream was their business/DLC practices more than anything else about the games themselves.

Just because Sony had change their policies on what content is allowed, that doesn't mean they should have to stick around or put up with their policies. If I were these game developers, I would flat out abandon Playstation, and move over to Nintendo Switch or DMM Games if Sony doesn't like sex appeal. Do you know what DOA has the capability to do? Release content exclusively to 1 platforms (or even region) from DOAX3 Scarlet having more fanservice content on the Switch version than the PS4 version, DOA6 release a costume for Hayabusa exclusively on Xbox One along with releasing Ticket System & Hair Color DLC exclusively on PS4, and DOAX3 & DOAXVV release costumes exclusively in Japan. So Team Ninja/Koei Tecmo has no excuse not to offer sexual content especially DOAXVV is their more profitable DOA game & Number 1 game in DMM Games.

Besides they'd be better off not making games on the Playstation brand, based on how its performing in Japan:

Spoiler: examples

PlayStation 5 Launch in Japan the Second Worst in History for Sony

Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has reported the PlayStation 5 has had the second-worst console launch for Sony in Japan. The console has officially sold 118,085 consoles in the 4 days since launch and this makes it the second-worst console debut for Sony after the PlayStation 3, which sold 88,0

www.sankakucomplex.com

PlayStation "in Decline in Japan", Censorship Claimed as One Possible Factor

Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at the Ace Economic Research Institute, has provided some factors that might possibly explain the reason for the PlayStation's decline in Japan, with one of the reasons being the absurd censorship targeting Japanese titles. The analyst believes Sony's hold on the Japane

www.sankakucomplex.com

PlayStation Game Sales Halved as Profits Continue to Plummet

The Sony Group's game business is going through a sharp decline in sales and a significant drop in profit, with the biggest reason being its lack of software sales and add-ons, which had been PlayStation's strengths until now. While Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki had previously mentioned that time spent

www.sankakucomplex.com

Xbox Series X|S sold more than double the Xbox One in Japan already

A new sales report confirmed the Xbox Series X|S has already outsold the Xbox One in Japan. The new report (via Famitsu) confirms over 260,504 Xbox Series X|S units have been sold thus far…

nichegamer.com

Xbox Series S outsold PS5 in Japan this week

The latest Japanese software and hardware sales are out – and most notably Xbox Series S outsold PS5 in Japan this week. It seems like Microsoft's gamble with having previous generation…

nichegamer.com

PlayStation 5 hits 2 million sales in Japan, slowest among Sony’s modern consoles

The PlayStation 5 has managed to sell 2 million units in Japan, according to new sales data by Famitsu. The new milestone includes both the standard PlayStation 5 (1,749,737) and digital PlayStation 5…

nichegamer.com

All we need is for Sony to suffer in business along with them abandoning the console business and things will be good.

Just because their newer titles with more "serious" tone that are their bigger hits doesn't mean they should reboot DOA in that fashion, besides they should learn that "serious" approach is not the way to go for the DOA franchise from the backlash they've receive during DOA6 (which eventually lead to Core Values that took place in EVO Japan) along with how much profitable DOAXVV was. If their newer titles are big hits then all budget/resources/efforts should only go to their newer titles, while DOA should either be given the same budget/resources as DOAX3 (which lead to less content from DOAX2 like mini games, not having gravure scenes that 2 girls instead of just 1 girl by herself, not expanding along with cutting long time DOA girls like Tina, Lei-Fang, Christie, & Lisa), let other companies like Indie Game developers (like what happen to Streets of Rage 4) handle DOA, or be like either Konami or Capcom where they don't bother making new games where Capcom does rereleases for Vampire/Darkstalkers and Konami does nothing other than renewing their trademark like Bloody Roar. When it comes to a rebooting DOA, DOAXVV should be their inspiration.

The only mindset they should be having is who would buy their game that reuses/copy paste their assets, cuts corners in development (like game modes, stages, & character roster), and pays ridiculous amount of money (like $92 Season Pass or Paid V-Stones with total worth $400 for 1 costume) when it comes to choosing between cater to fans of fanservice or tone down the series. Their business/DLC practice is how DOA was even profitable gives KT reasons to make these games to begin with. The day they have their thought on "tone down" is the day they should make a brand new game from scratch leave DOA behind.

 

Hey, I'm even all for DOA and NG going Xbox exclusive again these days (well, Xbox and PC), or timed-exclusive I guess, but you know logically they wouldn't do what you or I would want to do... that kind of thing might only happen if they have some kind of partnership with MS again.

 

Wait and see they did a good job with Nioh and hopefully they learned their lesson with ng3 backlash(no more tasteless "japanese burger" plz)...A mix of NGB/NG2 for the new NG would be great

As for DOA pretty sure they will no bring back SE so im curious to see the gameplay/stun game of the next doa(cant be worse than 6) and unless a complete purge(of people who have the same hivemind mentality as on resetera) and Sony bringing back PS HQ to Japan,TN can forget making money with fanservice
Either the next doa will revive the FG serie or put in grave for good

TBH im more hype for NG lol

 

Hey, I'm even all for DOA and NG going Xbox exclusive again these days (well, Xbox and PC), or timed-exclusive I guess, but you know logically they wouldn't do what you or I would want to do... that kind of thing might only happen if they have some kind of partnership with MS again.

KT wants XBOX for game pass checks (Wo Long), KT wants PC for long-term sales of their games, KT wants Sony for timed-exclusive checks (Ronin).

That being said DOA & NG will probably always be multiplatform as Tekken and Street Fighter didn't make any exclusive jumps as fighting games have always been the worst selling genre of games.

 

Wait and see they did a good job with Nioh and hopefully they learned their lesson with ng3 backlash(no more tasteless "japanese burger" plz)...A mix of NGB/NG2 for the new NG would be great

As for DOA pretty sure they will no bring back SE so im curious to see the gameplay/stun game of the next doa(cant be worse than 6) and unless a complete purge(of people who have the same hivemind mentality as on resetera) and Sony bringing back PS HQ to Japan,TN can forget making money with fanservice
Either the next doa will revive the FG serie or put in grave for good

TBH im more hype for NG lol

All they would have to do to get the sales they are looking for is to create a Gacha for the costumes instead of unlocking the cool ones in arcade. This wouldn't be a problem for professional players because they don't give a shit about costumes anyway and will not think twice. The casuals like fighting too, but they also want to take the coolest pictures possible for their social media accounts and having new costumes gives them that chance to keep their images relevant.

Not to mention that the DOAXVV costumes that go for actual money now are not that bad in terms of showing too much skin. The basic free bikinis are the more revealing ones, and the other outfits that require free Gacha or payment have more detail, features and class.

It's the malfunction feature that would never see the light of day via Sony. Gacha would be a win for the casuals and competitive players would at least be rewarded a chance to pull something cool for their efforts of playing just as in DOAX.

 

A reboot for both series is necessary at this point; neither DOA6 nor NG3 were particular highlights (I tried NG3 in game pass a few weeks ago but uninstalled it within a few minutes when I remembered how much I disliked the gameplay changes but am currently replaying Sigma 2 because I actually enjoyed it) so a fresh start needs to be done.

As far as NG goes, I wouldn't be surprised if they restructured the world and levels like in Nioh (they are set in the same universe so why not) but kept the modern combat and with DOA, I'm hoping for a DOA Dimensions style release but with DOA5 and 6 story, gameplay and characters. Maybe reuse the engine from 6 but without the meter and emphasizing the action without downplaying the fanservice. I can imagine the marketing mainly focusing on the actual fighting but then they release a silly fanservice focused trailer similar to those DOA Paradise trailers which were just literal depictions of masturbation euphemisms or the Sigma 2 epic nod trailer. They could even add in the Venus Vacation characters as non-playable side characters into the mainline series.

I wonder though the naming for such reboots would be; NG would likely restart as just being called Ninja Gaiden but would a DOA reboot launch as DOA 7 or DOA+subtitle then the next game is a proper DOA7?

 

All they would have to do to get the sales they are looking for is to create a Gacha for the costumes instead of unlocking the cool ones in arcade. This wouldn't be a problem for professional players because they don't give a shit about costumes anyway and will not think twice. The casuals like fighting too, but they also want to take the coolest pictures possibly for their social media accounts and having new costumes gives them that chance to keep their images relevant.

Not to mention that the DOAXVV costumes that go for actual money now are not that bad in terms of showing too much skin. The basic free bikinis are the more revealing ones, and the other outfits have more detail and class.

It's the malfunction feature that would never see the light of day. Gacha would be a win for the casuals and competitive players would at least be rewarded a chance to pull something cool for their efforts of playing just as in DOAX.

IDK about a gacha system,the one at the start of doa6 was awful and certainly not fun
A rewarding points system for playing online/offline with a good rotating gacha for costume could be good either you can grind the game and try your luck or pay if you want a costume
the problem with PS is now the devs themselves chose to censor their games right from the start and so far i dont even know how this is possible but there is no leak of this BS policy so playing the fanservice card is more like a bet atm with PS

 

IDK about a gacha system,the one at the start of doa6 was awful and certainly not fun
A rewarding points system for playing online/offline with a good rotating gacha for costume could be good either you can grind the game and try your luck or pay if you want a costume
the problem with PS is now the devs themselves chose to censor their games right from the start and so far i dont even know how this is possible but there is no leak of this BS policy so playing the fanservice card is more like a bet atm with PS

Yes, Sony has indeed always been a problem when it comes to censorship, but I think outside of Rachel's awful Fiend outfit in DOA6 it was okay. I think most DOAXVV outfits that they release now like SSRs would pass Sony's standard.

 

You said that Nyotengu became a Team Ninja staple. How did that happen?

 

You said that Nyotengu became a Team Ninja staple. How did that happen?

She's popular enough to make appearances in four different games already and three different series: DOA, DOAX & Nioh

 

You said that Nyotengu became a Team Ninja staple. How did that happen?

She's like the fifth most popular character in character polls, and has made the jump to their other franchises like the rest of the girls above her in popularity.

 

maaaaaaan idc what they do with the roster or the fanservice anymore, i just want this reboot to be fun and satisfying to play like 5U/5LR and not be dogwater like 6.

 

She's like the fifth most popular character in character polls, and has made the jump to their other franchises like the rest of the girls above her in popularity.

Who's the other 4?

 

Marie Rose, Honoka, Kasumi, and Ayane.