It seems that Tomonobu Itagaki, the man who developed Ninja Gaiden, is leaving Tecmo, the developer and publisher company based in Japan. He is also giving up leadership of his own Team Ninja studios. This departure comes as the release of the next game in the Ninja Gaiden series is just days away and any bad publicity can't but really hurt the impact of Ninja Gaiden II.

Itagaki, also known for his Dead or Alive series of games, has resigned from the position he held so far. On top of that, he also chose to file a complaint against Tecmo in the Japanese court of law, arguing that he has not been paid completion bonuses for some of his games and asking for $1.42 million in damages because of the "unlawful acts" and "unreasonable and disingenuous statements made" by the Tecmo leadership.

From the statements released by Tomonobu Itagaki, it seems that the completion bonus not paid is that for the Xbox 360 games Dead or Alive 4. It also looks like that the president of Tecmo told the developer that he could either sue or quit the company if he was not comfortable with the way he had been treated. Itagaki has chosen to take the matter to court mainly because of the financial issue, but also because he wants to clearly expose the way in which he has been treated while developing Ninja Gaiden II.

The developer has clearly chosen this moment to resign and to launch a legal action against Tecmo so that he can attract as much attention as possible in the days that lead up to the launch of his latest game, Ninja Gaiden II. The negative exposure might hurt the launch of the title and the image of its publisher Tecmo, which might be just what Tomonobu Itagaki wants.

Itagaki's plans for the future have not been made public yet, as neither has the fact of whether he will join another studio or choose to create his own.