The Ninja Gaiden franchise is back thanks to Phil Spencer

According to Team Ninja producer Fumihiko Yasuda, the studio has been eager to develop a new installment in the Ninja Gaiden series for a long time but struggled to settle on a compelling concept. The project gained momentum when Koei Tecmo president Hisashi Koinuma and PlatinumGames head Atsushi Inaba discussed the idea, eventually involving Phil Spencer from Xbox. Spencer proposed a collaboration between the three companies to bring the game to life.

Phil Spencer revealed that discussions began back in 2017 during his initial talks with Team Ninja about a potential sequel. After years of back-and-forth, they identified PlatinumGames as the ideal partner, given their expertise in creating fast-paced action games like Bayonetta and NieR: Automata.

Last week, Ninja Gaiden 4 was officially announced, and to the delight of fans, a remastered version of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, the acclaimed Xbox 360 title, was unexpectedly released on Xbox, PS5, and PC.

The first trailer for Ninja Gaiden 4 hints that the iconic ninja, Ryu Hayabusa, will star in this thrilling action-packed game. The gameplay trailer showcased several innovative mechanics not seen in previous entries, including swift movement through environments using wires and rails.

While DOOM: The Dark Ages stole the spotlight at Developer_Direct, Ninja Gaiden 4, the much-anticipated sequel in Koei Tecmo's beloved series, also made waves during the event. The game is slated for release in the fall of 2025.