Thumbs up from Japanese development team
Masaaki Yamagiwa, notable for the work on hits such asBloodborne, Tokyo Jungle,and theSonic the Hedgehogseries, is apparently working alongsideTeam Ninja, the developer responsible for franchisesNioh, Dead or Alive,andNinja Gaiden.
The partnership was succinctly revealedvia a simple tweet, which featured a casual shot of Yamagiwa chilling with Team Ninja’s Fumihiko Yasuda, and Sony Interactive’s head of independent gaming Shuhei Yoshida. Yamagiwa departed Sony Interactive Entertainmentback in February, one of a number of notable producers and developers who took their leave of the studio during a major restructure. FellowBloodbornealumni Teruyuki Toriyama andSilent Hillproducer Keiichiro Toyama also left the company last year, with the latter having since founded his own outfit,Bokeh Game Studio, to work on a new horror game.
As to what role Yamagiwa will play at Team Ninja remains unclear at this time of writing, with an official statement about the partnership yet to be released. Either way, it is quite the meeting of the minds, and it will be interesting to see what projects come from this new union, whenever Team Ninja is finally in a position to reveal them to the public.
A fun evening with Team Ninja’s Yasuda-san and@giwamasa, who joined Team Ninja@TeamNINJAStudiopic.twitter.com/WQTb6As0o2
— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp)June 18, 2025
