When a Japanese man says you have lost your honor, you may as well throw yourself into the path of a passing car on the spot -- his opinion on such matters tends to be rather definitive. That's exactly what happened when Ninja Gaiden director Tomonobu Itagaki left Tecmo recently, saying he could no longer work with President Yoshimi Yasuda, who he named as "a man who chooses not to honor promises even when he is able to do so." Ouch.
Apparently things have gone to hell in a hand basket around Tecmo way, per breaking news this morning that two Tecmo employees are suing the company for unpaid wages in the sum of 8.3 million Yen ($77 grand). The workers claim that they were placed on a "flexible hours" schedule where they were not paid for their overtime, which has been going on for the past four years. Sounds like working in retail!
It gets worse, though: the suit actually claims that Tecmo may have created false documents and hidden essential accounting documents. The plaintiffs actually represent all 300 Tecmo employees and are contesting that the flexible hours structure resulted in over 100 hours of overtime per month, which was unpaid.
Tecmo developer Hiroaki Ozawa is actually one of the plaintiffs in the case, and since February has headed up the "Tecmo Labor Union" in an effort to fight back. Things look bad for Tecmo, with both major and minor players speaking out against them. We'll bring you more detail on this as soon as it is available.
[Via Kotaku -- Thanks, Joe]
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Contest:
10:11 AM on 06.17.2008
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That's what they get for releasing Ninja Gaiden for only one system... the bastards.
Also, fuck Tecmo. I can't wait for Team Ninja to reassemble somewhere else like Voltron.
Thats what managers get for trying to be sneaky and try to keep the developers in house doing more work. I hope they lose just so those same managers have to go down with the ship.
@Prof. Pew - well played, chap
And that sewer horse pic was made my facebook profile pic last night, it's lol.
God Damn do I want NGII for PS3 !
Sad Panda.
Ah well,. I still don't have my ROM of TSB NES to fall back on.
Also, I hope those guys win their case, even if it does mean no new TB.
Itagaki goes freelance, gets gobbled up by Microsoft. His old team follow, and forms Microsoft's number one Japanese development studio: Ninja Team.
Tecmo loses massive stock value, gets bought out by another company.
Microsoft.
Who put Itagaki in charge of Tecmo's old franchises, like Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden, and use the name in yet another attempt to get a foothold in the Japanese market.
They will still fail, and I still won't care, because I WILL GET MORE NINJA GAIDEN!