Itagaki is known for helping create several popular video game franchises, most notably the
Ninja Gaiden and
Dead or Alive series. In
2007, he teamed with the professional video game league Championship Gaming Series in conducting the Itagaki Challenge, a battle of the sexes match featuring the top
Dead or Alive 4 players in the league. Itagaki is also known for speaking his mind about other developers and video game series, most notably Namco's
Tekken series, which has a gameplay similar to
Dead or Alive 4. Itagaki began his career as a graphics programmer with Tecmo in
1992, helping create the game
Tecmo Bowl for the Super Famicom. Four years later, he produced
Dead or Alive. In
2001, he became the leader of
Team Ninja prior to achieving an executive officer position in
2004. He resigned his executive position in
2006 due to sexual assault allegations.
