Ninja Gaiden II publisher, Tecmo, has responded to the resignation and lawsuit filed by Team Ninja creative director, Tomonobu Itagaki.

As you would expect, the company is perturbed by the lawsuit. However, it appears to be more concerned about it being dragged from the courtroom into the town square. A Kotaku translation states, "the reasons for making this lawsuit public are self-centered.

"What's more, this employee is filing this suit for himself and making it seem like he alone is responsible for the development of the game titles the rest of the Team Ninja staff had poured its heart into."

IGN further states that, "The company also refers to the damages sought out against CEO Yoshimi Yasuda as being the product of "distortions" from Itagaki."

The good news is that Team Ninja continues to work as one on new projects. There's a relief. As for the rock-styled Itagaki, well, scuttlebutt has it that he's off to Microsoft: a Halo button-mash anyone?

Finally, intriguingly Tecmo's English language home page contains a link to a press release from November 2006 concerning a sexual harassment case brought against Tomonobu Itagaki. Yes, that's from November 2006. But, of course, that could be a complete accident.

^{Sources:
IGN
Kotaku
Tecmo}