We have Phil Spencer to thank for the idea to bring Team Ninja and PlatinumGames together for Ninja Gaiden 4

The recent announcement of Ninja Gaiden 4 during last week’s Xbox Developer Direct was a major highlight of the show. The unexpected collaboration between original series developer Team Ninja and the masters of spectacle fighters at PlatinumGames was unveiled, and to sweeten the deal, Xbox also dropped a modern remaster of Ninja Gaiden 2.

Bringing together two renowned teams from different sides of the action game genre was no easy feat, but it was Xbox boss Phil Spencer who made it all happen.

In a recent interview with Game Watch [Japanese] (via VGC), Tea Ninja producer Fumihiko Yasuda revealed that the studio had been struggling to come up with a plan to revive Ninja Gaiden and create a new game in the series. It wasn’t until they met with Phil Spencer that ideas started to flow. Spencer suggested bringing together Team Ninja, Koei Tecmo, and PlatinumGames for the next installment of Ninja Gaiden.

Prior to Spencer’s intervention, Koei Tecmo president Hisashi Koinuma and PlatinumGames president Atsushi Inaba had discussed the possibility of collaboration, but it was Spencer who ultimately made it a reality.

“We have developed action games ourselves, but as we were about to launch Ninja Gaiden for the first time in over a decade, PlatinumGames has previously created a variety of fantastic action titles, such as Bayonetta, and NieR: Automata, so we were keen to work with them, and that’s how we began our collaboration,” Yasuda added (machine translated).

PlatinumGames has a track record of delivering exceptional titles based on other studios’ franchises. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and NieR: Automata are prime examples of their success, raising hopes for Ninja Gaiden 4 to become another standout action game. The reveal certainly struck the right chords with fans.

Ninja Gaiden 4 is set to release this fall on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.