Earlier this week it emerged that Itagaki had filed a complaint with the Tokyo District Court against his employer Tecmo for unpaid completion bonuses, and against the company’s president for “unreasonable and disingenuous statements” made towards him. He announced that he was claiming 148 million yen (mmoabc.4 million) in damages and leaving his post on July 1.

Itagaki’s comments were met with a swift rebuke from Tecmo, which denied the Ninja Gaiden II creator"s claims, in turn accusing him of "distortions". The firm released a statement apologizing to customers, stockholders and business partners for Itagaki’s decision to take public what it deemed to be a sensitive internal matter.

As reported by GameSpot, the whole affair has led to a sharp drop in the publisher’s share price, from 1,102 yen (mmoabc0.40) at market close on Tuesday, June 3, to 982 yen ($9.27) at the time of writing - a drop of more than ten percent.