Team Ninja, best known for the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises, may be hinting at another entry in the series popping up since we last saw Dead or Alive 6 back in 2019.
“The year 2025 will mark the 30th anniversary of Team Ninja’s founding, and we would like to announce and release titles that are appropriate for the year,” they said to 4Gamer via a translation, as part of an annual end-of-year project where the publication interviews numerous Japanese video game developers.
While initially this may seem like a stretch, Team Ninja has only worked on a handful of franchises throughout their history, with 17 Dead or Alive games through the years (counting non-fighting games as well), and 10 games in the Ninja Gaiden franchise, among a couple of others.
Generally, 30 year anniversaries are a call back to the past, highlighting the most popular and successful things you’ve done along the way, and Dead or Alive would definitely check that box for Team Ninja.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, is set to be released in Summer 2025, and is a side-scrolling game featuring Ryu Hayabusa, who’s also in the Dead or Alive games, and is a heavy callback to the trilogy of titles released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
While we could see yet another Ninja Gaiden announcement incoming, the Dead or Alive franchise, in terms of fighting games, hasn’t seen a fresh title since March of 2019, which will be six years’ time in a couple of months.
Fighting games are generally operating in a very good space these days, with most of the AAA titles selling in the multiple millions, and Dead or Alive, is one of the classic IPs from the 1990s for the FGC, so it holds a special spot in many player’s hearts and minds.
Dead or Alive 6: Core Fighters had over 1 million downloads, and the series is reported to be around 10 million in overall sales for its lifetime, however the performance of latest game didn’t exactly set the world on fire, with Dead or Alive 6’s first month shipments topping 350,000 units worldwide, which is about 40% less than its predecessor performed in the same window.
Still, the Dead or Alive fighting game franchise has seen sales in the millions previously, and it’s possible that Team Ninja could see a return to form, especially with other 3D fighting games like Tekken 7 selling 10 million copies.
Fighting game developers very often hint at the projects that may come down the pipeline in the future, and this latest statement from the group at Team Ninja could be a hint that we may see another entry in the Dead or Alive series.
After all, it wasn’t that long ago where Sega started dropping hints and later announced a brand new Virtua Fighter game as part of its 30th anniversary.