While I was eager to see the Southern Gothic mysteries of South of Midnight and more ripping and tearing in DOOM: The Dark Ages, the reveal of Ninja Gaiden 4 was the big surprise during the recent Xbox Developer_Direct January 2025 presentation, and it's a game that's been a long time in the making. That comes via Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, who talked about a number of topics in an interview with Gamertag Radio podcast on Friday.
Discussing how the Xbox team has worked to improve its relationship with various Japanese teams, Spencer notes that the conversations around a new Ninja Gaiden game first started happening after the team "knocked on some doors and said 'What if?' six or seven years ago," and that it took awhile before everything came together.
"I feel great about our relationships with the publishers in Japan," Spencer says, adding that it's taken a lot of "listening" to ensure that Xbox has a healthy relationship with Japanese developers.
"It's what the Xbox community deserves and I want to stay focused on that," Spencer says.
Xbox has made massive strides in garnering Japanese support for the platform over the last few years, bringing titles like Sega's Like a Dragon and Persona franchises to Xbox, while helping to market Sega and Atlus' 2024 role-playing game, Metaphor ReFantazio, which has been raking in award nominations.
After years of PlayStation console exclusivity, Xbox also brought HoYoverse's massive free-to-play game Genshin Impact to Xbox in 2024.
A sequel, 12 years later
Ninja Gaiden 4 is coming 12 years after Ninja Gaiden 3, the last mainline entry in the franchise. The game is a tripartite effort, being co-developed by the teams at Team Ninja and PlatinumGames, with Xbox Game Studios Publishing overseeing the project.
Ninja Gaiden 4 is introducing a new protagonist named Yakumo, whose mission brings him into a direct collision course with longtime series mainstay Ryu Hayabusa, who is also playable throughout the game. Yakumo uses Bloodbinding techniques to massively power up his weapons, enabling him to take on dangerous opponents like cybernetic ninjas and worse.
In addition to Ninja Gaiden 4, Team Ninja recently shadowdropped Ninja Gaiden 2 Black during the Xbox Developer_Direct, delivering an Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original Ninja Gaiden 2. This new version of the game includes new visual improvements while keeping many of the features introduced in the Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma version of the game.
Ninja Gaiden 4 is slated to arrive at some point in Fall 2025 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5. As an Xbox-published game, it's also coming day one to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
