Game producer Masaaki Yamagiwa joins Team Ninja

Game producer and designer Masaaki Yamagiwa (マサアキ ヤマギワ), known for his work at Sega and Sony Interactive Entertainment, has joined Team Ninja (a division of Koei Tecmo).

The announcement was made by Shuhei Yoshida, former President at SIE Worldwide Studios (from May 2008 – November 2019), via Twitter. In the photo, Yoshida appears alongside Yamagiwa and Fumihiko Yasuda (director of the Nioh game series).

A fun evening with Team Ninja’s Yasuda-san and @giwamasa, who joined Team Ninja @TeamNINJAStudio pic.twitter.com/WQTb6As0o2

— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) October 8, 2021

The message was later re-tweeted by the official Team Ninja account on Twitter confirming Yoshida’s statement. “@giwamasa, who developed Bloodborne, TOKYO JUNGLE, etc., joins Team NINJA. Thank you.”

Team NINJAにBloodborne、TOKYO JUNGLEなどを開発してた山際@giwamasa が参加することになりました。よろしくお願いします。 https://t.co/ClCyOYeR0b

— Team NINJA (@TeamNINJAStudio) October 8, 2021

This comes months after Yamagiwa had decided to leave Sony Interactive Entertainment at the end of February of this year due to a major restructure.

2月末でSIE JAPAN Studioを離れることになりました。これまでありがとうございました。次の場所でもゲーム制作を頑張ります。
I’m leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment at the end of this month. I’m going to continue working hard on creating games. Many thanks to everyone! pic.twitter.com/WPpiLpCtoY

— 山際眞晃 Masaaki Yamagiwa (@giwamasa) February 25, 2021

What his role will be at Team Ninja is still unknown. Yoshida did work as producer on Bloodborne The Old Hunters, Tokyo Jungle and Déraciné while at SIE.

[Source]: Gematsu: Bloodborne producer Masaaki Yamagiwa joins Team Ninja – [Archive].