Koei Tecmo announces restructuring; Nioh development team's Ninja group splits up.

Koei Tecmo, a long-established Japanese game developer, announced a major organizational restructuring starting April 1, 2026. This restructuring will affect the core team responsible for developing the Ninja Gaiden, Nioh, and Dead or Alive series.Ninja GroupTeam Ninja will be splitting off some team members to joinGust。

Koei Tecmo announced that its entertainment division, "Team Ninja First Brand Division," will be transferred to Gust, the development team behind the Atelier series, and become "Gust Second Brand Division." The original "Team Ninja Second Brand Division" will be split into a new "Team Ninja First Brand Division" and "Team Ninja Second Brand Division."

This organizational restructuring at Koei Tecmo is not surprising. Team Ninja's "Second Brand Division," led by Gohei Shibata, has been responsible for developing hardcore action games such as *Ninja Gaiden* and *Nioh*. Meanwhile, the "First Brand Division," led by Yasuki Sakuta, has been responsible for the development and operation of the *Dead or Alive Xtreme* series. *Atelier Lésleyana* was actually co-developed by Team Ninja's First Brand Division and Gust. This restructuring provides Gust with more support.

Meanwhile, Team Ninja's first brand division has been split into two. The first brand division will still be led by Gohei Shibata, while it remains to be seen whether the "new" second brand division will be outsourced and led like it was with Ninja Gaiden 4, or whether it will develop new IPs.