Ninja Gaiden 2 on the way?

It sounds like Tecmo's working on a second Ninja Gaiden game for Xbox 360, or at least if they're not Tomonobu Itagaki is being a horrendous tease.

Speaking to IGN ostensibly about Dead or Alive X2 (the one about volleyball, jetskis and tits), Itagaki said this when asked about the multi-threading stuff the 360 hardware can do:

"So if you're working on a game like Ninja Gaiden 2, where it's really important that enemies are smart and challenging, then we might use up to two threads on AI."

Having added that Team Ninja has "a number of games for the Xbox platform in mind," he said this when asked specifically about Ninja Gaiden 2:

"I won't upset anybody by denying your expectations. I like to see people's expectations fulfilled."

Indeed. And despite all his banging on about how much he loves Xbox 360, Itagaki even had some measured compliments to throw at PlayStation 3.

"We're messing around with it right now. I think it's a good machine. But I think the most important thing is for people to have good games that they want to play on good hardware, so if there is a demand for it, we may follow that path some time in the future," he said.

That said, his money hat clearly hasn't worn off, because he's keen to stress the team remains "big supporters of the Xbox platform".

"There are a lot of fans of the Xbox that support us and are with us because of that, so I just want everyone to know that we are going to continue bringing out the newest releases on the Xbox platform before they're on other systems."