Remember Tomonobu Itagaki, formerly of Team Ninja, and the mind behind the Dead or Alive games? He was fired from Tecmo last month, amidst claims that the company had denied him bonus funds that he was promised for the competition of Dead or Alive 4, in addition to the “disingenuous statements” the president of Tecmo Yoshimi Yasuda made about him. Itagaki evidently also sparked a chain reaction as a large number of Tecmo employees filled a class action lawsuit against the company for long hours of unpaid overtime.

Itagaki has once again cropped in the news again today, due to the fact that he provided the Tokyo district court with further evidence to support his claims against Tecmo. One form that Itagaki provided for review by the court, a contract that bears the date of March 4th, 2005, seems particularly important as it makes mention of “special incentives” that were due to be set aside for Dead or Alive 4 and were implemented by the previous president of Tecmo. The contract also says that Itagaki was due to receive 6.66% of the game’s final earnings.

More crucial than this, and an even bigger nail in the coffin in Tecmo’s case, is the recorded interview in which president Yatsuda is overheard stating that he was aware of these “special incentives” that were put in place for the Dead or Alive 4 project and furthermore that this plan had been fully authorized by the Board of Directors in a ringi-type document.

Apparently bolstered by the submission of this new information, Itagaki has raised the total amount of money he wishes to receive from Tecmo from 148 million Yen ($1.3 million US) to 164 million yen ($1.5 million US) as additional restitution for the wages he would have been paid if the company had not dismissed him.

Also included in this multitudinous grab bag of legal documents was a statement made in answer to the 4-point gag order that was filed against Itagaki by his former company - now withdrawn - and which runs as follows:

“It is clear that this self-centered behavior by Tecmo Co. Ltd. and its president Yoshimi Yasuda, from the filing of the petition to its subsequent withdrawal, was an attempt to increase my own personal burden in both time and funds needed to combat the petition.”

So, it turns out that Itagaki was indeed promised money that he didn’t receive from the heads of Tecmo. It only remains to be seen how this damaging evidence will change not only Itagaki’s case, but also the class action suit filled by the employees of Tecmo.