In the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, Tecmo executive and Team Ninja chief Tomonobu Itagaki revealed that Dead or Alive 4 will be a launch title for the Xbox 360 and will ship later this year. However, he did not specify a territory, leaving the possibility open that it could be a launch title in Japan but not the US and/or Europe. As of press time, American Tecmo and Microsoft reps could not confirm that the game would launch alongside the 360 in the US.
In his interview with Famitsu, Itagaki leaked a few new details about Dead or Alive 4. The main character in DOA4 will be the opera singer Helena, who has now become the head of the evil DOATEC organization that Kasumi and the other ninjas fought against in the previous installments. Itagaki also revealed that the new blond fighter Elliot is a disciple of Gen-Fu, the elderly Chinese master who has been appearing in the DOA series since its original release. However, it isn't known whether Gen-Fu will be appearing in DOA4, since he stopped fighting after DOA3.
DOA4 will feature more than 20 characters, including both new and old fighters. Itagaki also revealed that the developers are taking a bold step and changing many moves of the old characters, such as taking out existing moves to make room for new attacks.
"The fighting styles of the characters won't change without changing around their main moves. It's a real risk. This isn't something that's small as adjustments to the game’s balance," commented Itagaki. "Up until now, we were chained to the series' existing framework. But time had passed, and by the period that we were working on Beach Volleyball, we felt that it [the framework] didn't matter any more. We will be pursuing [to create] a game that plays more like a Dead or Alive rather than a game that plays like a fighting game."
Itagaki also revealed that DOA4 will feature a new "slow shutter" engine that purposely blurs the characters to make their actions look natural when they move at extremely high speeds. "This kind of effect isn't possible with current consoles. By blurring the characters, we can express movements that can't be shown at a frame rate of 60 frames per second," said Itagaki.