Was Dead or Alive 7 canceled after being in development? That’s what a tweet from Hiroaki Morita, who says he is an employee of Koei Tecmo, has claimed. However, the tweet has since been removed, and it’s unclear whether the assertion is actually true or even if the user of the account is genuine.
Why the tweet saying Dead or Alive 7 was cancelled is suspicious
The since-deleted tweet sent on May 3 from @Hiroaki_Morita2, which has been archived here, says the following (as translated into English by Google):
After the release of DOA6, a smaller team was developing DOA7 and DOA6 minor changes, but it was decided to disband the team and cancel the project just before P / D Shimbori retired.
This wouldn’t be terribly surprising news and sounds like it could be true. The tweet refers to Yohei Shimbori, the director for Dead or Alive 5 and 6, who retired on March 31, 2024. The user claims to be “a programmer belonging to Koei Tecmo Games,” is “currently developing a new open world action game at Team NINJA,” and was previously an engineer for R Force Entertainment.
However, the unverified Twitter account has since gone private, was only recently created on April 2024, uses stock logos and images of Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja, and has since changed the profile link from the Koei Tecmo website to a Japanese LinkedIn Account. There’s also another very similar account, also unverified and created on April 2024, for @Hiroaki_Morita_ that merely switches the Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja logos around and claims that he is a temporary employee of the company.
この人、勤務風景なんて言ってますけど採用情報のページの写真を使ってますね。画像検索で出てきました。やっぱり怪しい。 pic.twitter.com/xYQcQx10xJ
— れもねーど 🍋 (@LEMONed_JazzMix) May 4, 2024
Furthermore, as noted and translated by Twitter user @jetleejun, another user named @LEMONed_JazzMix noticed on May 4 (posted above) that the @Hiroaki_Morita account had been caught using stock images from the Koei Tecmo employment information page.
A Team Ninja fan named deathofaninja, a self-described content creator for Dead or Alive community forum Free Step Dodge, has looked further into the legitimacy of the tweet on the website. He has reportedly attempted to send messages to the supposed email account in the Twitter biography but has received send failure notices. He also attempted to find Hiroaki Morita’s name in the credits for Dead or Alive 6 (I have as well) and for other Koei Tecmo games, but could not find it.
In other news, Final Fantasy devs were once working on a new Bloodborne-style IP, and the FTC is reportedly investigating Sony’s acquisition of Bungie.
