Tecmo, Itagaki Submit Contradicting Evidence, Suspicions of Falsified Documents Arise

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As the legal showdown between Japanese developer Tecmo and soon-to-be former Team NINJA subsidiary head Tomonobu Itagaki commences, both sides have submitted contradicting evidence to the court, suggesting something is amiss.

In the lawsuit, Itagaki states he was promised, but never received, a completion bonus for his work on Xbox 360 near-launch title Dead or Alive 4.

As evidence of this, Itagaki submitted a contract that affirmed his claims of a promised bonus. Tecmo offered the court a similar contract as well, but according to Kotaku and IT Media, Tecmo's version of the contract was missing the bonus clause.

At present, the blatant contradiction between the two pieces of evidences has not been addressed. However, contradictory documents in another Tecmo court case suggests that some of Tecmo's official documents contain false information.

That other suit, filed by two Tecmo employees and said to "encompass all 300 employees," claims Tecmo has avoided paying employees overtime through the illegal implementation of a flex-time agreement.

Official court documents uncovered by Kotaku and Inside-Games indicate the flex-time agreement, which itself isn't illegal, was approved by a former, unnamed leader of the Tecmo Labor Union.

These same Tecmo documents state the unnamed leader was "chosen by popular vote," while a later memo from Tecmo president Yoshimi Yasuda suggests that election was never held.

In other words, the flex-time agreement seems to have been implemented under false pretenses, as it appears the former union leader was appointed, not elected, to his position and did not act on behalf of his fellow employees.

Tecmo has yet to officially comment on these particular allegations, though it has stated that its employees will be "appropriately compensated" and asked all outlets to "handle news reports concerning the above matters with care."

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    June 19, 2008 8:09 PM

    [deleted]

    • reply
      June 19, 2008 8:20 PM

      Thanks for pointing that out. Sorry :(

      • reply
        June 19, 2008 10:44 PM

        I really appreciate the timely manner in which the Shack gets news up to the front page, even at weird hours, and also takes care to update stories when situations change. Sometimes a spelling mistake will slip through and that's ok. Better spelling errors than factual errors.

      • reply
        June 20, 2008 8:25 AM

        Look at it this way Chris, most people have to click a few extra times for spelling and grammar check, and it doesn't catch errors like this. You get the gaming nation to correct your papers for free. Wouldn't it be nice to have such an army looking out for you in college? :)

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