When Devil's Third was first announced, nobody even knew what a "Wii U" was.
The next game from Dead or Alive series creator Tomonobu Itagaki comes to Wii U in North America this fall, more than half a decade after it was introduced as a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game from THQ. That publisher is now out of business, following a slow descent into bankruptcy -- and the consoles Devil's Third were announced for are yesterday's news.
So Wii U is the new home for Itagaki's third-person action game, which, according to the announcement, "combines modern military weaponry with ninja-style swordplay and melee combat." Valhalla Games Studios, the team behind Devil's Third, is also releasing a "free-to-start" multiplayer-only PC version of the game. The Wii U release features both single player story and multiplayer modes.
Itagaki created the Dead or Alive fighting game series, but he's probably best known as the driving creative force behind Ninja Gaiden's gritty 2004 revival. Itagaki did all of this work during his 16-year tenure at Tecmo before he left the company in 2008. Valhalla came together shortly after, with many of Itagaki's Team Ninja comrades from Tecmo joining him.
Devil's Third doesn't have an official release date just yet, but it should be available at retail and in Nintendo's eShop sometime during the final months of 2015.