‘Dead or Alive Xtreme 3’ updates & release date: No U.S. launch for DOAX3; original DOA creator criticizes developers

By Staff Writer

Dec 01 2015, 04:12 AM EST

Team Ninja, the developer of the "Dead or Alive" series, admitted that it decided not to launch "Dead or Alive Xtreme 3" in Europe and the U.S. due to its raunchy content. Shortly after the studio made the announcement, it was criticized by Tomonobu Itagaki, creator of the fighting game series and former executive of Team Ninja.

After the developer announced the game earlier this year, it immediately gained the attention of the gaming community due to its huge deviation from the original series. Like the other "Dead or Alive Xtreme" titles, DOAX3 is a spinoff of the main "Dead or Alive" games.

It doesn't focus on combat or beach-themed sports. Instead, DOAX3 only features select female characters wearing skimpy swimsuits as they play around a swimming pool. The game even has a wardrobe malfunction mode that almost strips characters of their clothes to show off more skin and tan lines, Lazy Gamer reported.

According to the developer, the game's content is the main reason why it will only debut in Japan and other Asian countries. This is the studio's way of avoiding the issues regarding the depiction of women in games.

"Do you know many issues happening in video game industry with regard to how to treat female in video game industry?" Team Ninja said in a Facebook post in response to a gamer's query. "We don't want to talk those things here. But certainly we have gone through in last year or two to come to our decision."

Although Team Ninja is trying to avoid getting into a bigger controversy by skipping U.S. and Europe, the studio is still facing criticisms from the creator of the "Dead or Alive" series. According to Dual Shockers, Itakagi condemned Team Ninja regarding the development of DOAX3.

Apparently, he did not appreciate the studio's decision to use a voting system that allowed gamers to choose which characters they would like to see in the game. Due to this popularity-based method, not all female characters made the cut. Also, Itakagi said the developers of Team Ninja lacked the necessary skills to create a good game because they were not able to include certain entertaining gameplay elements in DOAX3 like the Jet Ski race course from "Dead or Alive Xtreme 2."

"Dead or Alive Xtreme 3" for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita is scheduled to debut in selected regions on February 25, 2016.