8:11: Itagaki has taken the stage! He welcomes everyone and says that it's a great night for Team Ninja because they are able to celebrate the completion of Ninja Gaiden Sigma. He says It's great to have a new producer like Hayashi. Itagaki feels Hayashi does things different from him. He jokes that because they finished Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Hayashi will start with a new title tomorrow.
Switching gears, Itagaki shows off his own creation, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword on DS. "As you all know, Team Ninja has had many games on many home consoles over its 10 year history, but this is the first time we're here with a portable title, and we're pleased to show it here today ... We sat down earlier and thought about how many new franchises we've done with the team, and this is the fourth one for us." He says that for Team Ninja, this is a completely new challenge. Itagaki jokes that there's an entirely new graphics board right there in the cartridge. (And we don't doubt it -- this game looks hot!)
Itagaki want people to note that this isn't an offshoot of the Ninja Gaiden series. It's going to play into the main series. It covers events that happens six months after the events of Sigma [or Ninja Gaiden Xbox]. "Enough about the story, let's get into the gameplay," Itagaki says. The game begins with a cinema scene showing, funnily enough, the bosses that finished off the "master ninja" earlier. Now, Itagaki is showing the game being played. He is playing the same area that he played at the Spring press conference. Easily the most technically impressive DS game so far. (You can read IGN's hands-on coverage of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword if you would like to know more about it.)
"As you can see, we are hard at work creating what we believe is the difinitive Team Ninja experience on portable hardware. This game will be releasing in the Fall of this year."