After 5 years of support and countless of costume DLC, it’s time to put the curtain down on Dead Or Alive 5. Prior to this, Team Ninja has teased an announcement that will be made at the NEC Battle Royal tournament with this tweet.
Good luck to all the fighters that will be attending our Battle Royal 2017 Grand Finals event at NEC18. Make sure to stick around until the finals are over. There will be an announcement once the prizes are given to the champions on Dec. 17th. Stream info will be posted soon. pic.twitter.com/1RaFW8sTTU
— Team NINJA (@TeamNINJAStudio) December 14, 2017
Instead of a new game announcement like most had predicted, it turned out to be a confirmation that the game will halt all support moving forward.
The various team members including director Yohei Shimbori are hinting that they are now working on something new. Whether that be a new Dead Or Alive game or something completely new remains to be seen.
Dead Or Alive 5 was first poised to focus on the fighting and less of the fanservice for its female characters. But that decision did not last long due to fan backlash. Over the five years, Team Ninja has tried to make the game available in a free-to-play version as well as making tons of DLC costumes. So many that it costs hundreds of ringgit just to get all of them that were released one year alone.
Team Ninja has since released Nioh, the fantastic Souls-like action game and is now working on bringing Dissidia Final Fantasy from the arcades to the PS4.