Tenchu: Stealth Assassins Creator Wants to Make a New Game for PS5 [Updated]

Update: As Twinfinite points out, Endo actually said he'd like to create a stealth ninja game for PS5 - indicating something more like a successor to the original Tenchu games - rather than a definitive new entry in the series. IGN apologises for the error.

Tenchu: Stealth Assassins creator and president of Acquire, Takuma Endo has said that he would like to create a new Tenchu game for the PlayStation 5 - but nothing is formally in the works right now.

In an interview with Weekly Famitsu (translated by Gematsu), Takuma Endo said that he would like to "create a new Tenchu from the ground up for the PlayStation 5 generation if the possibility arises", but also acknowledges that it's currently difficult.

That difficulty likely stems from the fact that the Tenchu IP is currently owned by FromSoftware, who released Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in 2019. In the early stages, Sekiro was being developed as a Tenchu successor, but From Software eventually decided to take the development in a different direction. It's not clear if the developer has any plans for the Tenchu franchise at this point.

Back in August of last year, Acquire registered a trademark for "Stealth Assassins" in Japan which set the rumour mill off that a remake or spiritual successor was in the works. In the same interview with Famitsu, Endo mentions that this was merely a formality, as the trademark had expired.

Elsewhere, Endo mentioned that Acquire plans to launch an "indies brand" separate from its main output, with the first title coming "by the end of 2021". Here's our review of Sekiro from 2019, which we scored a 9.5, lauding its "focused stealth-action take on t he FromSoftware formula".

Back in 1998, we awarded Tenchu: Stealth Assassins a 9/10 review, calling it "the quintessential PlayStation game. Hard-core, smart, bloody, and fun as hell."

Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.