Effective next month, Hideaki Itsuno, will leave Capcom to create "a new game in a new environment", saying that he hopes to "create fun, beautiful games that are as memorable as, even more memorable than, the ones I have created so far."
Itsuno's resignation comes after working for Capcom for over thirty years, directing several best-selling titles, including taking over the Devil May Cry franchise from Hideki Kamiya and Shinji Mikami, starting with Devil May Cry 2.
Itsuno effectively saved Devil May Cry. After the success of the first game in the series in 2001, which started as an offshoot of Resident Evil 4, Capcom greenlit a sequel that had production troubles from the start. It wasn't until Itsuno stepped in to be the game's de-facto director that the game finally got made. Afterward, he'd go on and release several best-selling titles for Capcom, starting with Devil May Cry 3 and, most recently, the critically acclaimed Dragon's Dogma 2, which faced optimization issues at launch that was rumored to be because of a rushed timeline.
The reasons behind Itsuno's departure remain unclear, but it's speculated that he's leaving because of the creative restraints Capcom has placed on him over the years. Thus, it ends a decades-long tenure that leaves the fate of Devil May Cry 6 unknown.