It hadn’t really occurred to me until just now, but Tecmo’s Dead or Alive series hasn’t had a game on a Sony platform in almost a decade.  Ever since Dead or Alive 3, Tomonobu Itagaki’s brainchild has been exclusive to Microsoft’s consoles.  Well, nowadays, Itagaki is gone, along with his undying love for the Xbox, and the DoA series is now more well-known for bikini dress-up and exaggerated jiggles, but once upon a time, it was actually known as a fast-paced, state-of-the-art fighting series.  The downward slide into T&A hell started with Extreme Beach Volleyball, which was the second DoA on the Xbox, so maybe the rumor that DoA 5 is being developed for the PS3 is a god thing.

According to a scan from the latest UK Official PlayStation Magazine’s "Rumour Machine" section, “Tecmo’s next big-bosomed fighter, Dead or Alive 5, is in production for PS3.”  The article doesn’t mention anything else about the game, just that it’s on the way, and headed to Sony’s console.  After the announcement of Dead or Alive: Paradise, a mini-game collection for the PSP, and the departure of the openly anti-PS3 Itagaki, this should have been something we all saw coming.  Whether or not the 5^th numbered game in the series will also appear on the 360 has yet to be seen, but, for now, it looks like we’ll be counter-countering our opponents’ counters, and distracting them with upskirt shots pretty soon.  At least on the PS3.