Tecmo and Microsoft have had a pretty good relationship during the course of the current console generation. At E3 2005, Tecmo confirmed that they would be continuing a close relationship with Microsoft with the announcement of Dead or Alive 4 coming to the Xbox 360 when it launches later this year. We sat down with Team Ninja head honcho, Tomonobu Itagaki, shortly after DOA4 was announced and while he shared some details with us, many things were still under wraps. Now, new details about the highly anticipated next generation fighting game have emerged.

Many hardcore fighting game fans have shunned the Dead or Alive series, claiming that the fighting engine is too shallow compared to the likes of Tekken or Virtua Fighter. While in the past it has always been Team Ninja's focus to create a fighting game that's easily accessible to the masses, Dead or Alive 4 will venture away from this line of thinking. Itagaki and his team of developers won't divulge too many details on the new fighting system, but we do have some hints as to what we can expect.

Most fighting games have a basic fighting stance for every character. Each character's attacks are performed from this basic fighting stance. Some fighting games also have a few characters with multiple fighting stances, such as Lei Wulong from the Tekken series. Now it seems as though Dead or Alive 4 will move away from what has seemingly become the norm for fighting games. Instead of giving each character one basic fighting stance, Team Ninja has completely done away with this and instead has given every attack in DOA4 an offensive or defensive classification.

Judging from the information available to us, it would appear as though each character now has the ability to use either an offensive or defensive fighting stance. Fans of past DOA titles already know that every character featured in the series has over 50 different attacks, all stemming from their basic neutral stance. From the looks of things, Dead or Alive 4 will take those 50 or so attacks and divide them up between an offensive and defensive stance. So instead of having roughly 50 attacks from one stance, characters may have 25 attacks from their offensive stance and another 25 attacks from their defensive stance.

While most agreed that Dead or Alive 3 was an amazing title when it launched with the Xbox nearly four years ago, the game shared quite a bit with DOA2, making the two games feel very similar. When you throw Dead or Alive Ultimate into the mix, which is basically a remake of Dead or Alive 2, it's been a long time since DOA fans have had a completely new fighting game experience. Based on these new offensive and defensive fighting stances, Dead or Alive 4 is looking to change that. Those familiar with DOA2 and DOA3 will find that their old strategies and tactics will no longer work in Dead or Alive 4. Even the top players will have to come up with completely new strategies if they want to win.

Dead or Alive Ultimate is currently the best online fighting game in the history of the genre. This is mainly due to its revolutionary virtual arcade setup. The title is about to change hands when Dead or Alive 4 hits. The Xbox 360 launch title has been built from the ground up with online gaming in mind. DOAU gave Team Ninja a basic structure to build on, and DOA4 will completely eclipse that. Many of the new features have yet to be revealed, but in addition to clan support, and a completely new online interface, many of the new features will make DOA4 into much more than a fighting game. It's safe to say the virtual arcade will return in some form, and we can't wait to see what kind of surprises Itagaki has in store for us.

Microsoft has announced an E3 level Xbox 360 unveiling in Japan later this month. We fully expect to see a new trailer for Dead or Alive 4 showing off what Team Ninja has been able to do with the Xbox 360 beta kits that were recently sent to developers. We'll be keeping a close watch on Dead or Alive 4, so stay with us as Tecmo details the next generation of fighting games.