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Tag: Blacksmith

  • How a Traditional Blacksmith Created Ninja Gaiden 4’s Swords in Real Life – Xbox Wire

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    When we set out to launch Ninja Gaiden 4, we asked ourselves: what if the blades of legend weren’t confined to the game? What if Ryu Hayabusa’s iconic Dragon Sword and new protagonist Yakumo’s Takeminakata — weapons rooted in centuries of lore — could be forged in the real world? That question brought us to Kyoto, Japan, where ancient swordsmithing traditions met the next chapter of Ninja Gaiden.

    In association with master swordsmith Yuya Nakanishi and the Masahiro Tantoujou Sword Forge, we set out to create real-life versions of the Dragon Sword and the Takeminakata. These aren’t just props — they’re living, breathing testaments to craft, power, and story.

    The Stories of the Swords

    The Dragon Sword has always been more than steel. In-game, it’s the ancestral blade passed down through the Dragon Lineage for generations.,

    Combined with the Eye of the Dragon, a sacred jewel granted to Ryu by his childhood friend Kureha, the blade now displays its full power, transforming into the “True Dragon Sword.” With this legendary blade in hand, Ryu has purged the encroaching forces of evil and saved the world time and time again.

    Ninja Gaiden 4 Swords Image

    Yakumo’s Takeminakata has also been passed down through generations of the Raven Clan, who have actively collected cursed blades to utilize with Bloodbind Ninjutsu. Yakumo uses Bloodbind Ninjutsu to share the life force of blood with Takeminakata and the accursed armaments to maximize their destructive potential.

    The Creation Process

    Ninja Gaiden 4 Swords Blacksmith Image

    Creating these blades in real life took months. Hundreds of hours. And no compromises. Each artisan at Masahiro Tantoujou Sword Forge approached their part of the process with the same dedication Ryu and Yakumo bring to battle — patience, discipline, and unwavering focus.

    The result? Two swords that don’t just mirror their in-game counterparts — they embody them. When you see the Dragon Sword’s gleam or the Takeminakata’s raven feather-imbued blade, you’re not just looking at steel. You’re looking at the legacy of the Dragon Clan and the Raven clan, and the Master Ninjas that define Ninja Gaiden 4.

    Ninja Gaiden 4 Swords Blacksmith Image

    This collaboration is more than a celebration of a game. It’s where story meets steel, and where fantasy becomes something you can hold in your hands. Because in Ninja Gaiden 4, legends aren’t imagined — they’re forged.


    NINJA GAIDEN 4 Preorder Deluxe Edition

    NINJA GAIDEN 4 Preorder Deluxe Edition

    Xbox Game Studios


    ☆☆☆☆☆


    ★★★★★


    $89.99


    Pre-order now to receive the Dark Dragon Descendant Yakumo Skin at launch

    Experience a return to the intense, high-octane action of NINJA GAIDEN with the Deluxe Edition! The Deluxe Edition includes:

    • NINJA GAIDEN 4 base game
    • Future Gameplay Content “The Two Masters”*
    • Traditional Dark Blue and Legendary Black Falcon Ryu Skins
    • Blade of the Archfiend Ryu Weapon Skin
    • Divine Chimera and Raven Master Yakumo Skins
    • Divine Chimera Yakumo Weapon Set
    • 50,000 Bonus NinjaCoin
    • Additional In-Game Items such as Life Elixirs, Incense of Rebirth, Kongou Iron Brew, and more!

    The definitive ninja hack & slash franchise returns with NINJA GAIDEN 4! Embark on a cutting-edge adventure where legacy meets innovation in this high-octane blend of style and no-holds-barred combat.

    RETURN OF THE LEGEND
    Experience a return to the intense, high-speed combat that established NINJA GAIDEN as a premier action game series. Prepare for a legacy reborn with captivating style for a new generation of players.

    EPIC HACK AND SLASH COMBAT, EVOLVED
    NINJA GAIDEN 4 fuses Team NINJA’s tempered combat philosophy with the stylish, dynamic action gameplay of PlatinumGames. Engage in visually stunning combat that rewards precision and strategy. Use Bloodbind Ninjutsu to transform your weapons and unleash devastation upon your enemies, alongside legacy techniques like the Izuna Drop and Flying Swallow. The legendary Ryu Hayabusa also returns with a revamped yet familiar set of tools to master. With a customizable player experience, NINJA GAIDEN 4 will push action game veterans to their limits while allowing newcomers to enjoy a heart-pounding adventure full of twists and turns.

    AN ANCIENT ENEMY RETURNS
    An endless rain of miasma hangs over a near-future Tokyo in the wake of an ancient enemy’s resurrection. The fate of the city lies in the hands of young ninja prodigy, Yakumo. Fighting his way through cybernetic ninja soldiers and otherworldly creatures, Yakumo must reconcile a destiny he shares with the legendary Ryu Hayabusa himself and free Tokyo from the ancient curse that brought the city to its knees.

    *For release date when announced, see https://www.xbox.com/games/ninja-gaiden-4.


    NINJA GAIDEN 4 Preorder Standard Edition

    NINJA GAIDEN 4 Preorder Standard Edition

    Xbox Game Studios


    ☆☆☆☆☆
    4


    ★★★★★


    $69.99


    Pre-order now to receive the Dark Dragon Descendant Yakumo Skin at launch

    The definitive ninja hack & slash franchise returns with NINJA GAIDEN 4! Embark on a cutting-edge adventure where legacy meets innovation in this high-octane blend of style and no-holds-barred combat.

    Return of the Legend
    Experience a return to the intense, high-speed combat that established NINJA GAIDEN as a premier action game series. Prepare for a legacy reborn with captivating style for a new generation of players.

    Epic Hack and Slash Combat, Evolved
    NINJA GAIDEN 4 fuses Team NINJA’s tempered combat philosophy with the stylish, dynamic action gameplay of PlatinumGames. Engage in visually stunning combat that rewards precision and strategy. Use Bloodbind Ninjutsu to transform your weapons and unleash devastation upon your enemies, alongside legacy techniques like the Izuna Drop and Flying Swallow. The legendary Ryu Hayabusa also returns with a revamped yet familiar set of tools to master. With a customizable player experience, NINJA GAIDEN 4 will push action game veterans to their limits while allowing newcomers to enjoy a heart-pounding adventure full of twists and turns.

    An Ancient Enemy Returns
    An endless rain of miasma hangs over a near-future Tokyo in the wake of an ancient enemy’s resurrection. The fate of the city lies in the hands of young ninja prodigy, Yakumo. Fighting his way through cybernetic ninja soldiers and otherworldly creatures, Yakumo must reconcile a destiny he shares with the legendary Ryu Hayabusa himself and free Tokyo from the ancient curse that brought the city to its knees.

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    Joe Skrebels, Xbox Wire Editor-in-Chief

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  • Google Ventures doubles down on dev tool startup Blacksmith just 4 months after its seed round | TechCrunch

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    As speed becomes the defining currency in an AI-driven software world, Blacksmith has raised another round led by Google Ventures — just four months after its seed — to accelerate how code gets shipped.

    The $10 million Series A closed in just 14 days, with Google Ventures doubling down after first backing Blacksmith’s $3.5 million seed in May. At the time, Alphabet’s VC arm bet on the size of the market and the founding team, which included veterans of Cockroach Labs, another GV portfolio company. But for this round, GV was swayed by results.

    Blacksmith, which offers a continuous integration and continuous delivery service for developers that complements GitHub actions, had pulled in hundreds of customers since May, and the boom in AI coding agents has blown the market wide open, co-founder and CEO Aditya Jayaprakash (pictured above on the left) said in an exclusive interview.

    The San Francisco–based startup hit $1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in February with just four people — Jayaprakash, co-founders Aayush Shah and Aditya Maru, and a product designer. Since then, revenue has reached $3.5 million ARR with more than 700 customers, supported by a team of eight, and the company is aiming to double that figure by year’s end, Jayaprakash told TechCrunch.

    Founded in January 2024, Blacksmith was born from the experiences of its founders, who met at the University of Waterloo before building large-scale distributed systems at Faire and Cockroach Labs. There, they saw firsthand how costly and unpredictable the build and unit testing stages of software releases, known as continuous integration (CI), can be.

    You would have to spin up hundreds of machines and burn through hundreds of hours of computing power just to test new code before shipping it, Jayaprakash said.

    A typical software development process involves developers continuously pushing new code into repositories such as GitHub or AWS CodeCommit. To manage the testing and integration of that code, cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure all offer their own solutions — but these are often slower, costlier, or less predictable than teams need.

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    Unlike many rivals that rent generic cloud servers from cloud providers like AWS, Blacksmith’s service runs on high-performance, gaming-grade CPUs. The result, the startup says, is up to double the processing speed and lowering, by as much as 75%, compute costs. And because teams can switch by changing just a single line of code, they can start shipping faster within minutes.

    “Because we’re going the bare-metal route, we have much better control over our economics compared to the hyperscalers,” Jayaprakash told TechCrunch. “I’m not saying every company should go bare metal… but if you are a compute company, if you are an infra company, where your bread and butter is compute, like ourselves, it makes a lot of sense, and it gives us abundant control over our margins.”

    By using hardware at its premises, the startup improves its margins as it grows its customer base, the founder said.

    Blacksmith also offers test analytics and an observability roadmap, giving customers deeper insights into GitHub Actions — GitHub’s CI/CD platform that automates how developers test and deploy software.

    Blacksmith targets companies with teams of 500 engineers or more. Customers already running their GitHub Actions through the platform include Ashby, Chroma, Clerk, Devsisters, Mintlify, Pylon, Slope, Supabase, and VEED.

    The latest funding round also saw participation from existing investors and angels, including Spencer Kimball, CEO of Cockroach Labs, and David Cramer, co-founder of Sentry. Blacksmith launched out of Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch and today has a team of 11.

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    Jagmeet Singh

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