Dead or Alive 2 (Japanese: デッドオアアライブ2, Hepburn: Deddo oa Araibu To~ū, abbreviated as DOA2) is a 1999 fighting game developed by Team Ninja and published by Tecmo. It debuted in Arcades in 1999 and was later ported for the Dreamcast and the PlayStation 2 in 2000. It is the second main entry in the Dead or Alive fighting series. Several enhanced editions of the game were released, including the updates Dead or Alive 2 Millennium and Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore. The game's plot focuses on the evil tengu, Gohyakumine Bankotsubo, who escaped from the tengu world into the human world, and the Dead or Alive tournament's change in purpose and significance after the murder of DOATEC's founder and CEO, Fame Douglas. Dead or Alive 2 received universal acclaim, strong sales, and is considered one of the greatest fighting games of all time. It improved upon the gameplay system by including many new features, it improved upon and popularized the concept of multi-tired environments and improved upon the graphics engine of its predecessor by using the Sega NAOMI hardware. In 2004, Dead or Alive 2 was remade for the Xbox as part of Dead or Alive Ultimate. On August 22, 2012, DOA2: Hard*Core was made available as a downloadable game on the Japanese PlayStation Network. The North American version was released on the US PlayStation Network on March 24, 2015. The game was followed by Dead or Alive 3 in 2001.