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Virtua Racing, one of the first games Nagoshi worked on at Sega <\/article>\nIn the 1980s, Nagoshi moved to Tokyo to study movie production in college. His timing wasn\u2019t great, though, as the Japanese film industry wasn\u2019t exactly a lucrative business. Looking unsuccessfully for a job in movie production, Nagoshi says he came across an opening at Sega. At the time, he says he knew Sega was a big company, and he thought there was no way he\u2019d ever be brought onboard. He applied anyway, \u201cFor kicks,\u201d as he puts it. Nagoshi wasn\u2019t turned down, but in fact<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> was hired to Sega AM<\/span><\/span><\/span>2, a development team within Sega known in the \u201890s for its arcade and fighting games, headed up by legendary developer Yu Suzuki.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Having no formal background in game development and working with Suzuki, Nagoshi says his early years at Sega in the \u201890s came with a steep learning curve. On the other hand, he racked up an impressive portfolio, working as a designer on Virtua Racing, directing Daytona USA, and even working on Suzuki\u2019s over-budget magnum opus, Shenmue, the most expensive game ever made at the time.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In the \u201990s, Suzuki was not only a big deal in the game industry, he was a big deal at Sega \u2013 which perhaps afforded him and his team special treatment within the company. Nagoshi says the team was isolated from the rest of Sega, physically at a distance from its headquarters. The AM2 office even needed a special key to enter. \u201cIt was sort of irregular and a top-secret type of operation that was going on,\u201d Nagoshi says. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was very strange, where even though he was part of Sega, the president of Sega would not know what [Suzuki] was working on at that time,\u201d he says. \u201cThere were occasions where, every six months or so, the president and his entourage would come knocking on the door demanding to see, like, \u2018What\u2019s going on in there?\u2019 And there were times that even then we wouldn\u2019t show them what was being worked on.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing that [Suzuki] didn\u2019t get fired,\u201d Nagoshi says, laughing, adding it\u2019s amazing the entire team wasn\u2019t fired along with him. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n By the end of Nagoshi\u2019s time with AM2, Sega wasn\u2019t doing great. The Dreamcast, released in North America on Sept. 9, 1999, ended up being a failure for the company, eventually leading Sega to exit the hardware space entirely and focus on developing games for companies like Sony, Microsoft, and even its once-fiercest rival, Nintendo. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n At the same time, Sega was restructuring its internal development teams, splitting them into eight separate semi-autonomous studios, each led by one of the company\u2019s top designers. Nagoshi was appointed president of Amusement Vision, which would go on to make the Monkey Ball and F-Zero series for arcades and the GameCube. Three years later, in 2003, Sega restructured itself once again, merging the studios into four teams and inviting the heads of the three most successful studios to become executives within Sega. Nagoshi was one of those three, as was Sonic Team\u2019s Yuji Naka and Hisao Oguchi, who later became Sega\u2019s president for a time. Amusement Vision was merged with members of Jet Set Radio Future developer Smilebit, eventually becoming Sega NE R&D\u00a0\u2013 or New Entertainment Research & Development \u2013 in 2004. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur first real challenge was how to combine the strengths of these two developing teams and make something new,\u201d Nagoshi says. His solution was to come up with a game unlike anything either team had ever worked on; something completely new that would appeal to Japanese audiences. To brainstorm new ideas, Sega NE R&D would take company field trips to a place that would come to define Nagoshi\u2019s career: Kabukicho, Tokyo\u2019s red-light district, at one time the heart of the city\u2019s yakuza activity, and the real-world inspiration for Kamurocho, the primary setting for nearly every Yakuza game. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe all really liked to drink a lot,\u201d Nagoshi says. \u201cThe discussions in meeting rooms are important to have in meeting rooms, but also, just being in a completely different setting where we\u2019re just kind of casually having drinks, I felt, was a much easier way for me to communicate with especially the younger team members and have them feel like it was easier to speak out with courage.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been to so many of the bars and shops there [in Kabukicho], so I know a lot of it,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut it\u2019s only just a tiny percentage of this huge, bustling area of the city. When we were drinking and talking about it, someone, and it wasn\u2019t me, someone mentioned, \u2018What if there was a game where we can go to all of the places here? What if there was a way to do that?\u2019 That really stuck and eventually led to the Yakuza series.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The creation of the first Yakuza game is a well-told story at this point (we did our own version in issue 301). At the time, the game was a risk, appealing not to children or western markets, but only to adult Japanese males \u2013 not the most profitable demographic. Initially, as the story goes, Sega rejected the game\u2019s proposal, only for Hajime Satomi, CEO and owner of the holding group Sega Sammy, to become interested in the project after footage of it was sneaked into a presentation of upcoming Sega games. Through Nagoshi\u2019s persistence, and the backing of Satomi, the first Yakuza was greenlit and released in Japan on Dec. 8, 2005, to critical acclaim, selling 232,650 copies in the country that year. A sequel followed quickly; Yakuza 2 was released in Japan on Dec. 7, 2006.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In Japan, the Yakuza games have consistently sold well, and their success has even led celebrities to getting involved with the series. Actors known for appearing in yakuza films, like Riki Takeuchi and Sh\u00f4 Aikawa, known stateside for their roles in Takashi Miike\u2019s Dead or Alive trilogy, and even legendary actor\/director Takeshi Kitano have all appeared in the Yakuza series. Additionally, Miike, a prolific Japanese director known for his yakuza movies, directed Like a Dragon<\/i>, a live-action adaptation of the first game. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In the states, though, the Yakuza series didn\u2019t catch on fire in quite the same way … until Yakuza 0 was released in 2017 to rave reviews and global sales beyond expectations. \u201cAs far as my personal favorites go, after Yakuza 1, it is 0, so it makes me really happy that it was received so well,\u201d Nagoshi says. Yakuza 0 has since led to a Yakuza renaissance in western territories. In fact, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life sold just as many copies in the United States and Europe as it did in Japan. In November 2020, Sega announced the series had sold 14 million copies globally. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes down to it, I really feel like the sort of simple, straightforward storytelling had a lot to do with why global fans took to [Yakuza 0] so much,\u201d he adds. \u201cYou know, we can\u2019t really control sparks like that from happening. But the team and I often talk about, like, \u2018Think that\u2019s gonna happen again?\u2019 Like, we really wish that [would] happen again.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In 2011, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios was established, a dedicated Yakuza team under Sega CS1 (itself a continuation of NE). Following the success of the Yakuza series, Nagoshi has continued to climb the ranks within Sega. In 2012, he became the chief creative officer of Sega Japan and was added to the company\u2019s board of directors. The following year, he was also added to the board of directors for Atlus, a subsidiary of Sega known for the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series. A far cry from his humble roots in Yamaguchi, Nagoshi has become a recognizable figure in Japanese game development, and a bit of a cult icon in the west, known for his striking sense of fashion. As he tells it, though, that notoriety has come with bit of a cost; he can\u2019t frequent Kabukicho in quite the same way he used to. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201c[O]ne of the reasons why we don\u2019t go as often anymore is because as the series became more successful and popular and I would have more opportunities to go out and speak with the media and become more known, people would recognize me more when I went there,\u201d Nagoshi says. \u201cSo it became harder to go out and relax and enjoy it.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n With Yakuza: Like a Dragon out around the world now, Nagoshi is looking toward the future \u2013 and he\u2019s surprisingly open about the possibilities, without confirming anything. On one hand, he says he knows Yakuza fans want more Yakuza. On the other, he says he has a talented team, so he\u2019s open to trying something new. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Ryu Ga Gotoku team members, they\u2019ve only really worked on the Yakuza series,\u201d Nagoshi says. \u201cBut I think it would be a waste if these really talented team members that we have aren\u2019t able to use all of their skills to their full potential. That might be challenging themselves, creating something of a whole different genre and a different style. We don\u2019t know that yet, but that\u2019s something that we\u2019re really taking into consideration right now for the growth of our team as a whole.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/yakuzas-creator-on-his-life-career-and-why-sega-shouldve-fired-him-in-the-90s-1.jpg\")
Shenmue <\/article>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/yakuzas-creator-on-his-life-career-and-why-sega-shouldve-fired-him-in-the-90s-2.jpg\")
Yakuza 0 <\/article>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/yakuzas-creator-on-his-life-career-and-why-sega-shouldve-fired-him-in-the-90s-1.png\")
Yakuza: Like a Dragon <\/article>\n