Sega ‘flat out rejected’ the first two pitches for Yakuza, creator Nagoshi says

The creator of the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series has spoken about the challenge he had in getting Sega to approve the first game.

In an interview with Weekly Ochiai, former Sega chief creative officer Toshihiro Nagoshi explained that at the time he was thinking of pitching the first Yakuza game in the early 2000s, Sega was struggling to release games that were selling well globally.

“This led to a mindset of making games that would appeal to the masses, games that could sell anywhere and to anyone,” Nagoshi explained (as translated by Automaton).

“But this mindset wasn’t really leading to a solution, and I saw many game proposals gradually become watered down as producers bended over to change things the way management instructed them to.”

According to Nagoshi, Sega wasn’t interested in making Yakuza when he initially pitched it, because it didn’t feel the series would have the global appeal it was looking for.

“Of course, it was flat out rejected,” he said. “After all, it was completely contrary to what I mentioned earlier about attracting the masses. Children wouldn’t be able to play it, and it wasn’t catered to women nor overseas audiences. In this sense, there was no way for it to be approved without resistance.”

Nagoshi says he had to pitch the game at least three times before Sega relented and gave the green light for the first Yakuza game.

In the nearly two decades since then, the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series has become a success for Sega. In late 2023 the company said the series had sold 21.3 million games, and earlier this year Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth shipped one million copies in its first week alone.

Infinite Wealth also became the 30th game in history to receive a coveted 40/40 score in respected Japanese magazine Famitsu, an accolade shared by Yakuza 5 in 2012.

After leaving Sega in October 2021, Nagoshi has now set up his own company, the Netease-backed Nagoshi Studio, where he and his team are working on its first game.

Further reading

Toshihiro Nagoshi interview: ‘I will not betray my fans’

The former Yakuza director talks life under NetEase, and how he's approaching his next cinematic franchise

Speaking to VGC when we visited the studio last year, Nagoshi explained that the next game wouldn’t be a carbon copy of the Like a Dragon series, but would still feel like a Nagoshi-led game.

“Obviously, we’re not going to create something exactly the same, but I do understand there are expectations from people based more on me as a creator and my personality, so people want to see my tastes and my personality in my new games,” Nagoshi told us via a translator.

“Obviously, I will not betray my fans in that sense – I will create something with my personality and make a dramatic game, stuff like that – and my taste and personality will be reflected in the game. I can’t tell you exactly what genre it’ll be or what the game is going to be like, but I will not betray my fans.”