Yakuza Creator and Sega’s Chief Creative Officer Toshihiro Nagoshi: “First and Foremost, We Think About the Japanese Audience”
Yakuza creator and Sega’s Chief Creative Officer Toshihiro Nagoshi made it clear that the games he makes are created first and foremost for the Japanese audience.
Nagoshi made his opinion clear on the matter in an interview with Niche Gamer.
He told them, “First and foremost, we think about the Japanese audience and then we start thinking about Asian audiences.” He added, “We make sure we create a game that’s good and fun for them. Hopefully, this game will reach as many audiences in the West as possible.”
Nagoshi would even state that if they began to “start thinking about different audiences, catering to all these different people, it will lessen the appeal of what we’re making here.”
He made it clear they didn’t plan on changing which audience they look to make games for first.
“There’s that order to things when we’re developing and that mindset is something that I don’t think will change even as we go on.”
Nagoshi also admitted that the success of the Yakuza series has been “a pleasant surprise” to him.
“With regards to the Yakuza series as a whole, it’s really been just a pleasant surprise how much fans have really taken to it. We definitely didn’t expect it. Also, it’s just always a lingering question of like, ‘Why? How? How did this happen?’ It’s just really grateful the fans really love it.”
Nagoshi’s comments echo those of Kadokawa producer Junichiro Tamura. Tamura recently did an AMA on Reddit where he addressed the response a number of western Anime websites had to The Rising of the Shield Hero.
Tamura stated, “There have not been any controversies regarding the series in Japan.” He would add, “In the case there were any controversy domestically, we will try to address all issues with the staff and people involved to bring our customers a better product the next time.”
He would reiterate that the anime is not seen as controversial in Japan, indicating they look at creating content for their Japanese audience first rather than catering to western anime websites who whined about the show and even refused to review it.
“We in Japan do not see these anime as controversial, so we will continue to produce more content like Shield Hero.”
He added, “Thank you for your support, buying merchandise helps as well as preventing any of your friends from pirating the content. We would like to animate all of Shield Hero, but it all depends on the support we get from our fans.”
The Yakuza spin-off [easyazon_link identifier=”B07L69TMY4″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Judgment[/easyazon_link] is coming to the PlayStation 4 next week on June 25th.
What do you think of Nagoshi’s views on who they are making games for? Does it make sense?
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