By Sickr on December 25, 2024

Japanese site video game site Famitsu chatted with RGG Studio's director Masayoshi Yokoyama whose team is working on the acclaimed Yakuza series and the newly unveiled Project Century and Virtua Fighter games. Asked about what it was like to work for SEGA and how difficult it was to get mature games greenlit, he said they are more than willing to take a risk with them fully accepting the possibility of failure on new projects. He went on to say that the company "doesn't just keep pursuing" what he calls "safe bets."

"One such example is the brand-new Virtua Fighter title we're making from scratch, and another is Project Century. I feel very excited about these new challenges, but I also feel some anxiety about them." RGG Studio's leader goes on to suggest that the studio is benefiting from Sega's accepting policy towards risk-taking. "I think a good aspect of Sega is that it accepts the possibility of failure. It doesn't just keep pursuing the kind of projects it knows are a safe bet."

Jokingly, Yokoyama says that this mindset is what led to "something like Shenmue" being created in the Dreamcast era. "You could say that is Sega's DNA. I mean, they weren't satisfied with simply continuing to make the usual Virtua Fighter games, and decided to turn it into an RPG, resulting in Shenmue." According to Yokoyama, RGG Studio is now doing something similar to Shenmue, although only in spirit.

Source / Via