SEGA’s Shuji Utsumi sat down with Famitsu recently for an interview surrounding multiple topics about the company.
First and foremost, it has been revealed that Yakuza: Like a Dragon, or Yakuza 7, is the most successful entry in the entire series. This is amazing news for a game that brought such change to the series, with the brawler combat being replaced with a turn based RPG battle system. It was recently announced that going forward, Yakuza’s combat will remain turn based, and spinoff series Judgement will retain the familiar action combat. Not only did the combat change, but the series got a brand new protagonist, in the form of Ichiban Kasuga. Prior to Like a Dragon, Kazuma Kiryu has been the protagonist for the series across its 6 mainline titles. Toshihiro Nagoshi confirmed in December that Ichiban will be the series’ protagonist going forward, which will be great as we will get to continue his story.
Speaking of Nagoshi, he was asked to change positions and work closer to the development of SEGA’s titles, in hope that he could turn the company’s big titles into global hits.
Secondly, SEGA is looking “globally expand” ATLUS releases. The company plans to do this by working towards simultaneous global releases, with games possibly hitting multiple platforms. For those unfamiliar with ATLUS and their titles, the company is mainly known for Shin Megami Tensei and the Persona series. As of late, some of these initiatives SEGA mentioned have been coming to fruition, with Persona 5 Strikers & Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocture HD Remaster coming to PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Shin Megami Tensei V is also coming out soon, with the game launching simultaneously worldwide on Nintendo Switch.
In the West, there has been a lot of outcry for ATLUS’ titles to make their way to multiple platforms the same time as Japan, and it seems that SEGA is finally making this happen. Most notably, ATLUS’ Persona 5 has been heavily requested to come to other platforms besides PlayStation 4, which it currently is exclusive to. The same goes for the game’s updated rerelease of sorts, Persona 5 Royal, or P5R. In the future, it seems that SEGA is hoping to move past this and release ATLUS titles on multiple platforms simultaneously worldwide.
For all the latest on SEGA and more, keep it right here at Final Weapon! E3 is just around the corner next month, and with the company poised to participate there will absolutely be some excited announcements made.
