Nagoshi Talks about next gen and Sega

[ROJM]

http://www.polygon.com/2013/2/27/4035006/segas-nagoshi-on-next-gen-the-relic-purchase-and-keeping-consoles

Toshihiro Nagoshi is chiefly known as the top creative mind behind Yakuza, a series that arguably does more to keep Sega's name in Japan's limelight than Sonic the Hedgehog at this point. As of a year ago, he's also chief creative officer of Sega, overseeing software development around the world. He's manned the helm through some fairly stormy waters, but his work has sown results. Sega is back to being profitable so far this fiscal year, despite weaker earnings.

"Through all the difficult circumstances we've gone through, we've been able to invest more into our mid and far future while still retaining our identity as Sega," Nagoshi told Famitsu magazine this week. "To be honest, we still need to solidify our footing and our performance as a company, but given the frenetic cycles we deal with nowadays, if we worried solely about that right now, we wouldn't have a stable future in three or five years. I think we'll need to take some new measures to deal with that."

A lot of Sega's success this year has had to do with the launch of Phantasy Star Online 2 in Japan. The latest in one of their best-known franchises, PSO2 surprised many by both adopting a free-to-play scheme and using the PC as its lead platform-something that must have generated a lot of debate within the company.

"If it looks that way from an outside perspective, then you can imagine how it was even more heated within the company," Nagoshi replied. "I think it comes down to the talents of the PSO2 team, and how they convinced the company to go that way. I see possibilities with F2P across the industry; it all depends on what you do with it, but it took this team to show us what we could accomplish with this property. No company is ever unanimous when it makes decisions; there's always doubt over how much you can trust someone who swears to you that they have a vision and they can make it happen. Launching Yakuza may have been a bit like that, but this is a large-scale online game, so the longer you run it, the more money it'll cost us. PSO2 certainly taught Sega how hard it is to establish an online game and run it as a stable business, and I think Sega's gained some major assets through that experience over the past year."

PSO2 has 1.7 million user accounts in Japan alone and is set to launch worldwide on the PC and mobile devices this year. But that's not the end of Sega's overseas strategy, as demonstrated by their purchase of Relic Entertainment last month as part of THQ's bankruptcy proceedings.

"[The purchase] is based around our objective of getting products locally developed by local studios," commented Nagoshi, "but it's also due to the heavy-hitting RTS titles Relic has. Sega already has The Creative Assembly, which is great at making RTS', and so we're becoming one of the best in the world at this genre now. So this purchase was part of our strategy for tackling this genre as well. It's a well-established one, especially overseas, and having this wealth of experience under our belts makes me really look forward to seeing how the chemistry between the two studios works out. If we have the opportunity to make further purchases that emphasize high creativity, I think you'll see us aiming for that."

When asked about what the next generation, Nagoshi sees an even more intense competition than in previous cycles, although it won't come down to hardware speed. "They'll be better-performing systems," he said, "but I think they'll start being closer and closer to each other on the inside. The Wii and Wii U are differentiating themselves on the hardware level, but the other two systems are going to wage an all-out war of services, one that'll involve the entire Sony group and the entire Microsoft group. It'll be a battle to see which group can leverage its scale to best benefit developers and gamers."

As he prepares to join this battle, Nagoshi doesn't seem particularly concerned about rising development costs in the next gen. "It depends on the title, but we don't picture development costs as massively expanding any longer," he said. "As hardware grows more powerful, you can have that hardware cover more of the labor of running the game. There'll always be room for polish, but after a certain point, you're always running into limits in terms of the size of the media. I think pretty much all the AAA titles people know use up nearly all of the media space they're given. In terms of selling price, in terms of the cost of things like multiple disc layers and the tempo of play, I don't see development costs changing massively. They'll be expensive, sure, and that is a concern to me, but even if the hardware gets ten times as powerful, games won't suddenly get ten times costlier to make. I don't think they'd even be twice as costly."

Given that Yakuza spearheads Sega's console lineup in Japan, Nagoshi sees himself as playing a necessary role in keeping console gaming relevant worldwide. It's not a trivial task, given all the headlines social-game outfits are grabbing these days.

"I'd like to ensure that console games don't lose their luster," he declared. "Behind that, I suppose, is the concern that they will, indeed, become a thing of the past if we don't do something. This isn't new, but in a lot of different ways, the 'social' keyword is seeping into all parts of the console business. So part of me sees the console scene as endangered, something we have to act to support. I feel the need to keep that scene active so it doesn't get shunted to the side, and even at this moment, I'm busy thinking of how we'll keep titles like Yakuza going."

When asked about future goals for the company, Nagoshi brought up Sega's traditional image; He describes it as the young upstart that produces wildly out-there titles and doesn't seem too pre-occupied with bottom-line profits. "I want to think about things from ground zero one more time," he said. "That's tough for our younger staff, but it's also fun and exciting. That's what you want the Sega logo to represent: things that seem crazy at first, but really surprise you when they take form. Even if people say 'Oh, now they've done it' at us sometimes, I don't want to do away with the expectations that people have had for us since way back. It wouldn't seem right if Sega acted all firm and conservative, would it? I think I'd like to keep that."

Too bad he doesn't have the time to write his monthly column like he use to.

[Happy Cat]

i like how he basically implies how Nintendo isn't competing in the next gen race xD

Also, nice to read about PSO2 doing good for SEGA.

[Randroid]

Great article. Nagoshi's always insightful.

I'm confident Sega has the right mind as the helm of creative. That quote in the last paragraph is spot on.

[Radrappy]

This put a smile on my face and a little confidence in my pocket.  Good on you, Nagoshi. 

[CrazyT]

Great article. Nagoshi's always insightful.

I'm confident Sega has the right mind as the helm of creative. That quote in the last paragraph is spot on.

my exact sentiments. He's defenitly the right guy at the right place with such a wise mentality

[ROJM]

Just hope that Sega the company doesn't screw it up. Which we all know is likely to happen at one point. Its important if he's instilling this mentality into the younger staff to continue that legacy and to make sure the Sega way of video games doesn't die out.

[semmie]

maybe hallucinating or wishfull thinking but i see a subliminal message in the whole story that will keep my hopes up for

bad ass games
no more borrow from gearbox
only sega local
and even a sega console in the evaluation

[Barry the Nomad]

There isn't going to be a SEGA console.

[semmie]

There isn't going to be a SEGA console.

u cant prove that nor deny or acknowledge that. cause simply we dnt know what dem peeps doing there in secrecy in their evaluations

[ROJM]

There isn't going to be a Sega console,Sems. Not now and not for the next decade.

[thearcticsea]

Just hope that Sega the company doesn't screw it up. Which we all know is likely to happen at one point. Its important if he's instilling this mentality into the younger staff to continue that legacy and to make sure the Sega way of video games doesn't die out.

Double true.

[Randroid]

There isn't going to be a Sega console,Sems. Not now and not for the next decade.

Nope sorry, got to defend Semmie here.

The one message that you have to take away from this is that you can't say for certain what will happen.

I agree that a console is unlikely, but a couple years ago I would have smugly laughed at a Genesis branded laptop or a  Sega Toilet arcade. 10 years is a long time and anything can happen.

Maybe Sega no longer has the muscle to put out a top tier console, but maybe another hardware manufacturer comes to them with a partnership agreement, or maybe the market opens up to a second tier console (like the WiiU) and Sega decides to put something out.

There are quite a few avenues for Sega to gamble. Hell if Android takes over Sega could release a Sega phone or tablet (wait they already did with Tokio Technology) and continue to march along with their digital strategy. 

To bring up the laptops again, it really shows that Sega and the world hasn't forgotten that it used to make consoles.

Again highly unlikely, but definitively can't say that there won't be one in 10 years.

[Trippled]

Seems like the mentality of last-generation will continue to go on. Of keeping to put out unique console games worldwide, with stuff like Platinum Games, Yakuza localizations and Valkyria Chronicles.

I mean if he is staying true to his words (key word:worldwide), Yakuza 5 and others should come to the West.

Also just a side-note, it seems pretty much the younger generation will lead game development. With Nagoshi's promotion to be the creative officer, Kikuchi being president of SEGA Networks, the 2 key roles of Yakuza and previous Sega classics, seem far removed to be heavily involved in future games.
With Sonic it seems to be the same, Iizuka as the Producer role doesn't seem too involed. The actual director/art staff seem to be much more the driving force behind it.

IMO Rieko Kodama needs to be pulled away from imagepoech trainwrecks and make a pair with Nagoshi to be in charge of creative control in Sega.

[ROJM]

@Arctic: This is also the first time someone from Sega has talked about a younger generation or next generation officially. I guess that it truly is an end of one particular Sega era and the dawn of another. All the people were familiar with have either left or essentially becoming mentors now. which is sad because none of the people, Suzuki, Kodama even Naka has really left Sega the way they should have, with a great game.

@Ranoid,
In ten years there probably wont be console gaming. We just have to look at the current systems now. Most of the systems that's been released for the last ten years have ripped off ideas from Sega, their patents and their systems. And that can only take you so far unless something/someone comes up with an original idea. Social gaming is also affecting things. I can't honestlycan't  see consoles really lasting the next ten years.

@Trip
Kodama became involved because she was in charge to a degree of sega's handheld division and one of its big series at the time(some sort of puzzle line) Anyhow i didn't think Image epoch's games were a trainwreck but i'd like to see Kodama actually get to produce a bigger game like she use to.

[Trippled]

@ROJM

Personally I think this won't effect Sega too much in contrast to their previous output...

Like, the "new" generation has put out great games in form of Generations and Binary Domain. And I think the new directors etc. are just lead designers/artists etc. on previous games. They know their craft,  and can make a good game similarly feeling to previous ones.