Dengeki Playstation recently conducted a round of polling featuring various prominent Japanese gaming industry figures. This survey features people from Capcom, Square-Enix, Koei-Tecmo, and of course, Sega. Satoshi Sakai (Phantasy Star series producer) and Toshihiro Nagoshi (Sega’s Chief Creative Officer, Yakuza series creator and producer) provided answers in this issue. Each participant responded to a specific set of questions; not everyone spoke on the same topic. It’s altogether rather short, but still interesting.
Satoshi Sakai was asked if there were any plans for more entries in the Phantasy Star Portable series, and was prompted regarding a fan desire for games outside of the Phantasy Star Online purview. On that front, Sakai stated that there is nothing planned, but left the door open for the possibility of another game in the future should it be felt that there’s a void in modern Phantasy Star-gaming not occupied by PSO2. This was what prompted the creation of Phantasy Star Nova (spearheaded by tri-Ace) to begin with, but the sales unfortunately weren’t particularly strong. The game itself seemed like a fine idea; perhaps factors such as platform choice just need to be reconsidered. The Vita is in less dire straits output-wise in Japan than it is in the West (especially considering the limited localizations) but it’s still not a strong platform. God Eater, another “hunting” type franchise, has been making overtures towards the Playstation 4. Besides that, Sakai was prompted about making another game with a dragon as a lead character, like Panzer Dragoon, but to that Sakai could only mention that though he’d be interested in such a title he thinks the game would be a rough sell in the current climate. Sorry Panzer Dragoon fans. (Don’t forget to check out The Will of the Ancients!)
Toshihiro Nagoshi was asked if Yakuza Studio were considering the development of new IP’s, but Nagoshi stated that they had “no comment”, though they’re considering it. While I’ve said in the past that Sega is probably not too keen to work on major new IP’s, it seems to me the answer here is ambiguous. Project “LEXUS”, speculated to be a Yakuza Studio title, hasn’t formally been identified; we don’t know if it was Yakuza 6 or Yakuza Kiwami, or if it has been revealed at all. Nagoshi was then asked about whether or not Yakuza 2 will receive a Yakuza Kiwami-style remake, and to that he responded that this would depend on the commercial response to the current Yakuza Kiwami game. Which seems pretty obvious.
Credit to this Gematsu article for the information featured in this writeup. Please consider reading it to glean insight on the plans of other companies!