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Ryu Ga Gotoku director Masayoshi Yokoyama has spoken to Japanese publication Famitsu about the future of the studio, offering up a few interesting tidbits.
As spotted and helpfully translated by Gematsu, topics included the recent departure of Yakuza creators and series producers Toshihiro Nagoshi and Daisuke Sato. “It’s very normal for a company to change up the structure of its staff,” he says. “I’m really quite happy to be in an environment where there’s a need to make a big announcement out of something so ordinary.”
Regardless, Yokoyama admits the shakeup is a signifier of some change at the company. The studio are indeed working on games outside of the universe it’s probably currently most famous for. “Unannounced title(s) outside of both series [Yakuza and Judgment] are also in the works,” he confirmed.
But that’s not to say they’re leaving either series behind any time soon. Mr Yokoyama further stated that “The Judgment series is also very important to us” and that “We’ll actively challenge ourselves to create new titles, not only for Judgment, as circumstances permit.” Hopefully then, that implies earlier reports of the spin-off series’ death may have been greatly exaggerated.
Yokoyama also gave a tiny update on plans for the sequel to last year’s Yakuza: Like A Dragon too. We already knew we’ll be following that game’s protagonist Ichiban Kasuga. However, the director notes that Yakuza 8‘s story will be set “several years” after Yakuza: Like A Dragon.
There’s no word when we’ll hear from either follow up or the new projects from Ryu Ga Gotoku. Rest assured though, we’ll keep you in the know when we do.
