The latest edition of Edge magazine features a lengthy interview with Toshihiro Kagoshi, one of the most prominent Japanese video game developers in the industry. He's worked on games like F-Zero GX and Super Monkey Ball, but the most interesting revelation in his interview is about the Sony-exclusive Yakuza series.
The series is enjoying renewed interest by Western gamers who are getting to experience the game for the first time on the PlayStation 4. Kagoshi says that's because Sony was the only major publisher to give the series a chance.
Kagoshi says the idea behind the Yakuza series was to create a game with a compelling narrative that would compete with big-budget Western titles like Grand Theft Auto. He said he did presentations with both Microsoft and Nintendo, who stated they were not interested in having the game on their systems.
"I've never said this before, but while we released this game with Sony, I'd done presentations about it to Microsoft and Nintendo. Back then they said "No we don't want it." Now they say, "We want it!" (laughs) They didn't understand the reason why I created it."
It's interesting to think that a series as popular as Yakuza has become could have been a cross-platform title instead of PlayStation exclusive. Would you like to see a Yakuza game released on the Nintendo Switch?
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