There’s hardly enough time to play the biggest video game releases of the year, let alone keep up with everything else coming out each month. Every massive open-world RPG or live-service grind means dozens of other games go un-played. The creator of Like A Dragon series, previously called Yakuza, thinks this is part of why game size will no longer be treated as the unconditional virtue it once was.
“Even though there aren’t many completely original games now, if you include overseas games there are so many titles out there that it’s impossible to play them all,” former Sega director Toshihiro Nagoshi told Famitsu in a new interview via VGC. “Looking at the situation, I think that the number of console games in the lives of ordinary game fans may be a little excessive. There are still many titles being released, but I feel that the era of games where the volume is the selling point is coming to an end.”
Nagoshi left the Like a Dragon publisher three years ago to set up his own studio, and is currently working on a new project with NetEase Games. As the new game enters full production, he said the team is currently deciding on the final estimate of how much content will be in it. It sounds like he’s steering away from just making it big for the sake of an impressive-sounding interview soundbite or back-of-the-box quote
“Of course we have the map, but the current version is so large that it’s almost too large,” he told Famitsu. “This time, while researching existing games, we started by making a fairly large map with roads and highways. Now we are gradually shrinking it down and exploring the best balance for the game.”
The size of a game’s map, the total length of its script, and the average runtime for players are often deployed in pre-release marketing campaigns to bolster the sense that a game is worth its asking price. Value is reduced to how long it will keep a player busy, rather than whether any of the stuff they are doing feels meaningful or fun. That might be a plus for people who just want two or three games that will occupy them all year long, but for everyone else it can make getting to the “good” parts of a game feel like working a second job.
We’ll see how much that philosophy ends up impacting Nagoshi’s next project. The last Like a Dragon he oversaw as an executive at Sega, 2020’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon, ran 45 hours on average, or over 100 for those seeking a completionist playthrough. I’m guessing whatever he reveals next won’t exactly be short either.
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