Exclusive: Like a Dragon rep talks about Gaiden’s sales, Infinite Wealth’s tremendous volume and whether we can expect a Game Pass release (the answer is no) - AUTOMATON WEST
An interview with RGG Studio Director Masayoshi Yokoyama about the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and the recently released Like a Dragon Gaiden about sales, Game Pass and more.
automaton-media.com
─I should prepare myself. There’s another thing I’ve been curious about – can people expect Infinite Wealth to be available via Game Pass?
Yokoyama: At the moment, there are no plans for Infinite Wealth to come to Game Pass.
You often mention the Like a Dragon series’ growing overseas popularity, but this time it’s the domestic sales that stand out?
Yokoyama: Yes, domestic sales this time around are astonishing, I can really feel the series’ popularity reigniting in Japan. Gaiden might be our best-selling title in recent times.
──Congratulations! Did it exceed your expectations?
Yokoyama: It doubled my expectations. Frankly, up until the release, I wasn’t that confident in Gaiden in terms of sales.
──Why not?
Yokoyama: It’s not that I wasn’t confident in it as a game, but since we were working on Gaiden alongside Infinite Wealth, which is of a formidable quality and volume, I’d always end up comparing the two. Because of this, I wasn’t able to have complete confidence in Gaiden, and I wasn’t sure how players would react to it. I thought, what if they say things like, “This doesn’t count as a Like a Dragon game volume-wise!” or “The story’s too short!” (laughs). So, nobody on the team was expecting the reception to be this good.
──I see, so being conscious of Infinite Wealth is what caused the uncertainty.
Yokoyama:
There were two main goals I had with Like a Dragon: Gaiden. Among overseas players, there are many people who entered the series with Yakuza: Like a Dragon (in which Ichiban Kasuga is the protagonist) and don’t have a deep understanding of Kiryu Kazuma’s character, so Gaiden serves to help people get to know him and bridge the gap between titles. On the other hand, for players who have been with the series for a long time, Gaiden is a story they can really get emotionally invested in. These are the two goals I had going into the creation of Gaiden, and I think we’ve managed to pull off both.
──Now that you mention it, there were some voices of concern about Gaiden as a product due to talk of it originally being planned as DLC and everything. The play time is also significantly shorter than that of Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. So, in the end, how did players react to the new, “compact” form of Like a Dragon?
Yokoyama: It was extremely well received (laughs). Everyone’s telling me, “Make more games like this.” It came as a surprise to me, but many users who actually played the game told us they wanted more Gaiden-sized games from time to time. It’s made me think that a good approach could be to release smaller titles in-between of the main entry releases.
──I’m also one of the people wanting more (laughs). I feel like the popularity of Akame is particularly impressive this time around, with First Summer Uika (who plays Akame) hyping things up further with her Akame-related posts on social media. Although she is a naturally likeable character, how would you describe the reasons for her popularity?
Yokoyama: I think it’s because she brings something new to Like a Dragon’s line up of fiery-tempered characters. There have been many strong-willed and unyielding female characters in the series so far, but there haven’t been many such characters that don’t end up forming a close/romantic relationship with Kiryu. Akame is like a female version of the Florist of Sai, and she has a bit of Makoto Date inside her too.
In the first place, Like a Dragon titles always have a character that serves as a “guide,” and the guide is always a hit.
──By the way, how has Infinite Wealth been doing in terms of pre-orders?
Yokoyama: Quite well – I think we might break a record in terms of pre-orders.
──The Infinite Wealth demo being included as Gaiden’s bonus content might be contributing to that. It’s quite a long demo too.
Yokoyama: It’s long, but it’s still just a fraction of the real thing. Our idea was for people to think of the combination of Gaiden and the Infinite Wealth demo as one game. As for the full-length Infinite Wealth, it’s all about volume.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth hands-on report: a vacation worth taking
A hop over to Hawaii packs in plenty of charm, bucket list unlocks, a building sim, and much more.
blog.playstation.com
Last edited:
....
