With the news of Denki Groove frontman Pierre Taki’s arrest still so fresh at heart, we’re still seeing a number of comments shared about his case. The latest comes from SEGA’s own Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of Judgment in which Pierre Taki’s arrest resulted in a total pull from shelves across Japan. Shared during SEGA’s latest SEGA Nama broadcast where Toshihiro Nagoshi was interviewed about a number of topics, obviously including the game being pulled and Taki’s arrest.
Initially reported by Siliconera, the discussion about Pierre Taki’s arrest and Judgment’s removal from store shelves begins around the 6:21 mark. Nagoshi recalls the night the news broke and initially seeing it on Yahoo News (Yahoo is generally one of the more relevant outlets out here) before describing what would end up being a very troublesome night. He says from the moment that he saw the headline his phone started ringing like wildfire, and it didn’t take more than several calls for him to eventually start yelling “I KNOW” into the phone.
Given Nagoshi’s high-ranking position within SEGA, there was a lot more for him to discuss than his game alone. It was an early decision to pull the game from stores in Japan, he shares. In saying that, Nagoshi then doubles down and says that in this kind of situation there is no right or wrong call and that he won’t disagree with anyone who says the removal was “taking things too far”. This has been a common cry in all fields that Pierre Taki worked, especially with the removal of all Denki Groove music from the public eye overnight.
There’s a whole lot more discussion about Judgment included in the interview, and it’s definitely worth a watch if you’ve got the time. Still set to release internationally on June 25, 2019 (with the removal and replacement of Pierre Taki’s in-game character model and voice), Judgment will be made available exclusively on PlayStation 4. Those interested in checking out further information can head over to the game’s official website.