SEGA Chief Creative Officer Toshihiro Nagoshi will leave the Board of Directors on 1 April. Yakuza fans will be glad to know that he will stick around as a creative director for the video game company.
As it so happens, Nagoshi has been an OTAQUEST interviewee on a couple of different occasions. Here’s the first part of his 2019 interview with EXILE SEKAI:
He was also a major part of last year’s OTAQUEST CONNECT Virtual Otaku Convention.
Of course, Nagoshi would not be a frequent OTAQUEST guest if he wasn’t an important part of video game history. He has been with SEGA in various capacities since 1989. During that time, he has been involved with a wide range of SEGA games, from Daytona USA to Super Monkey Ball. He has held many titles: chief designer, game director, producer, supervisor, design director, general director, executive director, etc.
More recently, he was the leader of Ryu ga Gotoku Studios, which develops the Yakuza franchise for SEGA.
Coincidentally, the dude also shares the same birthday as me (17 June).
According to reports, Nagoshi’s move from CCO to creative director is part of an overall shake-up at the top of SEGA. SEGA will apparently separate the video game half of the company from other amusements, such as pachinko. In addition to Sonic the Hedgehog, Yakuza and other video games, the company also does UFO catchers and collaboration cafes, which does sound like an oddball combination.
(Admittedly, Japanese companies have been known to build planes and cars; or operate railways and department stores. But not always under the same roof.)