14 DAY TRIAL // One of the leading developers creating video games for the current generation of home consoles believes that in the coming years portable gaming devices, like the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita, will sell better than the next generation of the PlayStation and the Xbox 360.
Speaking to CVG Toshihiro Nagoshi, who is one of the producers working on the Yakuza series, has said, “Consoles – PS3, PS4, Xbox 360-2 – the market for those will get smaller, and the main market will become portable games.
“I don’t think consoles will disappear, but more and more people will use home PCs for gaming, and a long time in the future it will just be PCs and mobile phones, and eventually mobiles will become just as powerful as games consoles.”
The developer also believes that the big revolution for gaming is to do away with traditional controllers and create a new way of interacting with virtual experience.
He believes that the company which creates the new mechanics will emerge victorious when it comes to sales of the next gaming device.
The future plans of the developers are still linked to traditional hardware at the moment, saying, “At the very least I am committed to Yakuza remaining a game for Sony hardware. I feel like we grew up together. When we were deciding which platform was right, it was PlayStation 2. I wanted it to be on the number one platform, so I didn’t think twice before approaching Sony.”
He also revealed that initially Sony thought that the Yakuza series was much too niche, but the development team managed to persuade them that a large group of gamers will be interested in the experience.
Yakuza has been a big hit both on the Japanese market and in the West and the development team and publisher SEGA are currently working on a new console game, Yakuza 5, and on a spin-off which will be launched on the PlayStation Portable.
Nagoshi was also the leading producer on the recently launched team-based shooter Binary Domain.