Toshihiro Nagoshi

Nagoshi graduated from Tokyo Zokei University with a degree in movie production and joined Sega shortly thereafter, working for the second arcade department (AM2) at Sega under Yu Suzuki as a CG designer.[5] His first title was Virtua Racing as a designer. Afterwards he worked on Daytona USA, where he was made director. Daytona USA was the first game to use the Sega Model 2 arcade hardware which produced very advanced graphics and was developed jointly with General Electrics, which was located in the US. When Nagoshi payed them a visit, he happened to see a NASCAR race which inspired Daytona USA initially. In Japan, only F1 racing games were popular, however Nagoshi decided to not develop one. He cites this as his first instance to not follow a trend, something that he still pursues. He also says that he stayed persistent in creating a more difficult kind of game, despite what other people said. The development of Daytona USA brought great responsibility for Nagoshi as he was promoted into leadership positions relatively fast in comparision to anyone else. His next project, Scud Race became once again a very technologically advanced game, however due to expenses, made less money than Daytona USA, even tough it still made profit. Afterwards he mentioned he did not want to make any racing games anymore, thinking that he graduated from the genre. Shenmue was the last time he worked with AM2 and Yu Suzuki, he first was a supervisor on the project but was disatisfied with how the game went and asked for his own development division, which later became Amusement Vision. However he was called in by the CEO at the time to get the game finished, and as a result, he had to serve asproducer and director on the final months of development. He recognized that as one of the turning points in his career. After Shenmue, he moved back to arcade games with the game Spikeout, a cooperative beat em 'up with up to four players. It was well received by players, however arcade operators complained that it didn't bring in much money, due to the players not needing many credits if they properly work together.

Nagoshi became interrested in console development as a result of Sega leaving the hardware business. Specifically he was interrested in developing for Nintendo and acquired information about the Nintendo Gamecube at an early stage. The CEO of Sega complained that games became too expensive to make, and Nagoshi said that he can't really do anything about it. As a type of protest, he developed a very simple and inexpensive game that just needed a lever to control with no buttons, just to prove that it was possible. That game was Super Monkey Ball which initially launched as just Monkey Ball in the arcades. It didn't sell well in Japan, however became a hit overseas. The CEO was impressed, assuming that Nagoshi had the western market in mind, which Nagoshi didn't had at all. As a game developer, Nagoshi wanted to know how Nintendo worked, and wanted to be a sub-contractor for them. After some thought which Nintendo franchise he wanted to work on, Nagoshi ended up developing an entry for the F-Zero franchise, which was F-Zero GX. While Nagoshi could not convince Nintendo on several things, Nintendo was considerably impressed by the final product and demanded the source code of the game - as the game archived a much higher quality than they anticipated. The game also sold really well, which gave the team confidence in being a third party developer. When asked about the differences in how Nintendo and Sega developed games, he would sum it up with Sega being more flashy and having a more light-hearted attitude when it comes to new ideas. Nagoshi says that if he started working at Nintendo instead of Sega, he would of already quit the videogame industry.[6]

During the period of the PlayStation 2, the Japanese game development industry has started to lose relevance on a worldwide basis as they could not compete with the big budgets of Rockstar, EA and Activision. This is something Nagoshi has anticipated, so he did not try to compete and decided to double down on the Japanese market instead. With the game Ryu Ga Gotoku, which then was localized as Yakuza in western markets, the only market left was the Japanese male. The game had a difficult development cycle, as the first pitch was rejected by the higher-ups, due to expecting something different out of Nagoshi. At the time, Sega and Sammy merged to form Sega Sammy Holdings. The new owner and CEO of Sega Sammy, Hajime Satomi saw footage of Yakuza that was forcibly sneaked in a preview of upcoming Sega games, even tough it wasn't officially a project yet. Satomi took an interrest in it although the Sega executives were unhappy about this move. Through perseverance however, Nagoshi managed to get the project started. It was his most personal project, as the people in the game are often named after people that Nagoshi knew personally. The stories are also based on his real life experiences in dating, partying and overall just having fun.[7]

In 2012, Nagoshi developed Binary Domain, which was his desire to tell a science fiction story, while also developing a game that actively competed against popular western games at the time.[8] In 2014, Nagoshi was involved in the multimedia kids franchise, Hero Bank, a superhero game that has money as a very important theme despite being aimed at kids.[9]

With the 2016 game Yakuza 6: The Song of Life the story of Kazuma Kiryu ended. Nagoshi wants to continue to explore different types of drama and expand the overall playerbase further.

In what has been called "a brief moment of remarkable creativity", in 2000, Sega restructured its arcade and console development teams into nine semi-autonomous studios headed by the company's top designers.[10] Nagoshi became president of the studio Amusement Vision, and he was not sure on how to approach his new role at first. He thought that consistently making profit would be for the best. His approach worked, as he was promoted to officer along with Yuji Naka and Hisao Oguchi, who also ran profitable studios in the form Nakas Sonic Team and Oguchis Hitmaker. After a reorganization, the staff of Smilebit fell under Nagoshi responsibility. Amusement Vision and Smilebit had different cultures and strenghs, so Nagoshi thought it was the best for staff morale to start from scratch and to develop a new IP in the form of Yakuza. When developing the Yakuza franchise, Nagoshi learned the difference between nurturing one IP and making many types of genres during his time at Sega AM2 and Amusement Vision. He thought it was very valuable to see both sides.[6]

In February 2012 it was announced that Nagoshi would be promoted to the role of chief creative officer at Sega of Japan, as well as being appointed to the company's board of directors. He took up these positions on April 1, 2012.[11] In October 2013, once Sega Sammy purchased the bankrupt Index Corporation under the shell corporation, Sega Dream Corporation, Nagoshi was appointed as a member of the board of directors for the reformed Atlus.[12] Nagoshi has input into Sega's Japan strategy on consoles, where to put resources and where to put the final green light.[1] As CCO, Nagoshi keeps being close to the games that Sega develops and stays up to date on the newest systems and technologies, altough that is getting harder for him as he gets older. For the scripts of the Yakuza games, he still stays very involved, writing and adjusting whenever he feels like it.[13]

Nagoshi grew up in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi in a small port town. His upbringing was rather cold as he was closest to his grandmother than anyone else. His father was known to be in trouble with a lot of debt, therefore the other kids distanced themselfs from Nagoshi. It was in his interrest to leave his hometown for Tokyo and work hard to get into Tokyo Zekai University. The interrest for videogames and a career in videogame development was sparked when his girlfriend at the time gave him a Famicom with a copy of Super Mario Bros.. When he continously worked his way up at Sega and started earning his own money, he decided to go back to his hometown and repay all of his fathers debt. In a tragic event, a big fire burned down the house he grew up in, claiming the life of his grandmother. His parents were unscathed, however his mother suffered from huge mental issues due to the shock, and could not recognize her family anymore. Inmidst in all of this, Nagoshi bonded with his father more than ever before. This particular event gave Nagoshi inspiration for the storytelling in Yakuza.[14]

Asked about his personal appearence, fashion style and how it changed over time, Nagoshi says he adapts to what his current girlfriend is into.[15]