Lost Judgment going worldwide has been a burden to its developers, as its producer claims that it “tripled the struggles” of their entire dev team.
Lost Judgment has a ton of extra complications on it, making the game harder on the devs themselves. According to an interview, producer Kazuki Hosokawa became a pain to its devs as it became the first Yakuza title to have a simultaneous worldwide release.
Same-day worldwide release created more work
In his interview with Inverse, Hosokawa noted that the same-day worldwide gave his team quite the workload. Japanese studios generally do their video games differently than Western studios. Their work usually prioritizes local release first.
Once they release in Japan, most studios start work on their worldwide release. These take time but cuts down on the stress for their team. Same-day worldwide release will weigh down the devs as there is more localization work needed for the game.
“It tripled the struggles for the entire development staff,” explained Hosokawa. “Up until now, we have been focusing on the Japanese market and creating products with how we were going to promote it already in mind.
“However, for Lost Judgment, we knew from the start we wanted to strive for a simultaneous global release, so we had to think about what would be appropriate for the product and how to convey the appeal of the product in each region.”
Dev teams stayed despite extra work
Despite the extra workload that the devs got for Lost Judgment, a paradox somehow happened to the team. Their dev numbers did not decline, with turnover rate staying low throughout the game’s creation. They were even able to bring in new staff through development.
“It’s all about being aware of the goals and motivation, and then dedication and ingenuity,” added Hosokawa. “The ongoing relationship of the development team also plays a significant role.
“Having a team with such a strong mutual understanding is definitely a strength. That is probably why we continue to pursue production and quality at our current pace.”
Lost Judgment is the sequel to the 2018 Yakuza spin-off. Judgment. The game received its official reveal last month, coming out for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. There is no information right now if it will come out for the PC.
In addition to the well-known Kamurocho, the game will be bringing players to Yokohama. Takayuki Yagami returns as the series protagonist as he goes undercover at a high school. Lost Judgment is coming on September 24 this year.
Featured image courtesy of Playstation/Youtube Screenshot