In a recent forum, the game designer referred to GTA as a game in which you can “kill people or do whatever”. It’s not that Nagoshi used this forum to trash talk GTA — far from it. Instead, he touched on the larger issues at hand, such as what does it mean to make a game that can let players do whatever they want. Is this dangerous?

“This game,” the SEGA R&D head said about GTA, “I thought one day someone is going to have to make something like this. Personally, because I think you must think about the influence games have on people, I would never think about wanting to make a game like this. However, because of this moral issues in this game, I think we should have a healthy debate.

“In gaming, if you make a decision, there is a reaction, and it’s the most stimulating form of media, I think. And thus, it can asked if it’s the most dangerous media… Depending on what you make, perhaps.”

Besides developing Yakuza, Nagoshi works on Super Monkey Ball games and his tan.

セガ名越氏が語る『龍が如く』とゲーム倫理の問題 [Famitsu via jin] [Pic]

SEGA is offering the winner Toshihiro Nagoshi, designer of the Yakuza franchise and Super Monkey Ball, as the winner’s “customer for a day ticket”. We imagine that Nagoshi will visit the winner’s hostess bar, spend loads of money on booze and smoke an endless stream of cigarettes. Nice pointer finger ring!

If Nagoshi were our customer for a day, we’d make him bring the last Yakuza game to the West. Oh, we’d probably ask him for eyebrown, sorry, eyebrow trimming advice, too.

Of the PS3’s motion controller, the alleged Sega document says (and remember, this is neither confirmed, nor from Sony):

Motion Controller
• Spring 2010 launch (March in JP)
• No bundle/pricing details yet, should come Sept 1
• Plan on selling 4-5MM units WW
• SCEA agreed to provide a list of Sega IP that would work well with the motion controller, Virtua Tennis was an example
• Motion Controller support allows easy way to differentiate PS3 SKU
• Other differentiation opportunities include PSP/PS3 interoperability – think of features that would make users want to buy both PS3 and PSP SKUs.

Spring 2010, we knew, but March 2010 in Japan is the first time a date has been attached to the peripheral. It’s also the first time we’ve seen an actual game linked with the device (though again, it’s important to remember that this document is neither confirmed, nor an official plan of attack from Sony).

Interestingly, the document also contains mention of a PlayStation Network “import store”. Once again, remember, this is just Sega and Sony talking business, so this may not happen.

But enogh disclaimers! The document says Sega “could put Japanese games directly on PSN for download in a special Japanese Import section (pricing $US9.99 to $US39.99 for full game)”. Specific mention is made of the Yakuza series, and how Sega “might need to localize menus at least with subtitles”.

Discussions and rumours or not, that would be an exciting prospect for a lot of people round these parts.

At time of writing, we’re still yet to hear from Sega or Sony on the matter.

Popping into the comments section of a post on the PlayStation Blog, Sega of America assistant community manager Aaron Webber has said “Yakuza 3 is not cancelled – and the possibility for localizing it does, in fact, still exist.”

“The original news story that went around about Yakuza 3 being declined for the US was false, and localizing the game still remains a big point of discussion for many people here at SEGA, and especially those of us on SEGA’s community team.”

“I know it’s far from an announcement, but I just felt you should know that the chance does still exist.”

Nice. For what it’s worth, here’s what we’ve heard: that Sega are looking for somebody else to localise the game, take the risk, similar to how Capcom handles the release of GTA in Japan.

Valkyria Chronicles II – Coming to PSP Next Summer [PlayStation, via 1UP]

There were 1,500 applicants, and semi-finalists appeared in an online poll, including curvy pin-up model Chiri Arikawaand porn star Rio, star of blue movies like the incest themed Sister’s Secret and the self-descriptive Non-stop F–king!.

Out of that, sixteen ladies appeared in a “final” audition, judged by Ryu Ga Gotoku creator Toshihiro Nagoshi, members of the Ryu Ga Gotoku team, rocker George Takahashi who lent his voice to the game and hostess-slash-magazine-modelSayaka Araki.

This final audition seems to be an excuse to march all the girls out in evening wear. As selected by the judges and SEGA, the girls appearing in Ryu Ga Gotoku 4 are Kyoto’s Erena Aihara, ballerina Noa Mizutani, Osaka bar hostess Himeka Kawasaki, Shizuoka college student Chihiro Ikki, 28-year-old Suzuka Saitou, magazine model Maya Mori, and porn star Rio.

Chiba native Eri Arimura was awarded a special prize won’t be appearing in game, it seems, but rather, will be doing Ryu Ga Gotoku 4 promotional work as the game’s “cheerleader”.

セガ、PS3「龍が如く4 伝説を継ぐもの」キャバクラ嬢役最終オーディションで7名+1名が選出 [GAME Watch]

Only on his new job for about two and a half weeks, Mike Hayes is the man who now oversees Sega West, the combined domain of Sega of America and Sega of Europe and the man who I asked yesterday to define, if such a term is possible, “Sega-ness.”

Hayes, who formerly had been running just Sega of Europe and years before that was at Nintendo, was taking meetings in New York on the penthouse floor of a midtown Manhattan hotel. Based in London, he was paying a visit to the territory added to his portfolio. Around him, in adjacent rooms, a line-up with a diversity that make even Sega’s innovative line-ups of its old Genesis and Dreamcast eras look homogeneous was illuminating TV screens. A few doors in one direction were Aliens Vs. Predator and espionage role-playing game Alpha Protocol. In the other, beyond more than half a dozen other distinct games, were Daisy Fuentes Pilates and a Sonic kart-racing game.

Is there an essence of Sega that unifies the company’s games? Something that a gamer unaware of the company logos on game boxes might still sense as a unifying aspect of Sega’s games?

“In some cases, but not all,” Hayes said, answering this early question with the thoughtfulness and lack of diplomatic self-censorship with which he’d field all of my questions. “When we are trying to do core games like Aliens Vs. Predator from Rebellion, I don’t think you’ll find any Seganess in that. However, there are a lot of games that we do do—whether it be particularly with our old intellectual property, like Monkey Ball, like with Mario and Sonic and … things like Let’s Tap—it’s that kind of slight risk-taking that Sega was renowned for as innovators that we still do and we still intend to do.”

Such a publisher winds up having to field from an outlet like this one questions as wide-ranging as the fate of its Aliens licence, its Sonic line and its heritage as a hardware maker. More on some of that later this week, but here’s our first batch of updates.

Aliens is one of the murkier Sega topics. The company announced in 2006 that it would publish three games based on the famous chest-bursting movie monsters. Sega showed Aliens Vs. Predator at this event, demonstrating how games can play as a human marines or a Predator. Still under wraps is what playing like an Alien will be like. But this game wasn’t expected to be the first Aliens game from Sega. That was going to be the Gearbox-developed Aliens: Colonial Marines shooter or the now-canceled Obsidian-developed Aliens RPG.

“The Gearbox project was moving along,” Hayes said, recalling when the decision was made to take Colonial Marines out of the lead position. The game wasn’t as far along as Aliens Vs. Predator, which originally wasn’t backed by Sega. It was being made by Rebellion for publisher Vivendi, until that support ceased following Vivendi’s 2008 merger with Activision. “There was an opportunity for us to take that.” Its development progress put Gearbox’s game into the second slot, to be released “a good period after” AvP, according to Hayes. The RPG won’t be third because “it just wasn’t coming along to the plan that we thought.”

Might the newly announced, Ridley Scott Alien prequel project be a source of Aliens inspiration for Sega? “We’re quite excited about that and buzzing from the news of that,” Hayes said. But of the third game, Hayes would only say, ” We’d like to think we’ll be doing a third project but at the moment we haven’t confirmed what the third project will be.”

Another hyped grouping of Sega games has been its trio of Wii games targeted to the demographic of gamers that prefers a good headshot or chainsaw kill to an interactive sit-up routine: House of the Dead Overkill, MadWorld and The Conduit. Hayes views their fortunes as mixed. Sales reports don’t show blockbuster numbers for any of the games, but Hays said, “I just don’t think, categorically, that you can therefore conclude that mature games won’t work on Wii.”

Hayes deemed profane Grindhouse-style in-rails shooter House of the Dead: Overkill a “big success in Europe,” even though it performed less spectacularly in America. Hayes said the game’s budget-priced Wii predecessor, which compiled two earlier games in the series, continues to do well, suggesting there’s a future to this line. “We’re still very keen on the House of the Dead franchise.”

The Conduit can also be deemed a success, Hayes said, qualifying its performance as a solid one in a season that has seen a pre-holiday Wii hardware and software “dip.” The company has shipped 300,000 copies of the game worldwide and sold through more than half of them to gamers, about 100,000 in the U.S., according to figures from Segaof America VP of marketing, Sean Ratcliffe who attended our interview.

It is the mostly black-and-white, hyper-violent MadWorld that Hayes dubbed a “disappointment” for reasons he can’t yet nail down. “It could be the consumers didn’t like the art style,” he said. “It could be the consumers had enough Mature-rated games to play on 360 and PS3 and didn’t need a new experience on Wii.”

Hayes sums up the mixed success of those titles with a sanguine recognition that any grouping of games will have its hit, its flop and some in-between performers. “That’s video games,” he said. And it’s not the end of this Wii gamer narrative from Sega. ” You will see more—I wouldn’t say Mature as in M—but you will definitely see more hardcore games from us on the Wii platform.”

MadWorld was part of a second grouping of Sega titles, those developed by Platinum Games, the company led mainly by former design stars at Capcom. Bayonetta, now releasing in early 2010 in the U.S. will be the second, along with DS game Infinite Space. Hayes said there will be at least two more Platinum Games titles published by Sega beyond that, but wouldn’t provide details nor confirm if either of those is the previously-announced game being developed by heralded Japanese game maker Shinji Mikami.

One of the biggest hits for Sega in Japan has been its Yakuza series, a line of story-driven brawlers set, mostly, in modern Tokyo and crafted with the help of a Japanese crime novelist and Toshihiro Nagoshi, the classically eclectic Sega developer who also dreamed up the kid-friendly Super Monkey Ball. Yakuza may be the Japanese series that most closely matches the urban antisocial vibe of the Grand Theft Auto series, but its two PlayStation 2 releases in America have sold poorly. A third PS2 Yakuza was not brought to America. A current-gen game, Yakuza 3, made its mark in Japan in February. The third is absent from Sega’s announced U.S. release schedule. “We’re looking into it,” Hayes said, remarking that it would require “massive localisation” work and that, yes, he’s aware of the dedicated fans here clamouring for its release.

Hayes answered that Yakuza question outside of our interview, truth be told. We’d wrapped up. I was at the other end of the penthouse, preparing to play Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics after commandeering Luigi on bobsled I saw Hayes and had to ask. Imagine the ability to transition from playing character-mascot Olympics to a discussion of a crime-filled city adventure, all without leaving the same publisher’s demo hotel suite: Maybe that is the definition of “Sega-ness”

You’ve seen the publicity stills. You’ve seen the finalist. You’ve seen just how brown Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza) creator Toshihiro Nagoshi is. Now watch the Ryu Ga Gotoku 4 audition trailer.

Just look at Nagoshi examine those applications. This is serious stuff!

As we previously posted, it will use the latest motion capture technology so that not only the actor’s voice will appear in the game, but 3D models of them as them in character.

SEGA has released pics of Hiroki Narimiya and Kenta Kiritani getting their faces scanned for the game. That “latest motion capture tech” is a scanner from Cyberware. More info here!

セガ、PS3「龍が如く4 伝説を継ぐもの」正式タイトル決定！キャスト第1弾も発表 [Game Watch]

Nagoshi purchased Dragon Quest IX. What does he think? He says it’s easy to get into and the interface is good. “It’s a much better match for handhelds than home consoles,” he blogs.

In short, he adds, it’s a “feel good” title, and a game he can learn from. How could you not believe a man that glows golden brown?

ドラクエ9 [名越稔洋オフィシャルブログ「とりあえず乾杯デショ。」]

Finalist Rio is one of the 16 to be in the running for a slot in the game. According to her personal blog, which is linked on the SEGA site, Rio works in the adult industry, starring in titles like Rio is a Squirting Young Wife and Let’s Have Sex at School>

The 22 year-old was known as Tina Yuzuki prior to 2007.

While the blog SEGA links is certainly NSFW, the safe-for-work video features Rio talking to the camera in hopes that she is selected. “I can become friendly with anyone,” says Rio.

Well, yeah.

Good luck to her and the other finalists!

「龍が如く」次回作 キャバクラ嬢役オーディションWeb一般投票開始！ [SEGA via はちま起稿]