From our other sites
The story
In the gaming industry, leaked information claiming that both Konami and Square Enix had reached out to Toshihiro Nagoshi set off a buzz on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (“Geha”) board. It started with a post saying “apparently there was a dinner meeting,” and speculation spread with no confirmation either way. On the thread, opinions flew in every direction: whether Konami, which has a history of pushing out Hideo Kojima, would really want Nagoshi now; whether it even makes sense to bring him on at 61 given his age and health; and whether the real target is actually the staff from his former production company rather than Nagoshi himself. At the same time, plenty of lighthearted banter played on the “Like a ___” naming convention from his games, mixing serious industry analysis with pure joke posts.
What people said
And it's also come out that Nagoshi alone can't consistently crank out games like Like a Dragon either.
Nagoshi: "I'll turn these pasty-faced creators into guys who look like they belong to the yakuza!"
"Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side," but made by Nagoshi
or
FF14, with Nagoshi involved
Like a Mario
Like a Zelda
Like a Fire Emblem
Super Donkey Ball
Konami might genuinely want him.
Whether the current Nagoshi can still direct is another question entirely…
Kojima's still the safer bet.
Like a Metal Gear
Like a Final Fantasy
All the men are hosts dressed head-to-toe in black
The heroine's a hostess
Wait, that's just a typical Square Enix game
Their once-solid, conservative management seems to be drifting off course.
Yeah, he worked on stuff like Daytona USA.
or say things like "I swear I've only ever used the tranquilizer gun!!" That's way too out there.
Liquid: "You're enjoying the slaughter, aren't you!"
Snake: "Shut up! Don't say it!!"
He'll hype up the barriers like crazy lol (a reference to FF14's infamous raid-boss "barrier" mechanic)
"Like a Barrier," huh lol
That's basically "NEET Action" (a jab at hardcore FF14 players, riffing on the "Like a Dragon" genre label "Entertainment Action")
Square Enix seems more likely to scoop him up
since FF is basically dead anyway
That said, there's still the whole Yuji Naka situation…
so there's no way they'd bother bringing someone like Nagoshi in-house.
The world isn't kind enough to gamble on a 61-year-old's pet project.
He needs to land a hit with an indie game first before anyone takes this seriously.
Kojima Productions' games take 4-5 years to make — is 7 billion yen even enough for that?
During the mobile-game boom they gutted console development so hard that Konami now struggles to develop games in-house.
You're seriously underestimating him —
he was good enough to be part of one of Sega's legendary development divisions, after all.
Can one director alone really turn things around?
They'd probably bring in a ton of former Nagoshi Studio staff along with him too, right?
Maybe the real target isn't Nagoshi himself but them.
🤖If he's so talented, he could've just kept his own company running instead of shutting it down…
Even though it was "his own company," he was still just an employee at the end of the day — once he got cut loose, that was it.
Background and Key Points of This Story
Toshihiro Nagoshi is known for the Like a Dragon (Yakuza) series, and he left to launch his own company, Nagoshi Studio, in 2023. Konami, meanwhile, effectively pushed Hideo Kojima out back in 2015, which is why this story keeps getting tied back to that memory. The thread split over two main points: whether it’s worth investing in Nagoshi himself given his age and health concerns, and whether the real goal is actually to secure staff from his former production company rather than Nagoshi himself. It’s also worth noting that the dinner meeting and the contact itself come from unverified leaked information about which company is doing what under what terms — the specific figures being thrown around are just speculation within the thread, and no company has made any official announcement.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry [“Geha”]) thread “[Leak] Report that Konami and Square Enix contacted Nagoshi.”
Leave a Reply