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RGG Studio boss says Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii was developed in mere months

Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii was developed in just a few months, according to its Chief Producer, allowing a quick follow-up from 2024's Infinite Wealth

[Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii screenshot]

Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii was developed quickly(Image: Sega)

As we covered in our preview, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is every bit as bonkers as you'd expect from a game with that many seemingly disparate words in the game's title.

The first entry in the Like A Dragon/Yakuza series to star Goro Majima as the main protagonist, this time he's off creating carnage on the high seas, wielding cutlasses and summoning dark gods and shadowy doppelgangers (yes, really).

With such a surreal take on the series, you may be wondering how it's launching just over a year since the last entry, Infinite Wealth. We had the chance to ask Hiroyuki Sakamoto, Chief Producer on the game, for a rough development timeline.

Here's how long it took to make Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

[Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii]

Majima's adventure started development just a few months ago(Image: Sega)

Speaking at the Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii hands-on preview event, Sakamoto-san was asked about the length of time it took to develop the title.

"About the same amount of time as the Man Who Erased His Name," he revealed.

"A little bit less than a year, but a little bit more than six months. We started in September of 2023."

That's a very short turnaround for a title that feels pretty ambitious in scope. For context, The Man Who Erased His Name was developed at the same time as last year's Infinite Wealth, and reportedly took a little over six months to develop.

How did the team manage it? As Sakamoto-san explains, much of what was found in Infinite Wealth is also in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, similarly to the way earlier games reused parts of Kamurocho.

"We have Hawaii in this game and all the areas that were in Infinite Wealth, so there's tons of mini games, tons of what you've already seen in our game.

"So it's not like we have built a game around this [pirate theme] specifically. We have all of that stuff that we're used to in our game."

For more on Like A Dragon, be sure to check out Sakamoto-san's comments on the game being a good way to onboard new players to the series.

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