Sega CS R&D Dept. No. 1, also known as Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, is a Japanese video game developer and part of Sega. The studio is famous for creating the Like a Dragon series of games, which it is named after since the release of Yakuza 5, and the Super Monkey Ball series.
The studio was originally established as Sega AM11 in 1998. In 1999, it was renamed to R&D4 or AM4. Toshihiro Nagoshi led the team. He joined Sega AM2 in 1989 and is credited with creating the arcade games Daytona USA and Virtua Striker. However, Virtua Striker is officially attributed to another developer, Satoshi Mifune. Nagoshi requested his own development team during the creation of Shenmue.
In 2000, AM4 was reformed as Amusement Vision. The studio became well-known for Super Monkey Ball and F-Zero GX. Over the next few years, several organizational changes occurred. In 2003, non-sports staff from Smilebit merged with Amusement Vision. A year later, Sega and Sammy combined to form Sega Sammy Holdings. Amusement Vision was then renamed to New Entertainment R&D Dept. The first Like a Dragon game, Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!, was released under this name.
From Yakuza 3 to Yakuza: Dead Souls, the team was referred to as Sega's CS1 team. The first game to use the RGG logo was Binary Domain, released in Japan in February 2012. Over time, the RGG Studio logo became a consistent brand identity. The current version of the logo was introduced when Yakuza Kiwami 2 was announced for release in the West in 2018. The studio's logo and name are now widely recognized internationally as part of Sega. Studio leader Masayoshi Yokoyama explains that the name is not a separate company but a nickname for a development team within Sega.
History
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Toshihiro Nagoshi joined Sega in 1989 as a designer. As Sega began developing 3D games such as Virtua Racing, he was able to apply his knowledge of film in choosing the right camera angles in three dimensional spaces, something that the other team members had no experience with. Nagoshi became producer, director and chief designer of Daytona USA, which became one of the most successful arcade games of all time. Next he worked on another racing game, Scud Race, which, while successful, did not make as much money as Daytona USA. Nagoshi felt pressure to constantly deliver racing games as he became known for the genre in the company. He developed SpikeOut, which he described as a "personal rebellion" as it was a character based action game where players could play for a long time with just one credit, though profits for arcade operators suffered. Nagoshi requested his own development division during the development of Shenmue.
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 creators. In 2000, Toshihiro Nagoshi was the president of AV (Amusement Vision). Nagoshi chose the name because he was fond of the term "vision," and amusement was the core market of the studio. AV refers to Adult Video in Japan, however Nagoshi thinks with all adult videos being streamed in the future, people will instead think of amusement video when they see AV. Speaking about initial plans for AV, Nagoshi wanted to make original games in addition to sequels. He also was not fond of doing ports of arcade games, believing console and arcade games should be developed separately and in mind for their target market. Of the nine studios that Sega established, AV was the smallest, with about 50 employees.
Nagoshi devised the concept of rolling spheres through mazes based on his desire to create a game that was instantly possible to understand and play, as a contrast to increasingly complex games at Japanese arcades at the time. Another desire for developing the game was to prove that games can be successful without a huge budget, which was a particular complaint from Sega's CEO at the time.
AV developed it initially as an arcade game, Monkey Ball. Monkey Ball was first released in Japanese arcades in June 2001, and then received an upgraded version — Super Monkey Ball — as a GameCube launch game in all regions. After the success of the first Super Monkey Ball, it spawned a direct sequel on the GameCube. Following that, a collaboration with Nintendo happened. AV would develop F-Zero GX in a contracted development, while Nintendo would be responsible for the supervision, production and publishing of their IP. In the end, Nintendo was impressed with the product, considering it a step forward for the F-Zero franchise.
Amusement Vision consistently produced high selling games and was profitable every year. Nagoshi was promoted within Sega along with Yuji Naka and Hisao Oguchi who also ran profitable studios in the form of Naka's Sonic Team and Oguchi's Hitmaker. When Oguchi became company president in 2003, he announced his intention to consolidate Sega's studios into "four or five core operations." As part of the consolidation, the non-sports staff of Smilebit, developers of games like Jet Set Radio Future and Panzer Dragoon Orta on Xbox, were absorbed by Amusement Vision. Smilebit was considered to be less commercially successful than AV and also focused more on the console market, but had high technical skills. Nagoshi had to think about how to use everyone's skill to the best of their ability. When the idea of a game portraying the Japanese underworld came about from Nagoshi, Masayoshi Kikuchi who previously worked on the Jet Set Radio series at Smilebit, agreed to the concept. Coincidentally he was watching yakuza type movies and also had a desire to turn that type of atmosphere into a game. By 2004, AV had about 124 employees.
During 2004, Sammy Corporation bought a controlling share in Sega and created the new company Sega Sammy Holdings, an entertainment conglomerate. Since then, Sega and Sammy became subsidiaries of the aforementioned holding company, with both companies operating independently, while the executive departments merged. Prior to the acquisition by Sammy, Sega began the process of re-integrating its subsidiaries into the main company, which was completed by October 2004. Sega would also restructure the development studios again, consolidating the divisions further into the Global Entertainment, Amusement Software, and New Entertainment R&D divisions.
By 2005, most Amusement Vision members were located at the New Entertainment R&D Dept. The first Like a Dragon game had a difficult development cycle, as the first pitch was rejected by the higher-ups, due to expecting something different out of Nagoshi. The CEO of Sega Sammy, Hajime Satomi saw footage of Like a Dragon that was forcibly sneaked in a preview of upcoming Sega games, in spite of that it wasn't officially a project yet. Satomi took an interest in it, though the Sega executives were unhappy about this move. Through perseverance however, Nagoshi managed to get the project started.
The project was risky as there was no estimate on how the market would accept a game aimed at only adult Japanese males, based in the Japanese underworld. The highest estimate was only 70,000 copies in Japan. However, over time, the game sold over 1 million copies. Nagoshi said that it gave the team confidence to press on and continue to evolve it into a series. The staff from Amusement Vision and Smilebit worked on many different console and arcade games, and they had confidence in their genres and careers. However, Like a Dragon did not match any of their past experiences, which Nagoshi saw as them all playing on a level playing field. Every element of the game had to go through Nagoshi first, because only he had a concrete idea of how the game was supposed to end up. However, some staff did not like the uncertain nature and overall pressure of the project, and ended up quitting. When the game grew into a franchise, the staff gained more freedom and independence in regards to which elements to put into the game, due to established rules by Nagoshi. Therefore, the games became more varied as the series went on. The initial target audience was adult Japanese males but over time, the series audience expanded into females and also overseas players, though the primary target audience still remains the adult Japanese males.
Nagoshi says that the development team of the Like a Dragon series always needs to have a sense of challenge. For Yakuza 2, they first thought about having a two-year development cycle, but after discussion, it was thought that releasing and developing the game just one year later would be better to keep audiences attention, though it meant more work for them. For the first spin-off Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!, the team initially made fun of their goal of making the game for the new PlayStation 3 while also moving to a different setting. However, they managed to make it in just a year and a bit, and the staff felt refreshed. The team held seminars in Japan explaining how to develop an HD game in 10 months.
While certain things have become routine, each game is still hard work for the team, but the fanbase keeps Nagoshi motivated. Nagoshi explains that the fast release schedule of one game per year with a massive amount of content is based on the team's desire to constantly keep delivering the fans with not just what they want, but also to surprise them.
The release of Yakuza 0 led to an increase in international recognition of the series. While previous localized installments did not always meet sales expectations, Yakuza 0, being a prequel, made it an easy jumping-in point for new fans as well as the localization expertise of recently merged Atlus US.
Marketing
The RGG Studio logo was created in late August 2011 and was first used to promote the game Binary Domain in Japan in February 2012. RGG Studio works directly with customers by communicating with fans through social media and in-person events. This approach is different from businesses that rely only on stores and online platforms, which is common for B2B companies.
Issues and controversies with real life actors
Before the release of Yakuza 4 Remastered in Japan in 2018, Sega changed the voice actor and appearance of one of the game’s playable characters. The character, originally voiced and modeled after Hiroki Narimiya, had to be recast after the actor announced his retirement from acting in 2016 due to drug-related issues.
Sega released Judgment in Japan on December 13, 2018. Sales of the game were temporarily stopped on March 13, 2019, after Pierre Taki, the actor whose voice and appearance were used for the character Kyohei Hamura, was arrested for using cocaine. Officers from the Narcotics Control Department (NCD) of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare investigated Taki since 2018 after receiving tips from unknown sources. He was later found guilty and sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the sentence was suspended for three years. Sega replaced Pierre Taki with a new actor and model, and sales of the game resumed. The Western version of the game also uses the new actor’s likeness.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties, a remake of Yakuza 3 released on February 12, 2026, faced criticism from people in Western countries after a game trailer was released. This was due to the game’s association with Japanese actor Teruyuki Kagawa, who was accused of sexually harassing two women in 2019. In 2022, he admitted to kissing, touching, and removing the bra of one of the women. Sega and RGG Studios have not responded to the criticism.