Yakuza/ Like a Dragon is everyone's favourite oddball action game/ RPG/ life-sim these days, but Sega apparently completely rejected the first time pitches for the first game.
It took a while, but I think at this point it's pretty safe to say that the Yakuza series, or the Like a Dragon series as it's now been rebranded to, is one of the most beloved game series in the industry. That's definitely in part thanks to some strong localisations with prequels like Yakuza 0, remakes like Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2, and the shift to an RPG format with Yakuza: Like a Dragon. While it didn't hit the highs of titles like Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth still did very well for itself on Steam at its launch, so the series is clearly here to stay. However, in an interview with Weekly Ochiai (as translated by Automaton), former Sega chief creative officer and Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi shared that Sega rejected his pitches for the series to start.
Nagoshi explained that when he first started thinking about pitching the Yakuza series in the early 2000s, Sega was finding it difficult to release globally successful games. "This led to a mindset of making games that would appeal to the masses, games that could sell anywhere and to anyone," Nagoshi said. "Many producers, including myself, thought this way.