Toshihiro Nagoshi on what makes Nintendo amazing, differences in ways of making games from SEGA

Toshihiro Nagoshi has worked on many high-profile IPs throughout his time at SEGA. These days he’s known for the Yakuza series, but he also created Super Monkey Ball and was a producer on F-Zero GX.

In an interview with Famitsu, Nagoshi highlighted the differences between how Nintendo and SEGA make games. He also touched on what he feels was so amazing about Nintendo. Here’s the excerpt, courtesy of Siliconera:

Are they that different?

Nagoshi: “Completely different. Thanks to that I was able to see what Sega was missing, and also see Sega’s good points. Although if you had to ask which one’s the right answer, I’d have to say that there’s no correct answer. As expected, both companies had their own culture.”

To go into detail, what was so amazing about Nintendo?

Nagoshi: “Their way of thinking towards holisticness and versatility was rock-solid. They didn’t really care about “whether things had a convenient excuse” or not. Being inclusive for everyone was something already assumed from the start, and this was something that was set in stone. Furthermore, this sort of thinking was found practiced by everyone from the top brass to the newcomers. It wasn’t just something said by the higher-ups and never practiced. Their unity is amazing. I thought, “If they have this way of thinking, no wonder Sega wasn’t able to beat them on hardware.””

So it was like, “As expected of Nintendo”.

Nagoshi: “Compared to Nintendo, Sega is a more “flashy” company. But because we’re more “flashy”, we’re able to go at ideas with a more lighthearted attitude. If we didn’t have this sort of attitude, I don’t think I would have been able to keep working here. Perhaps if I had joined Nintendo, I would have left this industry long ago.” (laugh)