Today in “developers benefiting from good decision-making,” Tokyo Xtreme Racer producer Takatoshi Sato and development manager Toshihiko Sato have revealed that the racing series’ big 2025 comeback didn’t actually start out as a full-price, PC and console game.
Ending an almost 20-year hiatus in Genki’s popular franchise, Tokyo Xtreme Racer released on Steam in September 2025, after spending about eight months in Early Access. The game sold so well it turned around the company’s three-year deficit, and to capitalize on the momentum, Genki launched a PS5 version last month (with a playable truck, no less). Commemorating the release, the developers recently gave an interview to Famitsu, sharing some behind-the-scenes development insight.
According to Tokyo Xtreme Racer’s producer Sato, the game went through an overhaul before becoming what it is today. “Originally, we started development on the project as a mobile game, to align with modern trends in the market. However, after much trial and error, we realized it wasn’t feeling “TXR-like” enough, and it just wasn’t coming together well. So, we switched our target platform to Steam and consoles, and made significant changes in direction and content.” Apparently, this led to significant organizational changes in the development team just a few months before the Early Access launch last year.
Regarding the abandoned initial idea, development lead Toshihiko Sato adds, “One of our themes was to make a game you can drive in forever, but playing past installments made us realize once again that mechanics like tire wear and loss of engine power were crucial for the series.” He says these were just some of several points that made the team realize they weren’t on the right track.
Going forward, the developers wish to repay Tokyo Xtreme Racer’s players for their enthusiasm with continued updates and improvements, as well as potential paid DLC that’s currently under consideration. While they’re also quite interested in developing a full-fledged sequel, this will depend on how the newly released PS5 edition performs.
