Former Capcom veteran Hideaki Itsuno’s new game studio LightSpeed Japan is working on an AAA, singleplayer-focused action game targeting the global market. With the new title, Itsuno aims to bring together the best of everything he’s worked on so far, specifically elements of Devil May Cry, Dragon’s Dogma and the Rival Schools series. However, rather than an indulgent passion project, the work-in-progress game appears to be a reconciliation of Itsuno’s personal tastes as a creator and game elements that work in a commercial sense.
Talking to Famitsu following the opening of LightSpeed Japan’s new offices in Osaka, Itsuno confirmed that the new project he’s directing was pitched by him personally and accepted without any major revisions by the company. However, when asked whether this means he’s making the game he’s always wanted to make, Itsuno says that’s not really the case either.
“Strictly speaking, no. I think the kind of games I’d most like to make probably wouldn’t sell. They’d be too out there to be judged as commercially viable. I am well aware of this myself, so instead, I extract specific elements from those game ideas and combine them with elements I know from experience will work. That’s how I’m building our new title.”
Moreover, Itsuno adds that “Whenever I’m asked to propose new projects, I usually submit five or six ideas and mix in about two that I really want to do, but they never get chosen.” Based on his experience so far, he considers it unlikely that he’ll attempt to develop these niche ideas into products later in his career.
In 2025, hearing the word “passion project” inevitably brings to mind Too Kyo Games, who took a colossal gamble to release The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy exactly the way they envisioned it. Although their struggle led them to success, facing debt and near bankruptcy during development is nothing to laugh at, and with market conditions as harsh as they are nowadays, Itsuno’s approach of packaging his bolder ideas into more marketable frameworks seems like a wise one. LightSpeed Japan’s upcoming game is currently in its early prototyping stages. The release date and compatible platforms are TBD.
Related article: The high quality of Hideaki Itsuno’s Devil May Cry 4 pushed Bayonetta to greater heights, according to Hideki Kamiya
Worried about sales at his big age. Man…. Just make the games.
They said this stuff about Nier. They said this stuff about Katamari. LocalThunk has said this about Balatro. Konami said that about Death Stranding.
Lots of publishers know next to nothing about what players want. It’s a real shame, too. Just thinking about all the amazing games that never got made because some people couldn’t see the fun in them.
Hideo Kojima is quite literally the only developer who has the balls to make a passion project on AAA scale.
A red flag, selling his soul to tencent for a bigger paycheck since the japanese economy is rough right now
They give all the money to ‘safe’, checkmark ticking slop, while draining it from the truly unique, creative, and quite possibly gem in the rough games.. its insane
This kind of artistic self-censorship is partly why the AAA market is collapsing under its own weight. That market was originally built on fresh ideas and innovation.
There are still many Japanese creators taking risks — hell, even granddaddy Kojima made a massively expensive game based on the occupation of the Japanese bokka. Kodaka, Suda51, Swery, Taro, Vanillaware, all these guys do whatever they want and worry about sales later. And while their games aren’t always successful, they are almost always hugely influential and provide fuel and inspiration to other creators to keep advancing and innovating.
I don’t understand why he could just go indie and make games that’s not as demanding in the graphics/visual aspect side since it doesn’t really matter much for a game to be good. It being mechanically amazing in terms of gameplay and vibes is so much more important. But I guess he got some sort of brainrot after being in a triple A industry for so long. He could make a much better Dragons dogma 1 or 2 in a smaller scale and it would be amazing. He doesn’t have to be restrained from cuts and time restrictions anymore, he can go wild with it. Man if only.
I honestly going to say that Devil may cry would sell as much as other video games would in fact i grew up playing Dmc and honestly the game never looses fame I would love for the creators to make a Dmc and also a great ending on the DMC SERIES