{"id":19557,"date":"2023-06-19T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=19557"},"modified":"2023-07-07T14:14:17","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T05:14:17","slug":"20230619-19557","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/20230619-19557\/","title":{"rendered":"An interview with Yuya Kimura, PSO2: NGS series producer: What made him decide to return to the public eye, and about NGS to this point and into the future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis (NGS)<\/strong>, is an online RPG developed and operated by Sega. We conducted a remote interview with the series producer, Mr. Yuya Kimura, around the time of the NGS ver.2 Ultra-evolution update. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this interview, we delve into the reasons behind Yuya Kimura’s decision to return to the public eye after a long period of absence from the media and events. We also discuss the past and future of NGS, which, two years after launch, has now completed the release of content that was originally planned for the game and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2500\u2500\u2500Please tell us a bit about yourself.<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Yuya Kimura (Mr. Kimura):<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My name is Kimura, and I am the series producer of NGS. This will be my 21st year working for Sega, and I have been involved with the Phantasy Star series ever since I joined the company. I think it\u2019s quite rare for someone to be involved with a single series for as long as I have. I started out managing, planning, and supporting Phantasy Star Online Episodes 1&2 for the GameCube and later worked on the Phantasy Star Universe and the Phantasy Star Portable series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After that, I launched Phantasy Star Online 2 (PSO2) as my own project and took on the role of director. After PSO2 launched, I was the series director for about 9 years and then became the series producer of NGS when it launched 2 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2500\u2500\u2500Mr. Kimura was the face of the series for a long time, but at some point, he stopped making appearances.<\/strong>  Can you tell me why you stepped out of the public eye, and why you are now making public appearances again?<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Kimura:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, I began to refrain from appearing in PSO2-related media and events because I began to feel that my appearances had a negative impact on the game. Since PSO2 launched, I\u2019ve appeared on the official “PSO2 Station!\u201d program as a series director to communicate in-game and other information, and I have also appeared in interviews as a representative of the development team to communicate with players on a case-by-case basis. I\u2019ve had a lot of opportunities to communicate with players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As PSO2 progressed over the years, there were several times when content releases were not going well, and when I made a public appearance and communicated with users in situations where the title\u2019s operations were not going well, I was not able to give a good response, and sometimes I made unsuitable comments that upset players. I came to the conclusion that doing speaking appearances was more of a negative than a positive for PSO2, so I have stayed out of the public eye since around 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u672c\u65e5\u306e\u653e\u9001\u306b\u3066\u3001\u9152\u4e95P\u3068\u6728\u6751D\u3088\u308a\u3001\u30d7\u30ec\u30a4\u30e4\u30fc\u306e\u7686\u3055\u307e\u306b\u3001\u4e8c\u4eba\u306e\u300ePSO2 STATION\uff01\u300f\u3078\u306e\u51fa\u6f14\u304c12\u6708\u653e\u9001\u5206\u3067\u6700\u5f8c\u3068\u306a\u308b\u65e8\u306e\u304a\u77e5\u3089\u305b\u304c\u3042\u308a\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\u8a73\u7d30\u306b\u3064\u304d\u307e\u3057\u3066\u306f\u3001\u5f8c\u65e5\u9152\u4e95P\u306e\u30d6\u30ed\u30b0\u306b\u3082\u307e\u3068\u3081\u3055\u305b\u3066\u3044\u305f\u3060\u304f\u4e88\u5b9a\u3067\u3059\u3002 #PSO2<\/a><\/p>— PhantasyStarOnline2 (@sega_pso2) November 20, 2018<\/a><\/blockquote>