{"id":48395,"date":"2025-05-28T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=48395"},"modified":"2025-05-28T10:41:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T01:41:57","slug":"like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Like a Dragon’s dev team size has barely changed since the first game, according to RGG Studio head\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sega\u2019s RGG Studio has consistently been putting out Like a Dragon<\/strong> games almost every year since 2005\u2019s Yakuza. With the games steadily growing in fidelity as gaming platforms become more high-spec, you would expect the studio to go through significant upsizing to maintain this fast pace of development. However, this is actually not the case, as recently shared by RGG Studio director and Like a Dragon series executive producer Masayoshi Yokoyama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to Denfaminicogamer<\/a>, Yokoyama says that the number of staff working on the Like a Dragon series peaks at around 70-80 people during the studio\u2019s busiest periods. This number has, according to the director, remained relatively unchanged since the first game in the franchise. On the other hand, the members of this development team are not fixed \u2013 Sega\u2019s 1st Development Division (RGG Studio\u2019s official name within Sega) counts a total of 300 staff, who rotate between working on different projects and franchises (like Virtua Fighter or Project Century) based on need and priority. With the exception of the Super Monkey Ball team, none of RGG Studio\u2019s developers are strictly dedicated to a single title, which allows the studio to develop multiple projects in parallel<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Like<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But how has the Like a Dragon team maintained its relatively modest scale despite how much the games have evolved over the years? Yokoyama explains that, while higher spec gaming hardware does generally require a larger development scale and more labor, consoles aren\u2019t the only thing that\u2019s evolved \u2013 improvements in RGG Studio\u2019s development environment have allowed them to keep working with the same number of people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an example, he cites technology such as 3D scanning, which allows the devs to create a rough 3D model just by scanning a person\u2019s face. \u201cOf course, the amount of labor required has increased compared to the PlayStation 2 era, but it hasn\u2019t risen in proportion to how much hardware specs have evolved,\u201d Yokoyama explains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Like<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On a related note, RGG Studio is known for striking a good balance between creating assets from scratch<\/a> and re-using existing assets from past releases,<\/a> which means they have a growing library of original assets to fall back on \u2013 this is likely another decision that prevents labor costs from inflating over time. In addition, the studio\u2019s engineers have made strides in automating testing and debugging<\/a> of Like a Dragon games, which has massively reduced man-hours required for the process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related Articles: Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth\u2019s artists on RGG Studio\u2019s \u201cthink for yourself\u201d policy and the series\u2019 progressive technological advancements<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a Dragon dev says simultaneous worldwide multi-platform releases helped reduce crunch culture<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RGG Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama talks about the Like a Dragon team’s modest scale that has remained unchanged over the years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":48398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-48395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nLike a Dragon's dev team size has barely changed since the first game, according to RGG Studio head\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"RGG Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama talks about the Like a Dragon team's modest scale that has remained unchanged over the years.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Like a Dragon's dev team size has barely changed since the first game, according to RGG Studio head\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RGG Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama talks about the Like a Dragon team's modest scale that has remained unchanged over the years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-27T15:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-28T01:41:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250527-48395-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1434\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"803\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Like a Dragon's dev team size has barely changed since the first game, according to RGG Studio head\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"RGG Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama talks about the Like a Dragon team's modest scale that has remained unchanged over the years.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Like a Dragon's dev team size has barely changed since the first game, according to RGG Studio head\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"RGG Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama talks about the Like a Dragon team's modest scale that has remained unchanged over the years.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-05-27T15:01:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-28T01:41:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1434,"height":803,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250527-48395-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"Like a Dragon’s dev team size has barely changed since the first game, according to RGG Studio head\u00a0","datePublished":"2025-05-27T15:01:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-28T01:41:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/"},"wordCount":468,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250527-48395-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["Game Development","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/","name":"Like a Dragon's dev team size has barely changed since the first game, according to RGG Studio head\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250527-48395-header.jpg","datePublished":"2025-05-27T15:01:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-28T01:41:57+00:00","description":"RGG Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama talks about the Like a Dragon team's modest scale that has remained unchanged over the years.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250527-48395-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250527-48395-header.jpg","width":1434,"height":803,"caption":"Kazuma Kiryu"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/like-a-dragons-dev-team-size-has-barely-changed-since-the-first-game-according-to-rgg-studio-head\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Like a Dragon’s dev team size has barely changed since the first game, according to RGG Studio head\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9","name":"Amber V","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","caption":"Amber V"},"description":"Editor-in-Chief since October 2023. She grew up playing Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein with her dad, and is now enamored with obscure Japanese video games and internet culture. Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48395"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48431,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48395\/revisions\/48431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}