Saito and Matsuyama Talk Indie Game Development at BitSummit
The talk offers a rare candid perspective from two veteran producers on how indie developers can navigate the industry's current demands.
Reporting from 1 sources: 4Gamer.net.
At BitSummit PUNCH, Square Enix's Yosuke Saito and CyberConnect2's Hiroshi Matsuyama discussed their careers, the challenges of building in-house teams for online titles like Dragon Quest X, and the blurred line between 'work' and 'product' for indie developers. Saito noted the similarity between early game development and modern indie practices.
On the second day of BitSummit PUNCH, Square Enix Executive Officer Yosuke Saito and CyberConnect2 President Hiroshi Matsuyama took the main stage for a candid conversation about game development. Saito, who started at Enix in the Dragon Quest merchandise department before moving to game production, described the early days as a time when producers wrote scripts and set item prices-work he compared to how indie developers operate today.
Matsuyama, moderating the talk, led the discussion through the origins of their careers, the toughest titles they worked on, and the use of AI. Saito singled out Dragon Quest X as his most challenging project, noting it was the first title Square Enix developed entirely in-house. He described starting with a team of three and recruiting Naoki Yoshida from outside the company to build the development team from scratch.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.