Interview with Yasuhiro Nishiyama, creator of the "Sangokushi Taisen" series, among others: What kind of "new" experiences can blockchain games create?

Yasuhiro Nishiyama of Sugorokkusu Co., Ltd. has been appointed producer of the new blockchain game "Battle of Three Kingdoms -Sangokushi Taisen- (Sangokushi Taisen B3K)" by double jump.tokyo Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as DJT Co., Ltd.). Nishiyama worked on the "Sangokushi Taisen" series as a game producer at Sega, and just founded Sugorokkusu Co., Ltd., a "content production company," in 2024.

Why is Nishiyama, who has worked on many of Sega's representative game titles, including the Sangokushi Taisen series, working on blockchain game development? We asked him for more details.

First of all, please tell us how you came to be appointed producer of "Sangokushi Taisen B3K (hereinafter referred to as B3K)".

Nishiyama: This year, I started Sugorokkusu Co., Ltd., and at that time, Nobu (Hironobu Ueno, CEO of DJT Co., Ltd.) contacted me.

B3K itself was licensed by Sega and DJT had been developing it for a while.

Nishiyama: Yes. I was originally the creator of the Sangokushi Taisen series at Sega, but I wasn't involved in B3K at all, so I was just watching it casually, thinking, "They're working hard." (laughs)

B3K was originally scheduled to be released in 2023, but the schedule was postponed to 2024, and Nishiyama joined. Why did they ask you?

Nishiyama: I think that at the time when Nobu and the other people at DJT were trying to do more with B3K, they found me, who seemed to be a good fit, and asked me.

It seems like a difficult decision to join a title that has already been developed to a certain extent, but why did you think, "Let's give it a try!"?

Nishiyama: When I left Sega, where I had been working for nearly 30 years, to start my own company, I was thinking about taking on new challenges. I think of blockchain and AI as "software innovation," so to speak, and I wanted to democratize them and use them to create new experiences.

DJT is the company that created "My Crypto Heroes" (※1) and is a long-established company in the blockchain game industry. I felt that I could learn a lot and gain a lot of experience by working with them.

DJT is good at the blockchain field and has experience and know-how in developing blockchain games, and I, who have created various games, will team up to create an amazing blockchain game. In fact, some of the company members told me that I should quit joining in the middle of the project.