Yakuza/Like a Dragon creator Toshihiro Nagoshi says the era of games needing to be as big as possible is fast coming to an end. With the nonstop onslaught of game releases fighting for players' limited free time, Nagoshi says it's only natural that games will be judged less harshly on their size as the volume increases.
In an interview with Famitsu (thanks, VGC), Nagoshi, who left RGG Studios several years ago to make an unannounced new game for NetEase at Nagoshi Studio, explained that he wants to "make a game that is fun to play, bit isn't too much of a hassle". Diving deeper, Nagoshi explains his reasoning for the rationale: "I think that the number of console games in the lives of ordinary game fans may be a little excessive. There are still many titles being released, but I feel that the era of games where the volume is the selling point is coming to an end."
When Famitsu's reporter suggested that sometimes a large map can be a good thing, provided varied content is there, Natooshi agreed: "That’s the point, you could fill it in with some element to create a sense of density, but it’s not modern to have similar experiences repeated over and over again... I feel like the time to decide what the right size is to balance everything is coming up soon."