- Interview Location: Anime Expo 2026
- Interview Format: In-person, One-on-One
Anime Herald: What have you been working on for the past year?
Taichi Miyazaki: The biggest news of the past year is that in February, we had our thirtieth anniversary, and with it we announced our next big project “.hack//Z.E.R.O.” Along with that, thanks to the support of fans, especially in Japan, we made it to trending #1 on Twitter. We were also featured in a couple of Yahoo! News articles, which we are very grateful for.
Anime Herald: I remember that time very well, because it was such a surprise.
Taichi Miyazaki: When it comes to .hack//Z.E.R.O., there is obviously a lot of work that went in before we actually made the announcement. An entire year up-front went into this. When we made the announcement, the one thing that popped out the most to everyone was that we were going to be the publisher. Previously, the .hack series has been (BNE) The fact that we would be self-publishing it brought a lot of buzz
Anime Herald: What was behind the decision to self-publish.hack//Z.E.R.O.?
Taichi Miyazaki: When it comes to self-publishing .hack//Z.E.R.O., this goes back to our twenty-fifth anniversary. That was when we had the idea to challenge ourselves and self-publish one of our own games. That game was Fuga: Melodies of Steel. It went on to become a trilogy. It did very well, with over 550,000 downloads. With the success of self-publishing Fuga: Melodies of Steel, we decided for our thirtieth anniversary, we would take on a new and larger challenge, with one of our larger original titles, the .hack series. As a series and title that is very dear to our hearts, we felt it was only appropriate to take on the self-publishing challenge with this series. We went and negotiated with Bandai Namco over the rights we were able to get their permission to go ahead and self-publish it.
Anime Herald: Fascinating. I did not realize you needed to ask their permission.
Taichi Miyazaki: Oh yes, of course. When it comes to asking BNE, while it is true that we have some of the rights to the .hack franchise, a large majority of these rights do lie with BNE. As such it is necessary to ask, discuss, and negotiate with them. The way it went, with this being our thirtieth anniversary, we really wanted to challenge ourselves, and we wanted to continue with .hack. We were able to successfully convince them and get them to license it out to us. We were able to get their permission to self-publish. In doing so we received very warm support from them. A pat on the back.
Anime Herald: It’s funny. The first thing I noticed about your thirtieth anniversary was the new business cards. Apparently that was not all you had in store. Now let me ask about some other properties.Tokyo Ogre GateandCecile.
Taichi Miyazaki: When it comes to Tokyo Ogre Gate, development was able to create a mock. However, when it reached that stage we realized it could be better. It could be more CyberConnect2. At that point we decided to go back to the drawing board.
Anime Herald: All of that was true last year. Has anything changed over the past year?
Taichi Miyazaki: That is correct. In terms of updates for where we are with Tokyo Ogre Gate, the answer is still the same as last year. We are still back at the drawing board with no concrete answer yet.
When it comes to Tokyo Ogre Gate, an action game was created. It was done. However, it lacked this factor called “Kerenmi.” It’s a strange phrase. It means the one thing that only we can make. The CyberConnect2 essence. When it came to Tokyo Ogre Gate, it lacked that special something that would make it a CyberConnect2 game.
Anime Herald: Would you describe thatTokyo Ogre Gatemock as “generic?”
Taichi Miyazaki: That would be a good way to describe it. Generic. Typical. Normal. But that’s not enough. We want to make something that people would play and say, “This is a game that could only have been made because CyberConnect2 was making it.” We still have yet to find that special something for Tokyo Ogre Gate.
Anime Herald: Last year, you said “Game development is a series of inventions.” Apparently we are still awaiting that invention forTokyo Ogre Gate.
Taichi Miyazaki: Yes, that is the case. We are still awaiting that one invention that will get us on the road. It has been a long and difficult road and we are still searching.
Anime Herald: Okay, now let’s talk aboutCecile.
Taichi Miyazaki:Cecile is the same way. We are waiting for “Kerenmi” to come into place. It currently lacks it. Things are being rearranged and we are back in the planning stage. We are still looking for that one of a kind CyberConnect2 feel.
Anime Herald: Let’s talk about your upcoming panel.
Taichi Miyazaki: We spoke a little bit about this at GDC (Game Developers Conference). The panel is an opportunity to speak directly with our fans in America, which will be a first for us since announcing the new .hack game.
Anime Herald: It sounds like.hackis very important to CyberConnect2.
Taichi Miyazaki: When it comes to our games, it’s not just .hack. There isn’t a single game we feel is not important to us. But, when it comes to .hack, which last updated the franchise in 2017 with .hack//G.U. Last Recode. It’s been nearly ten years since then. Coming here again after so long, to be able to talk about .hack, it fills us with a sense of excitement and motivation.
Anime Herald: You’ve been working on this.hackupdate since your twenty-fifth anniversary. This is a big occasion.
Taichi Miyazaki: Yes, it is a very exciting time for us. Especially since this year we’ve grown past three hundred employees as a company. When it comes to the sort of people that join CyberConnect2, there are two large patterns. The first is the type of person who sees the major IP games, such as Naruto, JoJo, Dragon Ball Z, Demon Slayer. They see the quality and the full 3DCG in which it is rendered and they want to make something like that of their own.
The second type of person has played our original games, largely .hack. They played the original titles we’ve created. That inspired them to apply and join us. They want to create and be part of these original projects. For staff like them, the announcement of “hack//Z.E.R.O. was exciting news that they were unaware of. It is something that has filled them with motivation.
Anime Herald: Are there any other topics you would like to discuss?
Taichi Miyazaki: One thing I would like to talk about. The panel is going to focus on .hack//Z.E.R.O., but we are celebrating thirty years of CyberConnect2. Our focus now is going to be on the next ten years, where we are going to continue to challenge ourselves. That includes self-publishing, but also as a developer as well. I hope people look forward to that.
Anime Herald: That leads perfectly into the classic meme.
Make A Bad Game? You’re Fired.
Make a good game? Fired.
Make an incredibly successful game? Believe it or not, also fired.
This comes after many successful studios being shut down after making popular games. Do you have any thoughts on the industry?
Taichi Miyazaki: Yes, of course. I have a lot of thoughts on the matter. Whenever I see the news on this it’s both shocking and unthinkable because in Japan, something like this is so difficult to imagine happening. For CyberConnect2, and particularly as a company, our identity, the things we want to make, the things we want to do, are uniform across both the high echelons of the company, to our newly hired staff, because to begin with, we only hire staff that want to create the same things that we want to create. So, for better or for worse, regardless of how a game turns out, how well it succeeds, if it should not succeed, the responsibility falls across the entire company. It is our responsibility as an entire organization as a whole to come together and think about what we could have done better and what can be done next time.
Anything we create, as a company, it is something we do together as a team. When it comes to how studios are treated overseas, with massive layoffs, it seems a little dry.
On a broader scale, when the games are made, it is by the decision of the executives typically, yes? So would it not be the executives responsibility if a game does not do well?
Anime Herald: I am going to respond to that by saying, “Of course, but isn’t it an executive’s job to delegate failure to someone they could fire?”
Taichi Miyazaki: When it comes to that, it seems like there is a large cultural difference between America and Japan. When we hire people, it is never with the expectation that we’re going to have to eventually fire them. Rather, the expectation is that in their time with us they will grow and we will grow together as an organization.
Besides the cultural differences, it is logistically difficult to fire people in Japan. On the very rare occasion that we want someone to leave the company, the most common reason is that the person wants to go in a different direction than the company, or does not respect their coworkers. In that case, firings do happen, but such cases are very rare.
Anime Herald: Is there anything else you would like to discuss?
Taichi Miyazaki: We are happy to see you again this year. As a small developer in Japan, we are going to keep doing our best to create new and fun games to reach even one more player, and make one more fan. We hope that everyone will continue to support us along the way.
Anime Herald: Thank you.
Taichi Miyazaki: Thank you very much.
