Utilizing and developing your own proprietary engine to create a video game does come with its own advantages and disadvantages. Highest profit? Apart from there being no profit sharing system with third parties, the developer can also have the freedom to tinker with it according to his needs. While the weakness? There is a lot of evidence that shows how engines like this are sometimes not flexible enough to handle the variety of existing genres. For Ryu Ga Gotoku and SEGA, Dragon Engine is the main engine that they will continue to use to create Like a Dragon in the future.
This was stated by the technical director – Yutaka Ita in his latest interview. He confirmed that the Like a Dragon series in the future will continue to rely on the Dragon Engine as a base with no plans to move to another engine. Despite this, he also emphasized that all new employees they recruit are still equipped with the ability to use Unreal and Unity. What for? To learn about what is missing from the Dragon Engine and later help improve it. This is also used as a form of preparation if there comes a time when the Dragon Engine can no longer appear relevant and compete with other game engines.
Ita also explained how the experience of using Unreal for Like a Dragon: Ishin, for example, succeeded in exposing Dragon Engine's weaknesses in terms of lighting, which they also later fixed in Infinite Wealth. How about you? Including gamers who like this engine?
Source: VGC
