The team behind PlayStation 3′s Yakuza franchise has announced a brand new title in the latest issue of Famitsu. Binary Domain, as it’s named, is set in Tokyo during the year 2080 and has a sci-fi robot theme with a focus on competitive online multiplayer and high-level enemy AI. While the game is being developed in Japan, a few overseas staff members are also a part of the game’s development team.  

Toshihiro Nagoshi, who’s working on the upcoming title, told Famitsu that they’re targeting a worldwide audience with Binary Domain. He also revealed that the concept for the game originally came to the team back when Yakuza 3 was in development.

Binary Domain takes place in Tokyo, 2080. The city is split into two sectors, one for the rich and one for the poor. The poor sector is reminiscent of Tokyo today, with some minor devastation here and there.

According to Nagoshi, a battle between man and robot is one of the key pieces to the story. While he couldn’t explain why this battle exists, he did say that robots are a big part of everyday life in 2080, even running the world’s main operations.

The game will feature a lot of heavy themes, revealed Nagoshi, according the theme of life, itself. It’ll make the player reconsider what their life actually means.

On the subject of overseas staff, Nagoshi said that there was a debate at first on whether or not the game should take place in Japan — considering it was targeting an international audience. They eventually decided on Tokyo because Nagoshi felt that its easier for someone who was raised in Japan to make a game involving deep human drama if the setting is Japan. He also believes that there is no point in having Japanese staff make a game if the setting is based overseas.

Binary Domain‘s voice work will all be done by overseas actors. The game’s cutscenes and the likes will be done by Japanese staff, however.

On gameplay, Nagoshi shared a few details. He said enemy AI will be at a level unseen by gamers before. The development team has done continuous research to assure the game’s AI is the highest level in the world. Regarding online, Nagoshi said it’s a big focus and that the player will feel a connection to other players. He didn’t dive more into detail.

Can’t wait to hear more? We’ll get our first official look at Binary Domain on December 1 at 5pm Japan Time on Famitsu.com and Sega’s official website. Stay tuned.

Thanks, Andriasang.