[Interview] "Let's Build a Professional Soccer Club! 2026": Producer Shares Insights on CBT Feedback and Challenges Ahead of Final Release

Note: the original Japanese article can be found at:
https://www.4gamer.net/games/915/G091522/20251006049/

Writer: Matsu-ta Kentarō | 2025/10/17 02:00 (UTC)

Scheduled for launch early 2026, the soccer simulation game “Build Your Pro Soccer Club! 2026” (available on PC / PS5 / PS4 / iOS / Android)—hereafter referred to as “Sakatsuku 2026”—has been the subject of a joint interview with its producer, Katsuaki Kuinai from Sega. The discussion covered feedback from the closed beta test (CBT), emerging challenges, and current development progress.

The interview was recorded on September 18, 2025, but the title was subsequently changed; this article reflects the updated name.

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PC iPhone PS5 PS4 Android

New “Build Your Pro Soccer Club! 2026” Title Announced, Launch Set for Early 2026; CBT Survey Results Revealed

On October 16, 2025, Sega announced the postponement of its upcoming game Build Your Pro Soccer Club! 2025 to early 2026 and rebranded it as “Build Your Pro Soccer Club! 2026” (available on PC / PS5 / PS4 / iOS / Android), based on feedback from the CBT.

[2025/10/17 13:31]

Official Website for “Build Your Pro Soccer Club! 2026”

Feedback from the CBT

—Please to meet you. We previously spoke at the May “Sakatsuku SHOWCASE,” but could you please reiterate your role on this project?

Katsuaki Kuinai (hereafter, Kuinai):
In Sakatsuku 2026, I serve as the producer leading development. My involvement with the Sakatsuku series began when I worked as a planner on the PS2-era title, and later served as director for Sakatsuku 6 and Sakatsuku 7 on PSP. Wanting to revive the spirit of earlier Sakatsuku titles, I initiated this project.

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PC iPhone PS5 PS4 Android Movie Interview Event

Sakatsuku’s Latest Title “Build Your Pro Soccer Club! 2025” Announced. Developer Interview Covers F2P Model and Monetization Elements

The latest installment of the beloved Build Your Pro Soccer Club! series, “Build Your Pro Soccer Club! 2025,” has been announced. Promoting a return to its roots, this title features two modes and is a free-to-play online game.

[2025/06/02 16:45]

—After the May announcement, given it’s been years since a new entry in the series, I imagine there was significant reaction.

Kuinai:
To be honest, comments posted on the Sakatsuku SHOWCASE stream were quite negative. There were critical opinions regarding the decision to use gacha mechanics for player acquisition. Although we emphasized at the event that it’s a “classic Sakatsuku,” that we chose home consoles as our platform, and that you can play without gachas, these points didn’t come across clearly in the stream. It seemed like people were reacting based on their impressions rather than actual information shared through media coverage.

So I discussed with team marketing staff and concluded we needed to communicate this more effectively. Since then, we’ve been using both our official X account and my personal one to consistently share that Sakatsuku 2026 delivers the nostalgic experience of classic Sakatsuku titles.

—At first, public sentiment wasn’t favorable at all.

Kuinai:
Nowadays, user sentiment has improved significantly, and people are increasingly supportive. The CBT feedback was largely positive, which definitely helped shift perceptions. Maybe expectations were already low to begin with (laughs). We’re getting comments like “It’s surprisingly fun just like the old Sakatsuku,” and “The fictional players actually appear properly.”

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—After the CBT, what kind of feedback have you received?

Kuinai:
This time we had a lot of participants from Japan, so many suggestions came in regarding features that existed during the console era but weren’t included in the CBT. For example, “Please add international study options!” was mentioned very frequently.

We didn’t intentionally exclude this feature—there were just other elements we wanted to showcase first, which lowered its priority and ultimately led us not including it. In the final product, we plan to implement this as one of several player development methods under a different name: temporary transfer rather than “study abroad.”

Also, many people mentioned that the growth period is too short.

—That’s true.

Kuinai:
The SP players acquired via gacha are designed to grow faster. Having only a one-year growth window for players obtained in Sakatsuku Mode wasn’t ideal. We’re adjusting this in the final version by extending the growth period.

—On the other hand, the mature phase is quite long and lasts well into later years—a unique feature of this title, I think.

Kuinai:
Thank you. For fans deeply invested in real-life football, having players remain effective for longer periods is definitely a positive point. But at times, it can be frustrating when they don’t retire even when the team needs new blood (laughs).

This brings up another consideration: should we clearly define growth phases to make them feel more dynamic, or allow gradual development? We’re currently balancing these two approaches during development.

—Among Sakatsuku 2026’s new features, which one received the most positive reaction?

Kuinai:
The game’s pace. We intentionally optimized it to be faster and smoother than past versions—including loading times—and that feedback was very positively received.

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—Players in Sakatsuku Mode tend to grow slower than those obtained via gacha.

Kuinai:
In the final version, we’re aiming for players acquired freely to reach overall ratings of A or B through our development system. Training gains during awakening practice have also been improved compared to the CBT, and if you consistently achieve perfect results, even talented players can grow into top-tier performers.

—If a player obtained via gacha leaves your team or retires, is it possible to bring them back and train them again from age 20?

Kuinai:
Yes. You can re-add the same player to your squad and start training them anew from age 20. If they have access to proper facilities and special practice cards, their potential should be even higher.

—During CBT, I found it great that winning a league championship raises your league’s level so the next season isn’t just a series of exhibition games. For example, if you keep rising in J-League, could it eventually surpass Europe’s top leagues?

Kuinai:
Yes, it’s definitely possible for the J-League to catch up with European football.

—So your league can rise to become one of the world’s best.

Kuinai:
We didn’t specifically design the system so teams would constantly face stronger opponents in league play. But this was a strong point from CBT feedback. The director who proposed the idea wasn’t deeply familiar with past Sakatsuku titles, and he felt that features like unfair bonuses or “burnout syndrome” after winning were illogical.

He even suggested straight out: “Why not just make opposing teams stronger?” And honestly, we thought, “Yeah, maybe that’s the way.” We nervously adjusted it at first, but since CBT players accepted it well, we’re keeping this approach in the final release. While fine-tuning level design, we want to ensure that rising league levels bring tangible benefits.

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—Club management elements like stadium expansions or player signings felt too easy and had a strong fantasy element.

Kuinai:
Is it better to lean toward realism or fantasy? It’s been a tradition in the Sakatsuku series to be able to acquire players every month, but for fans of real football, that can feel unrealistic. Still, I personally see player acquisition and sales as one of the core charms of Sakatsuku, so limiting it feels wrong.

In early development, we tried making it more realistic by introducing fixed transfer windows per season, but it didn’t feel fun at all. So ultimately, we decided to embrace a certain degree of fantasy.

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—In past titles, player contract negotiations were quite thrilling.

Kuinai:
That’s exactly the kind of feedback we’ve been receiving after CBT. We’re currently considering how to handle this. While longtime Sakatsuku fans might appreciate it, it can also be a hassle. Balancing both sides is tricky.

—Since Sakatsuku 2026 features auto-save, you can never fail, right? On home consoles, I used to save beforehand and reload if negotiations failed.

Kuinai:
We’re planning to allow multiple save files in the final version. A major recurring request was for players to be able to experience both “a team built entirely from gacha players” and “the classic, non-gacha Sakatsuku style.” So we’ll accommodate that need.

This design change may also influence how difficult transfers feel or how club management feels overall.

—Is there a plan for a second test?

Kuinai:
At this point, I’m thinking we’re probably okay without another one. We had originally planned to run another round if the CBT feedback was overwhelmingly negative and needed further revisions. But since the general sentiment from CBT is positive, and we’ve addressed most of the suggestions, we feel confident moving forward.

We’d still like to create opportunities for users to gather and try out the game outside formal testing phases.

—Does this mean a second test isn’t necessary because release is close?

Kuinai:
I can’t yet disclose specific timing (laughs).

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Future Outlook After Final Release

—The CBT included players from outside Japan. How did international users respond?

Kuinai:
Overall, engagement varied greatly by region—it’s hard to generalize. But the retention rate was higher than we expected. Hong Kong showed high enthusiasm, and Thailand and Indonesia also performed well.

On the other hand, in English-speaking regions like the UK and US, players tended to either deeply engage or drop off quickly. Many felt that playing Sakatsuku as a substitute for Football Manager was underwhelming. Others found the difficulty level just right, so overall it wasn’t a failure by any measure.

—This title is free-to-play with ongoing operations. Are there new values you can offer compared to past paid releases?

Kuinai:
The ability to continuously update and refine systems and balance through patches is a major advantage. If commercially successful, we could release new content annually. I believe Sakatsuku should remain an active IP—but due to various circumstances, that hasn’t been possible recently.

But by going online and securing business viability, we can provide updated player data every year.

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—In real football, many events occur: player transfers, young talents rising. How much of this will be reflected in the game?

Kuinai:
We actively plan to feature standout players from real life via gacha. As a J-League fan myself, I’d love for my favorite real-life players to appear in Sakatsuku when they perform well. We want to include players who win “Man of the Match” awards or enhance free-to-play player stats. The ability to spotlight specific players is one strength of ongoing operations—we’ll leverage this to boost sales.

—So, similar to how a gacha might offer different versions of the same player?

Kuinai:
Exactly. It’s all about seamlessly integrating real-life football developments into the game, and we’re committed to making that happen.

—How often will new gacha players be added?

Kuinai:
Similar to typical online games, expect a major gacha update roughly every two weeks. We’ll also include periodic “replay” gachas featuring past popular players—a one-week replay event between the larger biweekly updates.

Initially after launch, we plan to release SP player gachas about four times per month while updating special practice cards every two weeks. That schedule is still being refined and may change.

—How quickly will you adjust stats for suddenly rising stars?

Kuinai:
We’ll re-evaluate all players’ abilities during the annual season update. We’re already incorporating recent performances, not just starting-point ratings. For example, Ryōsuke Sato has been outstanding with Fagiano Okayama and earned a national team call-up—yet young player evaluations remain difficult and tend to be slightly underestimated. After reviewing his performance over the past six months, we’ve decided to increase his rating.

—So adding new players post-launch will definitely require ongoing effort?

Kuinai:
It’s rare to find people who love football and can develop games. But our team working on player data for Sakatsuku 2026 includes a young developer with five years at Sega, who handles most of the design work. I interviewed him myself—his passion was immediately clear. When we started discussing football topics, another interviewer said, “But isn’t J-League declining right now?” Actually, attendance has been growing steadily every year.

Then he launched into a detailed and accurate presentation about the significance of J-League clubs in Kumamoto—the city where he’s from—which impressed us greatly.

—That took real courage (laughs).

Kuinai:
Exactly. That’s why we hired him—he knows European football too, and is very valuable to our team.

—On player stats: back in console days, abilities were expressed via flavor text like “capable of competing globally” or “top-tier forward.” Why didn’t Sakatsuku 2026 adopt that?

Kuinai:
Reading ability from flavor texts and radar charts was part of what made Sakatsuku fun. But for business sustainability, we need numerical ratings—otherwise it’s too hard to evaluate objectively. So we prioritized the business side.

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—Does Sakatsuku 2026 have unique flavor text for individual players?

Kuinai:
Not for SP players. However, special practice cards do include distinct flavor texts depending on the player featured.

—Tell us about “Dream Team Mode.” During CBT, CPU teams were extremely strong and I couldn’t progress far.

Kuinai:
The difficulty level in the CBT was problematic—the CPUs during tours were too powerful, so few players advanced to the World Premier League. In Dream Team Mode, you’ll first battle CPU teams in a tour, then move on to player-versus-player matches in the World Premier League. We’re adjusting it so that after battling through a reasonable number of tour games, you can immediately enter PvP. We’ll also fix the issue where manager level progress was too slow.

—In Dream Team Mode, team strength varies based on your and opponent’s strategies. In contrast, Sakatsuku Mode doesn’t see its performance drop due to opponents.

Kuinai:
This is a business decision. The team strategy system operates like “4-match matchups,” similar to social game attributes. We believe it’s beneficial for creating trends in the product, so we included compatibility factors.

—It’s similar to Sakatsuku RTW’s team policy?

Kuinai:
Exactly. But if we applied that same logic to Sakatsuku Mode, gameplay freedom would be severely limited. In Sakatsuku Mode, strategy matters less, but in Dream Team Mode, it has a significant impact.

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Rebuilding the “Sakatsuku” Market for Global Reach

—Sega currently sells the Football Manager series. Why did you decide to launch a new Sakatsuku title?

Kuinai:
Partly because I wanted to play Sakatsuku, but more importantly, from looking at the Japanese market, I felt that Football Manager alone isn’t enough. Also, we don’t view Sakatsuku as just a simulation game—we designed it as a role-playing experience for managers.

There’s unique enjoyment in Sakatsuku: not only managing a realistic club like Football Manager, but also personally training and developing players—something that deserves its own market share. Even while recognizing the strength of Football Manager globally, our vision was to expand Sakatsuku worldwide from day one.

—That makes sense. But getting this project approved must have been difficult.

Kuinai:
You’re absolutely right. We spent a lot of time and went through periods of uncertainty during development. With rising user literacy in football, we realized that simply recreating the old Sakatsuku wouldn’t work anymore—events like “my secretary brought me a jar and I got money!” are too fantastical (laughs). While such elements contribute to Sakatsuku’s charm, we’re constantly debating whether modern fans would accept them, deciding what to cut or keep.

—There’s also the “powered by Football Manager” credit. What kind of collaboration is involved?

Kuinai:
Using the “Football Manager” brand globally has been incredibly valuable for us. When we approached Sports Interactive, they readily agreed and made this possible. The high volume of traffic from Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea during CBT suggests that Football Manager’s name carried significant weight.

In Sakatsuku 2026, we’re using the actual player data from Football Manager. We’ve been granted access to their database and adapted it for our game. Compared to past Sakatsuku versions, the depth of player data is vastly different—our work is more based on reference than original creation.

—The ability attributes in Sakatsuku and Football Manager are completely different?

Kuinai:
Yes. For aspects like position suitability, we’ve aligned them closely and used those as a strong foundation. Mistakes in positioning have decreased dramatically.

—What about gameplay mechanics and graphics?

Kuinai:
There’s no relation at all—we created everything independently.

—How many original players are included?

Kuinai:
Currently, real-name players exceed 5,000, fictional ones around 3,000. Among them, famous legendary fictional players number about 500–600. Selecting those legends has taken more time than expected.

Our development team includes almost no one who worked on the original Sakatsuku. I myself didn’t work on Sega Saturn-era titles or even Sakatsuku 04, widely considered a classic. To prioritize early fictional players requested by fans, we’ve consulted strategy guides and conducted Discord surveys to set priorities. We aim to include nearly all well-known legends.

—You ran an SNS campaign right after the announcement. Any plans for future campaigns?

Kuinai:
Yes, we plan to continue them. From August to September, our focus was on addressing feedback from CBT, so information sharing became quieter. Going forward, we’ll share CBT results and relaunch co-creation projects.

—Will you keep running such initiatives after launch?

Kuinai:
If Sakatsuku 2026 succeeds commercially, we aim to update player data each season. For example, letting fans vote on new players or gather feedback on desired skills and stats would be great.

We want to experiment with modern game development and operations. From conversations with Western studios, it’s common practice now to open a Discord channel once the project reaches a certain stage, sharing the core concept with users early. Since Sakatsuku is inherently flexible, we see this as an ideal opportunity for such innovation.

—Thank you very much today. Please leave a message for players.

Kuinai:
First of all, thank you sincerely to everyone who participated in the CBT—we’ve taken your feedback positively. Now people are saying, “Why not release it already?” We still have room to improve quality, and thanks to your input, we’ve clearly identified what needs fixing or adding. Our goal is to launch with no regrets, so our team continues listening closely to every player’s voice.

Although the launch is scheduled for early 2026, we’re not planning to keep you waiting long—please do try it out as soon as it’s available.

Official Website for “Build Your Pro Soccer Club! 2026”

(C) 2026 Manchester City Football Club / LICENSED BY J.LEAGUE / (C) J.LEAGUE / K LEAGUE property used under license from K LEAGUE / The use of images and names of the football players in this game is under license from FIFPro Commercial Enterprises BV. FIFPro is a registered trademark of FIFPro Commercial Enterprises BV. / (C) SEGA