Yakuza director Toshihiro Nagoshi has revealed he underwent heart surgery just three weeks before Thursday’s Yakuza 7 reveal event.

Speaking to Japanese publication Oricon News, the game designer said he was grateful to have been able to make Thursday’s game announcement in person. “I think I would have gotten angry if I was watching this,” he said.

Nagoshi claimed that the surgery stopped his heart for 5 hours and that he’s still feeling some after effects and must refrain from standing up and working.

“It hurts when I laugh,” he said. “I broke my ribs at the time of the surgery, so the bones are not yet attached.”

Nagoshi is a chief creative officer at Sega. He started his career in the mid-90s in Sega’s arcade department, where he contributed design to Virtua Racer and directed Daytona USA.

In 2000 Nagoshi became head of Sega’s internal Amusement Vision studio, which created the Super Monkey Ball and F-Zero GX / AX games.

In 2005 Nagoshi launched the Yakuza franchise, which according to Sega has sold more than 10 million units to date.

On Thursday he announced Yakuza 7, the first game in the series to feature a turn-based battle system.