Sega Localization Producer Shares Efforts To Port More Yakuza Spin-Offs To The West To Align With Japan’s Catalogue

Taken that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Yakuza series has been a prominent line of titles that hones in on the conflicts of the titular crime organization imbedded in Japan domestically, the franchise has played a large role in nations west of its home territory. Going as far to ship the six mainline entries alongside certain spin-offs of the brand like, Yakuza 0 for instance, not all properties under than Yakuza name is available outside of Japan.

But despite certain entries still limited to the eastern hemisphere, Sega does illustrate to pursue releasing the remaining entries to the west later on. When speaking with Rocket Beans Gaming, Sega Localization Producer Scott Strichart disclosed that the team does aim to provide more of the latter Yakuza installments that never hit other markets.

We’re interested in doing what Japan’s gonna do at this point. We absolutely recognize there are some holes in the backlog that we want to do and Japan wants us to do. It’s literally just a matter of finding space for them on the slate. Like you said there’s over saturation issues, do we stop doing new things to put out old things?

Do we put out the old thing in the middle of working on the new thing? Then say please buy both? There’s definitely an issue there with over saturating the market. That’s where we’ve kinda landed on that unfortunately. As much as we all wanna do it we need to find the time and space.

Despite many dedicated fans who are vocal about these missing entries hitting new markets, Strichart does illustrate that Sega does not want to over welcome the idea and give too much in a short amount of time. One instance of that is the four month gap dividing the releases for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and Yakuza Kiwami 2.

As for what entries could arrive to the west, fans are hopeful to see projects such as 2010’s Yakuza: Black Panther, 2014’s Yakuza Ishin, and 2018’s Yakuza Online. However, this initiative also opens the door to bring more of already-released titles to lingering systems like Xbox One/Xbox Series X and PC. Ending at Yakuza Kiwami 2 for both platforms as of now, there are certainly more titles to hit the stores in the meantime alongside the main installments.

When reflecting on the upcoming release for Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon, Microsoft’s systems is suggested to be the highlighted platform whenever more entries hit the market. This is especially illustrated from the later PlayStation 5 version of the game to arrive following the game’s November release when it makes its worldwide debut. You can read the full report by heading here.

What missing Yakuza games do you hope to see arrive first to the west?