Alright Yakuza fans — time for some good news.
After some amazing passion seen across the board from fans regarding the release of Yakuza 3, SEGA is proud to announce that the fourth installment of the Yakuza series is heading West, and will be releasing exclusively on the PlayStation 3 in the spring of 2011!
Yakuza 4 also builds on the style of the original Yakuza foundation by adding three new playable characters, each with a distinct personality and fighting style. They all have connections to the Tojo clan — but what those connections are, and what they mean with regard to a man named Kazuma Kiryu, is just one part of what will truly make things interesting.
We’d also like to confirm what we feel is important news for our fans: the Hostess Clubs will be returning in Yakuza 4!
Finally, we’d like to let you guys field questions to the man whose name goes hand in hand with the Yakuza (or Ryu Ga Gotoku in Japan) series himself: Nagoshi-san! Write your questions in the comments below, and with a bit of luck, your question will be among others asked after next week’s E3!
Good luck, and we hope all you Yakuza fans out there just found your day got a little brighter. If you’ll excuse us, that plush cat in the UFO Catcher at Club SEGA has been making fun of us all morning, and it’s about time we showed him our perception skills.
I wanted to add on more thing.
Please plan the day of release properly this time. Do not release with say Killzone 3! Space out the dates properly. I think Yakuza 3 would have sold more if it had not rleased the same day as final fantasy 13.
Be smart Sega!
I played the Yakuza 3 demo and I liked it very much. I still haven’t picked it up yet but I do plan to, the release of God of War 3 and Final Fantasy XIII made me broke in the games buying dept. But thank you guys for bringing Yakuza 4 over to the US, we can’t ever have too many games from Japan!
Hostess clubs not being ripped out is one thing, but I was more worried about how Yakuza 3 lost mini-games that had been localized in previous Yakuza games and 20-some side missions (non-hostess related).
Valkyria 2 is still slated for summer right? Then it should be out… soon I hope?
Also Gamestop lists Phantasy Star Portable 2 as coming out September 28th. Could you confirm that (and finally bring PSP1 to PSN)?
hey aaron, thanks for the good new, but me personally, I’d be more excited to hear that they won’t cut anything at all, rather than just leaving hostess clubs in. I want mahjong back!
Great news for us Yakuza fans that Yakuza 4 is coming to the west. Any plans on bringing the PSP Yakuza title to the West as well?
oh thank you sega! i loved yakuza 3! cannot wait!
I LOVE YOU SEGA! I bought Yakuza 3 but haven’t played it yet because of the exams.
All you have to do now, is to give me Valkyria Chronicles 3, and I will cry from happiness.
Two things.
1. Please re-release Yakuza 1 with JPN Audio in the west. =)
2. I bought two copies of Y3, how many do I need to buy of Y4?
(I do have Y2 & Kenzan)
=)
@16: I’d strongly recommend and suggest playing through Yakuza 1 and 2 before playing 3 even due to how tied together the storylines are. The main storyline’s been kinda continuous so it would be highly beneficial.
Aaron I can back up your statement about playing through all of 3 before starting Yakuza 4! A lot of the stuff that happens the second half of the game more or less sets up at least the beginning of Yakuza 4 so at least playing through 3 is essential.
I have a question for Mr. Nagoshi that should be a good question: The inspiration for the Yakuza series has been talked about before, but what encouraged and made you decide to actually pursue doing Yakuza 1, the kick-off of the series? Was there an exact moment or something that influenced that choice?
What are some of the inspirations for the main characters and their backgrounds? Are they based off people found in movies or books? After playing 3 I am curious on that.
Thanks for this news Aaron! I’m so glad Yakuza 3 did well enough here to get 4 and got the pair of legs it needed here to stand on! Will be preordered soon :)
Thanks SEGA. I’ll be supporting this game exactly like I did with the original Yakuza and Yakuza 3 (never had a chance to play 2)
I hope there are no cuts made to the final game. I thought Yakuza 3 was an amazing game. Please pass on my props to SEGA Japan and Nagoshi-san.
Just finished the third one. Consider this bought. Love this series. Proper male soap opera to the max.
I was so worried that Yakuza 4 wouldn’t make it to the west. I played the Japanese version a bit, and I liked the idea of new characters (How about new costumes, as well? Customizable, maybe?) This is great news. If the Yakuza series continues, I hope it continues to make its way to the West. And I’m glad Sega decided to keep the authentic gameplay without cutting anything out. Good job! ありがとうございます!
This is excellent news – the Yakuza/Ryu Ga Gotuku series is one of gaming’s underdogs and true quality franchises of this generation and the last, and it’s going to be great to see the 4th chapter in English.
Two questions on many people’s minds:
1) Is there any chance of Yakuza 3 getting either a patch or DLC for the missing content?
2) Is there any chance of PS3 title “Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan!” being localized?
1) Please release Kenzan as well.
2) Release a LE of Yakuza 4 with artwork, behind the scenes making of with footage of Japan, history of and inspiration from real Yakuza, etc
3) Please keep the Japanese style box art for Yakuza 4.
4) Give us a Ryo Hazuki downloadable character to play as. You can charge us 15 bucks for it. I’ll buy it twice.
Yakuza 3 is awesome and I’m still playing it… Thanks Sega for bringing us great japanese games ;)
Thank you so much SEGA and Aaron for getting Yakuza 4 to the USA. I send you guys a letter about how much I loved Yakuza 3 and to please bring Yakuza 4 here–thank you so much for listening. I would love to pre-order this on Amazon, so it would be great if you can get that all set up soon.
Will we be getting that “Project-K” for the PSP as well (Kurohyou: Ryu ga Gotoku Shinshou)? I don’t have a PSP, but if that were released here, I would have to get one.
Yakuza 3 is my first experience with the series and I’m already hooked!
Great job SEGA!
Hey man. Thank you for bringing this EXCLUSIVE TITLE to WEST: Yakuza 1,2,3 and now 4!!! THANK YOU!!!
By the way, please make this happen: By bringing Valkyria Chronicles to Playstation 3!!! And also, to make this EXCLUSIVE ONLY TO PLAYSTATION 3!!! If you don’t do that, then I will have to ask Yakuza to come after you and your guys/gals at SEGA. That is a promise. :-D You don’t want to piss him off? :-D Keep up the good work!
I recently just bought Yakuza 3 and instantly fell in love with it, so I’m very VERY excited for this now!
I’m interested in who these playable characters are, and what kind of fighting styles they offer… Will the ability to use items found in the battle area be improved in 4? And any news on the PSP version of Yakuza to come to America?
Regardless, I’ll be getting this day 1.
Thank you SEGA!!! Damn you guys have made me happy this week. First the announcement of Yakuza 4 a few days ago, then the Dreamcast games coming to PSN news the other day. What a great week!
I own the entire Yakuza series and can’t wait for Y4.
You guys really have turned your company around in recent years. I was so sad when the Dreamcast was pulled off the market before it had even reached it’s prime. It’s nice to see you guys return to making the best Japanese games after all these years. My favorite games from this generation are Valkyria Chronicles and of course Yakuza.
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks again from a long time – die hard Sega fanboy!
I liked Shenmue and liked Yakuza
Is this game almost a inspiration of Shenmue?
In some ways, I explain the Yakuza series to old SEGA fans as a sort of fast-paced spiritual successor to Shenmue. It’s not 100% accurate, as Yakuza truly does have a lot of unique gameplay elements, but the setting in Japan and the gameplay style both feel very similar.