Yakuza 4 Coming Exclusively to PS3 in Spring 2011

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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 for PS3

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!

Yakuza 4 for PS3

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.

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122 Comments

27 Author Replies

  • 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.

  • I wish people would learn to stop dropping 60$ on games that come out yearly. The sooner people stop supporting these weak excuses of a new game, the sooner the devs will realize the formula needs to change.

    I’ve tried to stray customers as far away from this series as possible, and the few that ignored me and bought it, ended up trading it in within the week.

    • I disagree. I think that everyone is welcome to their opinion, but if you don’t like the series, there should be more to it than simply stating that it’s because a game comes out each year. (To be fair, fans also waited a very long time for Yakuza 3 – the least we can do is start catching up!)

      If the fallacious thinking that a game a year automatically makes games bad were true, then Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles, which I consider some of my all-time favorite classic games, would have apparently been never worth buying. :)

  • Any chance of restoring the hostess clubs and other cut content to Yakuza 3 in a greatest hits style re-release?

    Also it’s great that hostess clubs are not being cut this time, but what about the other cut mini games and quests? Is Sega committed to bringing over the entire game this time and not just bits and pieces they feel “will resonate?” I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s future purchasing decisions regarding the series hinge on this so I hope you can provide some response.

  • erm, “whose” oops.

  • Now that you guys are not cutting the hostess clubs (and hopefully most of the other stuff where possible) I will totally pre-order Yakuza 4. I actually went and picked up a copy of Yakuza 2 (yeah, backwards compatible PS3!) to play before I play Yakuza 3. I had planned to pre-order 3 but changed my mind when I heard about the cuts. This time hopefully you guys can spend the proper amount of time on it and do it up right. Now we just need Valkyria 3 for PS3!

  • Sony I love you :'(

  • I got burned by pre-ordering Yakuza 3. So, I will buy 4 but I will not pre-order it this time. Unless you did something crazy like add the clubs back into Yakuza 3 (which I have not finished partly because I didn’t like all the missing clubs).

  • Any chance Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan will be bundled with Yakuza 4 or will make it’s way to the US? A man can dream can’t he? :p

  • Are there any plans to bring the recently announced PSP spin off ‘Yakuza: New Chapter Black Panther’ to America?

    …judging from the recent trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYYGDSwyXz0) it looks absolutely stunning.

  • @71 – Nerdmanwhippy

    People like you are the only reason I buy games online now. Nothing like walking into a GameStop and having the employees try to pawn off their fanboy opinions on everything you try to buy. I’m glad those people you convinced not to buy the game didn’t stop overall sales from reaching enough for Sega to bring Yakuza 4 over.

    Maybe when you grow up, you’ll realize people have different taste in games.

  • Interesting, I heard it’s an interesting game, with the inclusion of the Host Club, hope it will be the same as its Japanese counter-part. No one like when parts of the game is taken out for whatsoever reason, it’s just not right.

  • There should be an option to change it to english voice instead of subtitles…. i prob wont get it if it doesnt have an option like this

    just sayin….

  • FINALLY!!! I bashed you guys when you released Yakuza 3 with all those idiotic cuts, but I will also give credit where credit is OBVIOUSLY due. You guys finally seem to get that us Yakuza fans want all of the Japanese-y things that may seem obscure or odd to the common American. I will DEFINITELY be picking this up day 1. On top of that I’ll go and purchase Yakuza 3 in response to this great news!

  • By the way, is there any word on bringing Super Dimensional Game Neptune to the west ?

    • I’ve been watching that game, mostly because I have always secretly wished that Segagaga would have released in the states. No word right now, but it looks pretty cool.

  • This is the best news ever!
    i love SEGA! been a fan since your first console/arcade days =)

  • I’ll care about Yakuza 3 & 4 when I am able to play Yakuza 1 & 2 on my PS3. Until then, I don’t care about anything Yakuza related and would rather just have Shenmue 3 anyways.

  • will there still be text boxes? I would rather just have straight up dialogue and just see the English subtitles

  • Will this game feature some kind of Yakuza 3 save data import? that’s be coolio~

  • Keep the box art as is, that’s my only concern now. It seems that everything else is answered. Thanks Webber! Hope to learn more about it at E3!

    Again, thank you very much for this! I cannot wait! Bring Kenzan and Project K in the future too please!

  • YES YES YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • I’m glad to hear the hostess club is coming back in Yakuza 4. Really, did you have to cut that part (along with some other cuts)in Yakuza 3? It’s not like the strip show or picking up hooker in the GTA series. But I’m glad to see Yakuza 4 to come to USA with everything intact. Are there any plans to maybe rerelease Yakuza 3 with all content back in as Yakuza 3: Director’s cut?

  • Should not have mentioned Shenmue. Shenmue and Suzuki-sama are too powerful for Sega.

  • @79 It’s not us pushing opinions on taste, everybody has their preferred genres and everything likes something different, that is completely fine. When a consumer is going to ask me if a game is worth $60 I won’t just mindlessly say omg it’s the bestest buy it now we want monies!! I’ll let them know if it’s a little on the buggy side, I’ll let them know if the devs are being lazy and cutting content or just milking a franchise with over priced dlc that was already on the disc anyways. I can see the draws to the Yakuza series, don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing concept. Sega is not the team that should be doing it however, as they’ve proven over and over their incapable of doing games the right way. AKA cutting content, leaving in some things that still feel 10 years old, not striving to be the best they can. The Yakuza already has a small fan base, which their is nothing wrong with that, it’s just a shame to get Sega neglect the fanbase that is already so small.

  • @81 the ability to change voices to English would actually require them to do extra work. Considering I remember them mentioning in interviews that keeping the original voice work was hard work for them and a cool feature, I can’t see them adding English.

    • It generally comes down to trying to keep the game more authentic to where it takes place – Japan, and the many facets of Japanese culture.

      I know some people would like to see the game with English voices as well, and at the same time there are many, many people who want only the game as it was in Japan – Japanese voice acting, Japanese hostess clubs, and Japanese mini-games.

      There aren’t any plans to add English to Yakuza 4, but if it’s something you feel strongly about, you’re always welcome to let us know on our forums or in blog posts like this one!

  • Keep up the awesome work Aaron/Sega. :)

  • I love it when the PS3 gets fresh titles from Japan, you’ll never see this from Microsoft.

  • I heard about this news earlier this week and I’m very pleased and excited to hear that the fourth entry is coming west!

  • wow this news made my week also will some characters be included in this like the couple that was cut out in Y3 i seem to recal the quest A Trip Before Marriage

  • Any chance of a patch to add the Hostess Clubs back in to Yakuza 3?

  • This is great news. Sega listened to their fans when fans reacted negatively towards the english dub of Yakuza 1, and Sega listened and left the original voice acting. Sega is clearly listening to fans.

    I loved Yakuza 3, and would consider it the GOTY, even with the cuts. Any plans to add in the content that was cut out later? i wouldn’t mind paying for the DLC on psn.

    Good to know the hostess clubs will be left in Y4, but i HOPE nothing else will be cut out, no matter how much you think it will alienate a western audience. The target audience for Yakuza knows they’re in for an experience that immerses them in Japanese culture. They’re not going to be put off by Shogi or Mahjong, etc.

    I bought a copy of Yakuza 3 from bestbuy and they did not include the redemption code for the extra content. Sigh.

    • Good news – we can hook you up with a free code for the extra content. Drop us a line at help.sega.com, and our Customer Support team will hook you up!

      That offer extends to anyone reading this blog who picked up the game but didn’t happen to have the code included. :)

  • I bought Yakuza 3 first day and am proud I did, even if I was on the fence due to the cuts. Thank you for releasing this. It will be another first day purchase for me.

    1) Would it be possible to fix the cuts in Yakuza 3 via DLC? Even if it was paid DLC, I’d get it. Even if not, I’ll still get Yakuza 4…but don’t you want a little extra cash from the Charlie?
    2) Is the Valkyria Chronicles trophy patch ever coming or should I just give up hope on that?
    3) Will Yakuza 1 & 2 ever be released as PSN downloads? And if so, will Yakuza 1 (hopefully) have Japanese audio? After being introduced to Kazuma in 3, it would feel VERY odd to play a game with him speaking in English.

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