Sega’s first two entries in the Yakuza series (Ryu ga Gotoku it its native land) were praised by fans and garnered pretty decent reviews from critics as well when they came across the Pacific and landed on PlayStation 2; the first even having a fairly large localization budget spent on it by hiring top Hollywood voice talent for the characters. However, they flopped fairly hard commercially. Promotion for Yakuza 2, in particular, was almost non-existent – so much so that many fans weren’t even aware it had been released.
Talk swirled around earlier this year that Sega had no plans to bring Yakuza 3 for PS3 overseas, seeing the title as too risky. But when the fall came, rumors floated up that a localization was in the works. Well, it looks like your good faith was rewarded, niche gamers. Let’s try to not screw it up this time, shall we?
Sega Assistant Community Manager Aaron Webber posted yesterday on the PlayStation Blog that Sega was indeed bringing Yakuza 3 westward… and a lot sooner than you’d probably expect – March of 2010.
While this may not look like the best timeframe to release a PS3 game, what with God of War III and Final Fantasy XIII coming out the same month, perhaps they have faith that the game will have long legs, much like another Sega PS3 exclusive that earned critical kudos while having a weak initial showing at retail, Valkyria Chronicles. A strong fan campaign and well-timed sale prices kept the title selling well enough that it’s spawning an upcoming sequel (albeit on PSP). We assume Sega was willing to take fans at their word and give Kiryu Kazuma one more chance to catch on outside of Japan.
[Via: PlayStation Blog]
I predict that nobody will buy it. Many years from now, many people will talk about how great this series was. More people will claim to have played and loved it than could possibly be true. It will rest atop ‘Piles of Shame’ everywhere.
Hyperbole? Maybe…
What’s sad is how very likely right you are. I started (but never finished) the first one and I managed to snag a copy of Yakuza 2 on the cheap for when I get around to actually playing/finishing the first one.
I know I’ll be buying it, but we can only hope others will follow suit.
It’s depressing that this series is actually worthy of the praise heaped upon it. It’s another case of the critics pointing at a series worth playing, the public nodding in agreement, then ignoring the suggestion.
I wish I could fathom why it’s not clicking with US gamers. Maybe it’s a little cynical of me to say it but I bet if the games remained as they are but had Yu Suzuki’s name on the box, more folks would be clamoring to sing praises.
I hope it’ll pick up with the third one though. There are more PS3s out there lately and the movie gets a US DVD release in March. I liked that movie a lot…Takashi Miike is a God =)
This is one of my 3 “day one” purchases for 2010. I played through quite a bit of the Japanese release, but I want to experience the whole thing without translating it line by line. It comes out the same day as FFXIII (I think), and will be prioritized over it w/o question! ^_^