A look at SEGA of Japan’s Yakuza stage show

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Did you know that the Japanese love going to stage shows? Did you know that SEGA have made quite a bit of stage shows of their franchises including stuff like Phantasy Star Online 2 and now Yakuza aka Ryu Ga Gotoku? I have to be honest, the stage show doesn’t look half bad from Famitu’s photo gallery and most of the actors fit their roles unlike the Takashi Miike directed ‘Like a Dragon’ movie.

Below you can see a few of the photographs taken from the stage show’s debut. If you want more head over to Famitsu’s extensive gallery.

SEGA and Sony team up to release a 10th anniversary Yakuza branded Walkman player

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SEGA and Sony have teamed up for the Yakuza franchise’s 10th anniversary to release a Walkman player sporting Yakuza branding. The Japanese exclusive Walkman, which unfortunately is not a throwback CD or cassette player, is planned to release on March 12th to coincide with the release of Yakuza 0 and will retail for 29,980 Yen (around $250 USD). As an added incentive for fans, the player is to come pre-loaded with twelve songs from the series including the new Yakuza 0 intro and outro tunes.

Next Yakuza Title (Yakuza 6?) Website Revealed, Formal Reveal Incoming

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The teaser website for the next Yakuza title has just launched. It features text that steadily appears and fills up the screen, culminating with the image shown above. Gematsu reports that we can expect a formal reveal via niconico on the 24th of August at 9 P.M. Japan time. Details are scant on the game itself, but we do know that the game is in development for both the PS3 and PS4, and that it will not be a spinoff title.

The Yakuza franchise keeps moving forward in Japan, but outside of Japan the rest of the world still lags with Ishin and 5 not being localized. Please consider learning about and supporting the Day of the Dragon (August 8th) to show your support for bringing Yakuza games outside of Japan!

Credit to Gematsu for the teaser website image capture.

Next Yakuza already in development

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While it’s a surprise to absolutely nobody, Toshihiro Nagoshi and producer Masayoshi Yokoyama have confirmed to Famitsu that they’ve begun work on the next Yakuza game, following the release of Yakuza Ishin earlier this year.

Details are scarce, with a more formal reveal likely to take place in the near future. For now, the two mostly discussed the process of auditioning the game’s hostesses.

As has become typical, it’s unlikely that we’ll hear anything about a Western release, though I’d love to be proven wrong.

Keep it glued to SEGAbits for the latest on the Yakuza series and of course all other SEGA news.

SEGAbits & Segalization partnership

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Hi SEGAbits readers! Some of you may have heard about Segalization, our new fan campaign that focuses on promoting the localization of Japanese Sega games. The project has already gone live a while ago, and today we’d like to formally announce a new partnership with our friends at SEGAbits. Other than having both websites link to each other, this partnership means you may find Segalization staffers occasionally contributing articles to SEGABits, which may or may not involve titles or news related to Segalization’s mission. In this first article, we’d like to talk a bit about the origins and goals of our campaign/website.

New Yakuza Ishin video compares the PS3 and PS4 versions


An exciting new video has hit promoting both the PS3 and PS4 versions of Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin!, due for a release in Japan on February 22, 2014. The comparison video, shared in our forums by maakun2896, not only shows off gameplay footage, but they even detail the differences in controllers and package design. No word on a release to the West just yet, but the game is looking so good that many fans have already decided to import rather than wait. Are you planning on importing the game, or are you a lucky soul living in Japan? Sound off in the comments below, or discuss the game further in our dedicated forum topic!

Sony’s Third Production Team receiving many requests for Yakuza, Shenmue

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A few months ago, Sony announced the formation of the Third Party Productions team, a new group within Sony’s third party relations meant to facilitate the localization or porting of content between regions or consoles. The first project announced by this team was the Vita port of Borderlands 2, which is a pretty major feat to accomplish in and of itself.

The team has since asked fans to send in requests for the kinds of games they’d like to see on their Playstation console of choice, and according to Sony’s Adam Boyes their top two choices were none other then SEGA’s Yakuza and Shenmue franchises. For what this means, please check out the full quote below the fold. For the full interview, please visit Kotaku.

Yakuza 1&2 HD Wii U edition screenshots emerge

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It’s weird that SEGA has decided to port over Yakuza 1&2 HD to the Wii U. Maybe this is their first step in planning on bringing over the other Yakuza titles. Regardless, these two Yakuza titles (especially the second one) are the best Yakuza titles ever made. So if you never played a Yakuza game and they bring this over to America, do yourself a huge favor and pick it up.

Here we have screenshots. I know it isn’t fancy graphics, but they look rather nice for what they are; HD ports of Playstation 2 games. Hit the jump to see the rest of the screens.

Yakuza’s Kazuma Kiryu to be a downloadable character in Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational

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SEGA has made Yakuza series one of the biggest Playstation only series’ this generation and seems the franchise is getting a bit deeper ties with Sony. Kazuma Kiryu is set to be a paid downloadable character in Sony Computer Entertainment Japan’s latest Hot Shots Golf game.

You will be able to download the infamous, 7 foot tall gangster for a overpriced 500 yen ($5). This isn’t the first time Kazuma has golfed, since the Yakuza series has featured Golf mini-games in their past titles. Hey Sony, how about adding him in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale?

Did you know the Gamecube version of F-Zero GX contains the full arcade release?


First lets talk about why F-Zero GX news is posted on a SEGA blog, if you didn’t already know the game was developed by Amusement Vision (SEGA AM4) the guys that did games like Super Monkey Ball and later Yakuza series. Did you also know that F-Zero GX used the Super Monkey Ball engine?

F-Zero AX is the name of the arcade version of the game, which was developed along side F-Zero GX for GameCube.  Well, it happens that the full arcade version was hidden away on the Gamecube disc of F-Zero GX and if you have an Action Reply or Gameshark, you could online the game. You have to check out the Retro Collection lists of codes, that will get you started. Though as pointed out by some YouTube comments, there are subtle differences from the arcade version. Probably never completed and was scrapped as an unlockable?