[…Hm…yeah, I can understand why this might be an issue]
In a move that’s not all that surprising given the devastating earthquakes in Japan, SEGA has decided to move Yakuza: Of the End from its March 17th Japanese release date. No new date was given.
This is not a first for SEGA, who cancelled Propeller Arena’s release back on the Dreamcast due to the September 11th terrorist attacks. That game never saw release, a fate that hopefully won’t be shared by Yakuza: of the End.
Last year’s entry in the Yakuza series, Yakuza 4, a game which doesn’t involve a zombie apocalypse, will be releasing this week as planned in Western territories.
[Source: Andriasang]
Ad:
Well, you showed me. I was going to post this. Yeah. It sucks 🙁
I hope it can still sell well at the time it gets released.
George: yeah I'm a ninja like that.
It should. Heck, it's kinda early to put it out what with Yakuza 4 just coming out this time last year. I say give it a year, let enough time past and people will be hungry for more Yakuza by then.
I think it is best to postpone the game indefinitely.
As it is very few would want to play the game given the current situation.
Let's hope for a speedy relief and redevelopment of that nation before planning it's virtual destruction with a Zombie Apocalypse.
I blieve many 'delayed' games are going to be released simultaneously and it might happen that none of them will sell as much as it was expected… I hope I'm wrong.
@ Fernandeath: It is a time of chaos and your worried about the game getting delayed and not selling well when it comes out!
Why are you even concerned about sales figures at a time like this!!!?
They are cancelling the game for a damn good reason, you should try and think about all the people suffering in Japan.
All the people who have lost their lives.
All the people who have lost their families.
The loss to infrastructure, and other civic services.
Natural disasters can happen anywhere last year storms destroyed several villages in my country.
Try to empathise with the suffering people rather than speculating sales figures of a shitty game!
I don't really see what people in Japan dealing with an earthquake/tsunami has to do with a fictional zombie apocalypse game.
I can totally understand why the game was delayed, it makes perfect sense from a PR perspective, but I don't see how taking away a game that hundreds of thousands of Japanese gamers were looking forward to will make them any happier. If I were a gamer in Japan and companies were cancelling games I were looking forward to because they thought it was "insensitive" I imagine I'd be pretty annoyed.
Delay it for a month or so until things settle down but cancelling the game or delaying it for longer than that? Absolutely not, SEGA. There were zombie games before this (tragic and quite devastating) earthquake and there will be zombie games after. People can look to video games to escape the pains and sadness of real life and I'm not sure that taking these away from gamers is doing anyone a service.
Given that I've volunteered at earth quake support camp, I assure you no one is concerned about games.
The entire country is in turmoil games in general are ireeleveant for God sake man Yu Suzuki hasn't been in contact with his MOTHER!
If you were a gamer in Japan you would be numb and in shock.
1st the earth quake
2nd the tsunami
3rd the nuculear meltdown
So you would be lucky to be alive!
" I assure you no one is concerned about games."
Exactly, which is why the knee-jerk reaction to cancel video games is probably not necessary. Nobody's going to freak out or protest if Yakuza: Of the End is released, they have other things to worry about right now than blocking the release of a humorous zombie game.
Like I said, I support a delay, but outright cancellation? C'mon, man….
I don't know.
Think about it this way, bro…Japan's an entire country. If you look at the US, a devastating earthquake in California (even one that may be truly devastating) wouldn't stop people in, say, Florida, from buying video games.
Japan is certainly a smaller country, of course, so it's a bit different. Even Tokyo is currently being effected by blackouts and the fear of radiation. But you get what I'm saying. Delaying the games was the right thing to do as far as being sensitive, I'm fully behind that. But there's no reason to *cancel* games that people have spent a long time and a lot of effort working on.
Lest we forget that the quake hurt the economy. I'd think eventually releasing the game would be a very good thing, as it would help the Yakuza team earn compensation for their work and promote consumer spending.