SEGA’s action adventure series Yakuza has never moved from the Sony platforms and it does not seem like that will be changning anytime soon. Speaking to Eurogamer, Nagoshi revealed recently why Yakuza is exclusive solely to Sony platforms;
“At the beginning of the project we spoke to all the platform holders including Sony and Microsoft,” he said, “Every platform holder was negative about this prospect, but we kept on pushing because we believed in the potential, and as we kept going one platform holder that showed interest and saw the prospects of this title was Sony.”
“That’s how we started working with them, and that’s probably not going to change.”
Nagoshi also revealed that Yakuza of the End is the end of one particular era of Yakuza games, saying that as the series started as a Playstation 2 game, some design aspects were not changed when they moved to the Playstation 3.
“The basic style and mechanics is really an old game that started on PS2 and continued on PS3,” Nagoshi said, “Times keep changing, and if we started on some new games they would be in a very different shape – so the last game was the end of one particular era.”
[Source: Eurogamer]
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I think the adverts and hype it got was partly due to Sony, at least in Japan. So I guess if people want their Yakuza fix they can spring 250 for a PS3. Not too much, way better value than the Wii was at that time.
Good to hear that any future Yakuza games will be updating themselves. Yakuza was never exactly cutting-edge, even when it first came out on the PS2, and the series’ many short-comings (design-wise) are in serious need of an upgrade.
Knowing this, I’m excited for the (inevitable) next one.
For me it’s one of the biggest disappointments in this generation that Yakuza is Sony exclusive.
Thank you Peter Moore…
I actually cannot wait, whilst the engine was starting to show its age in Yakuza 4 the story telling, character development, humour and sheer amount of content was absolutely top notch.
If they can come back with a high end engine and maybe make some of the animations a bit less stiff I will be over the moon!
It’s a good time to be a Sega fan right now!
This is why I like nagoshi. At least he aknlowedged when things can be better and this way he at least gives the impressions that he’s very ambitious and strifes for better.
You could at least given me some credit Aki. First george now you. For the shame of it.
So basically we’ll get a new engine something he should’ve done ideally with Yakuza 4 if not The End.