Yakuza 3 So Not Coming To America

I’ve played the demo for Yakuza 3. It’s pretty good! I loved the way it revels in the minutiae of Japanese culture, right down to the fully-stocked convenience stores. Sadly, the demo is as close as I’m going to get.

Sega America’s Ray Almeda has told The Examiner that the game won’t be released in the US. Why? Because nobody bought Yakuza 2, that’s why. Sega looked at the sales of the second game – which stand at around 40,000 – and decided it wasn’t worth the expense of bringing the third one over.

This does not please us, Sega. This does not please us one little bit.

Yakuza 3 US release date announced: Never [The Examiner]

Discuss

(12 Comments)
  • [–]

    Jay

    Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 12:47 PM

    Fair enough about the sales. But would it really cost that much to release it to western audience? They don’t need to re-create the game all over again & maybe promoting a franchise that isn’t that popular a little more to familiarize people with it, then maybe they will get some more sales.

    This is bloody 2009, not the 80′s or 90′s. Why can’t they just release all games in Japan & Western regions. It’s ridiculous on some things each side misses out on. Especially when we receive it around a year or 2 later. Or editing them to make each different.

  • [–]

    Mr Waffle

    Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 12:48 PM

    I’d never even heard of the series until I read people raving about how amazing Yakuza 3 was. Oh well…

  • [–]

    j

    Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 1:16 PM

    just import it and learn some japanese

  • [–]

    Setsuna Saigami

    Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 1:42 PM

    Unsurprising, but still disappointing nonetheless. Both Ryu no Gotoku: Kenzan and Ryu no Gotoku 3 (known as Yakuza in the West) are easily two of the most stand out games in the PS3′s library, and I’ve enjoyed them both immensely. It’s ashame but understandable given the amount of translation work which would be necessary to port the games across, and even then there would be a lot of cultural nuances which would be difficult to localise.

  • [–]

    Denaz

    Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 1:47 PM

    Dammit i was looking forward to this too :(

  • [–]

    Sesshomaru

    Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 2:13 PM

    Why can’t the release an English patch for the Asia or Japanese versions of the game? Like they did for the Koreans. Just menus and subtitles, not lousy voice acting.

    SEGA suck…

    • [–]

      Stinky

      Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 4:50 PM

      Somebody has to pay for that, if there’s no money to be made then it won’t happen.

  • [–]

    narikki

    Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 2:24 PM

    agreed! english patch kthnxbye
    lol

  • [–]

    avsky

    Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 3:29 PM

    Maybe coz they took so goddamn long to localise 2?

  • [–]

    Matt

    Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 3:49 PM

    Dammit now Im going to have to import the JAP version and learn Japanese :(

  • [–]

    Al

    Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 7:45 PM

    sob, i thought that only happened for wii titles. they do have a fair point though.

  • [–]

    doubleDizz

    Friday, July 31, 2009 at 3:03 PM

    So because no one ate Sega’s shit sandwich they released on a dated console a few years ago, they’re not going to release this amazing gem.

    You morons.

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