Yakuza Ishin: No Plans For A Western Release. (1 Year To Develop)

One year dev cycle eh? Explains the quality and lack of meaningful advancements in the series. Also gives some insight into the state of Japanese game development costs allowed for such a small market (when games have no overseas appeal).
 
Laws00 said:
These people are releasing a Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2 in the West.

I don't know about you but I would have thought a gangster/mob/yakuza open world, violet game would sell more units then a kawaii niche music game. But hey this is sega. Still waiting on a Phantasy Star Online 2
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Sure. But Miku costs next to nothing to localize (some text menus), and doesn't have a history of failure in the west
 
The west now only gets Sonic, Football Manager and licensed Alien games.

r0luV.gif
 
Very disappointing. Yakuza is definitely in my top 3 favorite franchises and I would hate for it to end after Dead Souls. I've thought about importing the games, but even after studying Japanese for four years, it is still really hard to play the games.

The amount of obscure kanji is staggering, at least for me. If only I had spent more time on reading/writing instead of grammar and speaking.
 
Fucking kickstart the localization dammit.

Sega messed up, Ishin would've sold decent numbers if it came out during the software drought of the ps4 when everyone looked out for the next game to hit the system.
 
Damn it. I finally decided to play Yakuza 4 and I'm loving it (it's the most fun I've had with a game in a long time). It's a shame that Sega just gave up on Yakuza (in the west)
 
I've basically stopped buying Sega games out of principle. Shenmue was the big one, but it was understandable since the games weren't profitable. But then comes Valkyria, Yakuza, PSO2... It's one thing when you stop making a franchise altogether, but when a franchise is ongoing and profitable it really feels like a slap in the face.

Their biggest problem in markets outside of Japan is loss of consumer confidence. I've been burned many times by investing in their franchises (not to mention consoles) over the years and I'm sure many others feel the same. Yet they continue to make these decisions. It feels like there's an inherent ethnocentricity in management where they fail to understand their global customers. Not every game needs to be a blockbuster, and making a marginal profit on smaller niche releases in the west is acceptable when you can foster the goodwill of your fans.

News of Ishin not being localized comes as no surprise yet it still touches a raw nerve with me. C'mon Sega, there are viable options yet you choose not to take them.
 
I remember reading back when Yakuza 3 was first released overseas Sega was "happy" with its sales. Never heard that about 4 or Dead Souls. Shame, since 4 was probably my favorite in the series. Ishin would probably sell better outside of Japan with a different title, marketed as a different series. PS4 owners are dying for some fresh titles to play. Looks like Sega is more concerned with marketing all their Sonic titles instead.
 
That's too bad. This is my favorite game in the series so far and I totally would have been willing to buy it again in English so I could understand it a little better. That said, this game is very targeted towards Japan being heavily based on their history which we westerners wouldn't have the same advantage going into. Also, there's a few things that just wouldn't translate well such as the part where you have to translate from your local dialect to standard Japanese and a lot of puns (e.g. kama = sickle, okama = transvestite), etc.

Keep up the fight guys, maybe Sega will start prioritizing the west more and they'll begin working localization into the actual development process. We're not going to get these things after the teams have moved onto new projects.
 
The Yo Tornado said:
I remember reading back when Yakuza 3 was first released overseas Sega was "happy" with its sales. Never heard that about 4 or Dead Souls. Shame, since 4 was probably my favorite in the series. Ishin would probably sell better outside of Japan with a different title, marketed as a different series. PS4 owners are dying for some fresh titles to play. Looks like Sega is more concerned with marketing all their Sonic titles instead.
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You never heard about 4 or Dead Souls because 3 was the only game to do good. For reference, they DID release the worldwide sales of Dead Souls, and the portions from other countries combined wasn't even 1/4 of what Japan did.

Ishin is a side game, but it's not a viable time period in the states. There's a bunch of historical bits and pieces, lotsa text, and the stigmatism of it being a Japanese GTA.

Every time people bring up marketing, I laugh. It's not an end-all-be-all solution. They tried marketing for 4 - trailers, mag adverts, even a demo. And guess what the response to Y4 was?

PS4 owners would love more titles, but even with the increase in people buying it for the impluse/need of new games, there's no way that could ever get close to the translation and implementation of the English text, nevermind the cost of putting said title on the PSN servers.

Captain_Cold said:
I've basically stopped buying Sega games out of principle. Shenmue was the big one, but it was understandable since the games weren't profitable. But then comes Valkyria, Yakuza, PSO2... It's one thing when you stop making a franchise altogether, but when a franchise is ongoing and profitable it really feels like a slap in the face.

Their biggest problem in markets outside of Japan is loss of consumer confidence. I've been burned many times by investing in their franchises (not to mention consoles) over the years and I'm sure many others feel the same. Yet they continue to make these decisions. It feels like there's an inherent ethnocentricity in management where they fail to understand their global customers. Not every game needs to be a blockbuster, and making a marginal profit on smaller niche releases in the west is acceptable when you can foster the goodwill of your fans.

News of Ishin not being localized comes as no surprise yet it still touches a raw nerve with me. C'mon Sega, there are viable options yet you choose not to take them.
Click to expand...

They understand their global consumers very well - they've sent many Yakuza games over here, and they sold like shit. Blame the fans, not the company, for it were profitable, we'd still see some games.

And making a "marginal profit" isn't always the best idea depending on the condition of your company. These businesses aren't charities. They can't be. They have workers to pay. Look a the post from Pespi on the previous page and see how this is no small feat.

I swear, every single one of these topics misses the biggest issue - Yakuza is a niche series.
 
Skipping a main series game meant nothing would ever come again.

I'm positive Sega is using their refusal to bring Yakuza 5 over as a reason why further games can't come.
 
TheSpoiler said:
You never heard about 4 or Dead Souls because 3 was the only game to do good. For reference, they DID release the worldwide sales of Dead Souls, and the portions from other countries combined wasn't even 1/4 of what Japan did.

Ishin is a side game, but it's not a viable time period in the states. There's a bunch of historical bits and pieces, lotsa text, and the stigmatism of it being a Japanese GTA.

Every time people bring up marketing, I laugh. It's not an end-all-be-all solution. They tried marketing for 4 - trailers, mag adverts, even a demo. And guess what the response to Y4 was?

PS4 owners would love more titles, but even with the increase in people buying it for the impluse/need of new games, there's no way that could ever get close to the translation and implementation of the English text, nevermind the cost of putting said title on the PSN servers.



They understand their global consumers very well - they've sent many Yakuza games over here, and they sold like shit. Blame the fans, not the company, for it were profitable, we'd still see some games.

And making a "marginal profit" isn't always the best idea depending on the condition of your company. These businesses aren't charities. They can't be. They have workers to pay. Look a the post from Pespi on the previous page and see how this is no small feat.

I swear, every single one of these topics misses the biggest issue - Yakuza is a niche series.
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Quoting for quality
 
TheSpoiler said:
Yeah, fuck you Sega for not funding a game that would make no profits for a small group of people who want a niche series.

I love the Yakuza series, but lay blame where it should be.
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New gen, early adopters are thirsty and buy pretty much everything, PS4 selling like hotcakes, not a mainline game, for all these reasons they should've tried one last time to sell that franchise to the West. And Gio Corsi might have helped them out too...

But of course it's too late for that now.
 
TheSpoiler said:
Yeah, fuck you Sega for not funding a game that would make no profits for a small group of people who want a niche series.

I love the Yakuza series, but lay blame where it should be.
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On Sega for not marketing the series and choosing a spin-off zombie game that received poor critical reception everywhere instead of the more anticipated main series game?

How did they expect the series to grow if they never made anyone aware it existed? There's only so much "You have to blame the consumers!" to go around before you have to wonder if the publisher could have done anything to help.
 
I bought Yakuza Dead Souls and was expecting Yakuza 5 to come out. You guys made Kazuma use a gun in Dead Souls. A GUN. After a great game like Yakuza 4, you made your crappy attempt to capture the gun/zombie audience.

Before that you probably has one of the worst box art for Yakuza 3.
256px-Yakuza3_boxart.jpg


Bring back the manly Japanese melodrama and punches and goofy open world tasks that we wanted.
 
TheSpoiler said:
Yeah, fuck you Sega for not funding a game that would make no profits for a small group of people who want a niche series.

I love the Yakuza series, but lay blame where it should be.
Click to expand...

Sadly, true.

My highly sarcastic opinion is a great deal of people who play vidjagames wouldn't know a good game if it materialized into a fish and walloped them upside the noggin, and hence, here we are.

Actually, it's not even that sarcastic. Yakuza games don't sell despite having such a vocal, hardcore (though small) following, and for whatever reason, people don't give them a go. The average taste of gamers is one of those reasons, much as I want to crap on Sega or the gaming press or whatever. I don't like it, and on a good day would make fun of their preferences endlessly... but they don't want to play the franchise, and that's the bottom line.

It is a fucking shame that Y5, Ishin, and others (though really, I can't imagine the HD ports of 1 and 2 being quite as costly since they're already translated) won't likely be coming to the west, but what can you do? If I had like a billion dollars lying around and was an idiot, sure, I'd give it to Sega to make them do the western release, but yeah, I'm not that guy.
 
Laws00 said:
These people are releasing a Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2 in the West.

I don't know about you but I would have thought a gangster/mob/yakuza open world, violet game would sell more units then a kawaii niche music game. But hey this is sega. Still waiting on a Phantasy Star Online 2
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There is a thing called projections and expectations.

All the Yakuza games sold under what they projected, the Miku games (so far) have sold far above Sega's expectations. It is the same reason why Valkyria Chronicles moved from PS3 to PSP, they expected xxx,xxx number of sales at full price, they sold far below that, especially in the West.
 
I, and many others, say the same things in these threads.

Sidewinder said:
New gen, early adopters are thirsty and buy pretty much everything, PS4 selling like hotcakes, not a mainline game, for all these reasons they should've tried one last time to sell that franchise to the West. And Gio Corsi might have helped them out too...

But of course it's too late for that now.
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Localization is not cheap. And sure, compare launch titles that are established to a Japanese-focused title that probably cost more than Strider.

I mean, you know more about Sega's financial abilities than they do.

ShockingAlberto said:
On Sega for not marketing the series and choosing a spin-off zombie game that received poor critical reception everywhere instead of the more anticipated main series game?

How did they expect the series to grow if they never made anyone aware it existed? There's only so much "You have to blame the consumers!" to go around before you have to wonder if the publisher could have done anything to help.
Click to expand...

They marketed the series multiple times. It sold like shit - that includes Dead Souls AND 4. How hard is this to understand?

They brought over 4 games and only one of them did good. They advertised, just as you wanted, and guess what happened?

The consumers didn't buy it. Also, if you really think marketing somehow solves the problem of people buying the game, you need to look into that stuff just a little bit more.

stawnkald said:
Sadly, true.

My highly sarcastic opinion is a great deal of people who play vidjagames wouldn't know a good game if it materialized into a fish and walloped them upside the noggin, and hence, here we are.

Actually, it's not even that sarcastic. Yakuza games don't sell despite having such a vocal, hardcore (though small) following, and for whatever reason, people don't give them a go. The average taste of gamers is one of those reasons, much as I want to crap on Sega or the gaming press or whatever. I don't like it, and on a good day would make fun of their preferences endlessly... but they don't want to play the franchise, and that's the bottom line.

It is a fucking shame that Y5, Ishin, and others (though really, I can't imagine the HD ports of 1 and 2 being quite as costly since they're already translated) won't likely be coming to the west, but what can you do? If I had like a billion dollars lying around and was an idiot, sure, I'd give it to Sega to make them do the western release, but yeah, I'm not that guy.
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This here is some truth. Read it.

hawk2025 said:
How come Dinasty Warriors sells but Yakuza doesn't? :(
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Two different companies.
Completely different games.
Different time periods and different fanbases.

Basically, apples and oranges.
 
hawk2025 said:
How come Dinasty Warriors sells but Yakuza doesn't? :(
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Dynasty Warriors sells, but dont think Dinasty Warriors ever sold a single copy. I heard it bomba'd good.

If you really have to ask that, then I have no idea what to tell you.
 
This game is fantastic, probably my favorite Yakuza/Ryu ga Gotoku game alongside Kenzan.

Don't miss out on the game if you're a fan of the series or of Ryouma/Shinsengumi/etc because of lazy-ass SEGA. I played through Kenzan without knowing a word of Japanese and it was a great experience because of a fan-guide (thePatrick on gamefaqs).

Back then, there was no iPad, so I had it open on a netbook, listened to the cutscenes while paying close attention to the way the characters spoke. After the cutscene was over, I read what was being said in the fan-guide. Think about it, is it really that different if you read the subtitles during the cutscene or a summary right afterwards? I played Ishin without a guide because I've been studying Japanese; tbh, both experiences were very comparable.

There's a new kid in town when it comes to Yakuza Fan Guides. He made one for Y5, Kenzan and now Ishin.

http://www.khhsubs.com/projectsrggishin.html

With this method, you can enjoy 100% of the story content and 90% of the side-missions. The farming/cooking alone will cost you days if it get's its hook into you, it's basically Harvest Moon lite.

One thing I didn't find out before I was pretty far in the game: If you wanna use the Vita companion app, you need to use a Japanese account for your PS4/Vita save, otherwise they won't sync.
 
matrixman92 said:
give it subtitles and release it digitally only...its not that hard Sega.
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Totally. Translating thousands of pieces of text for context, including side missions and random pieces of dialogue and items (of which there is a lot), paying people to do so (because having anyone, in-house or no, won't do this shit for free), programming in said text, then paying a large fee to place up on the PSN all for the hopes that like 100 people are satisfied is easy.

C'mon Sega, what are you guys doing?

Endo Punk said:
Either make it multiplat so they have a large enough audience to invest on western release or Sony should bloody give them a hand. It's clear they're too cheap to appease western fans.
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Multiplat would cost them even more, and I doubt having Sony the translation work would let them also sidestep the cost of placing it up on the digital stores. And really, would Sony foot the bill for the complete localization cost? There's a whole lotta work going on, and I doubt even Sony would want to deal with it if they don't make some sort of profit, Sega or Sony.

You are right, though, they are too cheap to appease the small, vocal fanbase that exist for a niche title.
 
Either make it multiplat so they have a large enough audience to invest on western release or Sony should bloody give them a hand. It's clear they're too cheap to appease western fans.
 
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