Random Person's Tumblr says anonymous Sega Rep says Yakuza 5 is never happening
- Thread starter fvng
- Start date
LiveFromKyoto
Member
Probably that they work for money, and tend not to translate games nobody's going to publish.
darkistheway
Member
This is what I don't get. Even niche titles can make a decent ROI, considering there is entire fucking companies that cater to the market. Just slap subtitles on, leave all the weird Japanese quirks that usually get 'localized' out of existence and release it. Or let someone else do it.
CartridgeBlower
Member
Are the fan translations worth it? Or do they take too much away from the expierence, always having to look down at a youtube video or gamefaq guide. Anyone here ever do one? Thinking about doing one for the original Kenzan.
It's incredible, really, and people defend them because "they don't make money". No that's not true, because it wouldn't explain why Namco is suddenly starting to release Tales of games (and they are even translating them in 5 languages in Europe ffs) or why smaller publishers would gladly work on all these "unprofitable" games, it's clear that these games make money, just not as much as they want.
Hence why they don't give a shit about their fanbase.
I'd actually prefer not playing the game at all if my only option would be a terribly english dubbed Yakuza.
StarCreator
Member
You say that like it's a given Yakuza sells as well as Tales games do. Care to show us the numbers?
firehawk12
Subete no aware
There's a game about being Keiji Inafune's niece trying to date boys on PSN right now. If they can make money on that, they can make money on anything.
Hell, even Danganronpa is getting localized!
I wish Western sales numbers were publicized like the media create ones are in Japan but I guess it's easier for companies when they can pick and choose when to tell people numbers. :/
LiveFromKyoto
Member
This criticism incorrectly assumes that companies have infinite bandwidth to just put out as much stuff as they want. A small release is still a project that's going to take up a bunch of people's time. Opportunity cost is not just another term for maximal greed.
AnkiRendan
Member
Honestly, I'm doing that for Kenzan and I'm just not enjoying it. I hate not being able to talk to any NPC I want to hear what they have to say. The game is amazing, but I'm just not experiencing it in the way I'd like.
AzureSkies
Member
I barely saw anything on Binary Domain, apart from a (very) few trailers... though I'm thinking using it to our advantage, Yakuza Fan had this image out for a while:
Problem? I never really saw it tagged/forwarded to SEGA (like they started with Miku), I say turn the tables on them, forward it to them on FB/Twitter and maybe even @giocorsi...show them what a "few fans" can do.
that and I wish the Galian Liberation Front would do something similiar with VC3.
This has to be done, seriously.
Mutanthands
Member
Well, if the first four games, plus Dead Souls didn't make enough money for Sega, it's no surprise that they are going to forgo 5. I'm surprised we got the first four, frankly.
It's disappointing, but business is business. It's not worth a boycott or undue anger, to be honest.
It's disappointing, but business is business. It's not worth a boycott or undue anger, to be honest.
StarCreator
Member
Now that I'm back at a PC and not furiously typing things on a phone while out on lunch, I'm just going to remind people who haven't read the OP (which is citing a blog which is citing a freaking tumblr post) that we never get a name to attribute the statement to and nothing but the thread title here actually says the game is never coming out.
fvng
Member
What about a wonderfully dubbed Yakuza? Beggars can't be choosers. Geez
B..but everyone here says Sega never gave the series a fair shot.
Big companies have investors who may see it as a bad sign.
Tizoc
Member
Hmm don't Ghostlight and XSEED do a kickstarter or such for PSP games? Can't they do something like that?
The fact that they refuse to acknowledge the game's existence doesn't help matters. If they'd just officially say something one way or the other it'd be nice.
I feel like with today's digital environment, things like this should no longer be an issue.
The problem with localization is it may be too costly to ship overseas when demand is too low to recover your ROI. But if you make the game digital-only, everybody wins.
I'm surprised Digital-only games (the size of a retail effort) isn't a thing. We already have XBLA/PSN/WW/STEAM
The problem with localization is it may be too costly to ship overseas when demand is too low to recover your ROI. But if you make the game digital-only, everybody wins.
I'm surprised Digital-only games (the size of a retail effort) isn't a thing. We already have XBLA/PSN/WW/STEAM
BlackClouds
Member
This right here. Yakuza as a series is just known as a cheap bootleg version of GTA. Not sure how anybody can be surprised if the series is struggling to sell 25k copies. How in the hell is money made with those pathetically low numbers?
As far as I know, Gaijin Games or something did a kickstarter or something for a physical version of Class of Heroes 2, not the actual localization. Could be mistaken. I know XSEED will not do Kickstarter and I don't know of what Ghostlight's done.
fvng
Member
Recover your investment you mean. "Recover your return on investment" is not a thing
Every time I see the reactions to a niche game being digital only when being released in the west, it's never pretty.
StarCreator
Member
You're completely ignoring the dozens of posts in the thread stating going digital only doesn't do anything to significantly offset costs when you're dealing with a game of Yakuza 5's scale. The effort needed for localization is far from insignificant and I think it's simply too big a game to effectively halve your potential market by going digital only. I mean, just look at all the whining Ace Attorney 5 gets by being digital only, and try to imagine how much moaning there would be if that is what somehow ends up happening with Yakuza 5.
So true Konami doesn't give a fuck anymore. It's either PES or whatever Kojima approves of the rest is dead.
Case in Point: Ace Attorney 5
Prince Vultan
Banned
Bet they based this off sales of Dead Souls, a hackneyed spinoff game even the Japanese Yakuza fans didn't exactly go nuts for.
I'm not saying it was a massive seller here before that, but 3 sold well enough to warrant 4 getting a release. Dead Souls just fucked this whole thing for us, didn't it?
I'm not saying it was a massive seller here before that, but 3 sold well enough to warrant 4 getting a release. Dead Souls just fucked this whole thing for us, didn't it?
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Ace Attorney fans ruining things for the rest of us.
ioriyagami
Member
Really bad news. Even if they start considering translating it in the upcoming months, the game will still come too late in the PS3's lifecycle to be relevant. My only hope is that the Sega rep she talked to wasn't informed (but I doubt he'd say things like "there's no plans" without knowing about it).
If you haven't you can try voting here too: http://operationrainfall.com/vote-to-localize-sega-konami-polls/. I think Sega will just ignore them, but trying won't hurt
If you haven't you can try voting here too: http://operationrainfall.com/vote-to-localize-sega-konami-polls/. I think Sega will just ignore them, but trying won't hurt
ShadowgeistX
Member
Isn't that just because of Nintendo's handling of digital purchases? I mean, I'm getting AA5 but even I'm just a bit concerned over how some of it gets handled over at Nintendo.
Also, Yakuza 5 please. And PSO2, please. Even if PSO2 was supposed to hold me over till MH3U (lmao), I'd still like to play it on NA servers.
Yea I only have a problem if the digital game is exclusive to the eshop because of its terribad account system. I am ok with digital only games on PC, XBL ,PSN, ect
My response was not specific to Nintendo. I personally enjoy a lot of the smaller niche games and regardless of platform, the anger I've seen over digital only releases is pretty crazy.
The issue is not comparing numbers, the issue is asking if a Yakuza 5 localization would be profitable or not and when you see otome games getting released on a dead console you can bet your ass a Yakuza 5 localization would be profitable. And even if a retail release would be impossible, they still have the digital option, there are really no excuses. And I stopped trusting big companies after Capcom's bullshit about Ace Attorney sales.
Tales of was a dead franchise in Europe, well it was never alive, the first Tales of officially released here was Symphonia and that was thanks to Nintendo. Namco never gave a shit about the series here nor tried, but after Tales of Graces F something changed, they probably discovered that Japanese games actually sell well in Europe (especially in a strong market like France, I'm pretty sure Xenoblade did great too) and now they are fostering the market.
The problem with big companies (especially Japanese) is that they are so behind, they won't change any of their old policies, they don't adapt when the market change. SEGA even lost the train during the fighting game revival, they waited so long to release VF5 FS.
Samurai_Heart
Member
Yakuza fans:
='(
Acquiescence
Member
Agreed. That unnecessary, misplaced Western dub ruined the first game for me. It was very Japanese and very story-driven, so the last thing it needed was a bunch of Hollywood has-beens hamming it up with their Californian accents and making a mockery of the beautifully realised cast and world the developers had created. Luckily, I gave the series a second chance with the sequel (best installment in the franchise) and haven't looked back since.
Sega are real gits for denying us Yakuza 5. I don't care if I sound entitled; you can't keep localising every mainline game of a franchise and then just decide to stop at a random instalment. "Here, have the sequel. Have 3, 4, hell have a spin-off. Oh you want the fifth game? Nah, ain't happening, sorry!"
And it looks so good as well...
...sans the dance battles.
NonexistentK
Member
There is no conspiracy ala Ace Attorney here folks. Yakuza is a very japanese game, it requires serious localization effort and none of the previous entries were profitable in the west. How about we spend that twitter bomb energy for something more sensible, like petitioning for PSO2's western release, instead of shitting on Sega for making a rational business decision with Yakuza 5.
StarCreator
Member
You need numbers to back up statements about profitability. Just saying "it'll be profitable" without knowing the costs and how much it needs to make back is completely and totally a waste of space.
VF5 console releases are always behind as long as the game continues making money in arcades. Why would they cannibalize their arcade profits with a home version while the arcade version is still making money day after day?