Sega says Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is “selling well” as it reports highest company-wide profit figures in recent years

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Via Automaton West
Sega recently announced its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 2025, reporting a sharp increase in profits compared to previous years (as reported by GameBiz).

The company saw triple-digit growth in operating profit and ordinary profit, while net profit reached 32.3 billion yen (over $224 million USD). This is a huge turnaround from the 6.65 billion yen net loss they saw in the previous fiscal year (caused by cancelled titles and restructuring of their European business).​
According to Sega, the strong performance this year was driven by high-margin sales of full price games released in previous fiscal years, as well as sales of new releases Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and Sonic x Shadow Generations. Video game sales and Sonic-related licensing revenue were strong enough to offset the losses Sega incurred from the cancellation of Football Manager 25.​

Sega's financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025 are as follows:

Revenue: 124.08 billion yen (down 33.5% year-on-year)
Operating Profit: 11.11 billion yen (up 373.7% year-on-year)
Ordinary Profit: 35.27 billion yen (up 374.3% year-on-year YoY)
Net Profit: 32.31 billion yen (as opposed to 6.65 billion yen net loss previous year)​
 
Considering the quality of the game and the massive asset reuse or more bluntly put, it's a fucking dlc priced as a full game, I doubt the budget for it was high so ofc its weak sales are "well".
 
i have no regrets buying this on day 1 launch price as i am not a fan of turned based Yakuza games , i still prefer the older title battle systems

i am happy to know that many loved this game as well
 
Its a fun game, so I'm not surprised its selling well. I honestly prefer the action combat it has over the turn based from infinite wealth. Also the ship combat was pretty cool.
 
i have no regrets buying this on day 1 launch price as i am not a fan of turned based Yakuza games , i still prefer the older title battle systems

i am happy to know that many loved this game as well
Same. I generally don't have a problem with turn based combat, but the way Yakuza implements it, plus all the grinding can get tedious.
 
Good for them, but it feels like it was supposed to be a DLC that got made into a full game. It probably wasn't that expensive to make.
 
Bought the game recently and finished it. It's fun. I still love the Yakuza formula. The price wasn't reasonable though. Should've been $39.99 at launch, maybe $44.99 tops. $59.99 is really aggressive. Took me about 20-25 hours to finish and did a lot (but not all) of the side stuff.

If you're on the fence and love Yakuza, you should eventually get this but no harm in waiting until it's like $29.99.
 
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awesome. game's a ton of fun and a nice change from the usual drama

I'd be cool if they did another historical one, Ishin is my 2nd fav in the series after 0

Though I suppose audience might be tired of that between AC Shadows and upcoming Yotei
 
This is the first yakuza game I am not really in love with honestly. Its not bad dont get me wrong... but yea bring back the night time city crime drama stuff....
 
Glad it's doing well. I hope the studio can revitalize Virtua Fighter and turn it into a high selling franchise. An entertaining story mode will be critical.
 
This is the first yakuza game I am not really in love with honestly. Its not bad dont get me wrong... but yea bring back the night time city crime drama stuff....

Yakuza 9 should be entirely set in an expanded Kamurocho. Start in the normal map and then finally let us cross that street on the bottom of the map revealing an expanded map 4X the OG size.
 
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That's a lot better than they were doing shortly after they went third party. Regardless of the fact they had a lot more talent under their umbrella back then. They're doing much better now..
 
Day 1 buy and I absolutely loved it. Been wanting to get into tue franchise and I had a complete blast. Top 3 game of the year for me (not that I have played too many 2025 release game).
 
It most likely was made by two janitors in their spare time. No wonder that it "selling well" comparatively to how much it cost.
 
im shocked this franchise doesn't have fatigue yet.

I personally don't want to see another Yakuza or persona game for at least a few years.

Both franchises are being milked worse than Disney does with star wars.
 
im shocked this franchise doesn't have fatigue yet.

I personally don't want to see another Yakuza or persona game for at least a few years.

Both franchises are being milked worse than Disney does with star wars.
This part I've bolded gave me a good chuckle, especially since Sega/Atlus just released a new Persona 5 spinoff yesterday. :messenger_tears_of_joy:


 
im shocked this franchise doesn't have fatigue yet.

I personally don't want to see another Yakuza or persona game for at least a few years.

Both franchises are being milked worse than Disney does with star wars.

If the choice is choice is one game every 15 years or so like the Elder Scrolls or a main game every 3 years and a side game in between, then milk it all day.

I'm glad that RGG actually consistently releases fun games.
 
Paid full price and enjoyed it. I consider it Yakuza's "feel-good" game. It has a lighthearted, childlike vibe at times that contrasts with normal Yakuza titles, so if you're looking for standard Yakuza "serious" melodrama, you're looking in the wrong place. It's more like a fun adventure with some ship to ship combat thrown in.

I enjoyed the real-time action (not a fan of turn-based). The story was okay but forgettable. My main gripe was the overstuffed nature of it - all the shiny objects to collect, food to harvest, etc. I prefer the leaner approach of earlier Yakuza titles. Sidequests were fun. Ship to ship combat was fun, too. And it was nice to see Majima get his own game.

Anyhow, glad to hear it is selling well.
 
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Bought the game recently and finished it. It's fun. I still love the Yakuza formula. The price wasn't reasonable though. Should've been $39.99 at launch, maybe $44.99 tops. $59.99 is really aggressive. Took me about 20-25 hours to finish and did a lot (but not all) of the side stuff.

If you're on the fence and love Yakuza, you should eventually get this but no harm in waiting until it's like $29.99.
I bought it close to launch, wanted to support the devs and I loved Like A Dragon. But erm, I dropped this Pirate title pretty early in... I think I stopped playing around the time I entered this big "Las Vegas" lookin' cave.

I've got other games waiting to be played... so I'm not sure if I'll ever dive back into it. Kind of a shame, would you say Pirate Yakuza is very much worth it? Does it get better?
 
Yakuza 9 should be entirely set in an expanded Kamurocho. Start in the normal map and then finally let us cross that street on the bottom of the map revealing an expanded map 4X the OG size.
Or you know, venture beyond Kabukicho and use other places in Tokyo as inspiration.
 
Making it not a turn based trash surely helped.
But even after playing through all the Yakuza and Judgment games, I'd still prefer it being set in Japan.
And man what would I do for another Judgment game.
 
I bought it close to launch, wanted to support the devs and I loved Like A Dragon. But erm, I dropped this Pirate title pretty early in... I think I stopped playing around the time I entered this big "Las Vegas" lookin' cave.

I've got other games waiting to be played... so I'm not sure if I'll ever dive back into it. Kind of a shame, would you say Pirate Yakuza is very much worth it? Does it get better?

That's Madlantis, where you do a lot of the ship combat, meet a bunch of villains, and the story takes some turns. I'm not sure whether to encourage you to press on, though. Sounds like you didn't enjoy the first several hours of the game, and that's usually a pretty good indication about how you'll feel about the rest.
 
Personally I don't mind Gaiden or Pirate Yakuza as smaller entries. If you're seriously bothered so much by reusing assets you should already have developed a problem with the entire series.

It wasn't the greatest entry and there were too many fillers in the middle of the story, but I still enjoyed my time with it and had fun with the new mechanics including ship combat.
 
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