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YAKUZA 5 LOCALIZED FOR PS3

Once you lose the audience, they don't come back on MakeGoods.

This is one of the funniest posts I've read in a long time. Do you seriously believe that over 50% of the people that played Yakuza 3 even knew about the cut content, let alone cared enough to drop the series over it? I'd be surprised if even 1k of Yakuza 3 players dropped the series over it, not fucking 30k.
 
I have no history with this series, but I'll play my part and buy it for you guys. There is no reason this shouldn't have happened earlier.

While thats cool and all that you will buy it, if you saw the sales numbers thats a pretty good reason why it did not happen earlier on top of why everyone is calling this being localized a miracle.

Yakuza ~80k
Yakuza 2 ~40k
Yakuza 3 ~50k
Yakuza 4 ~20/30k
 
Also its pretty telling they put Yakuza 4 and DS on PSN.

Try and get some new fans.

Could someone else make a thread for that news by the way. It was mentioned briefly on the stage so im sure many have forgot.

It would be even better if someone did a LTTP of the game.
 
US Numbers w/ sources, others beat me to it though:

Yakuza 1: 56K, Yakuza 2: 24K (first five months)
Yakuza 3 did 52k, 4 26k and DS 6k
Worse than TW101

It really can't be overstated how niche this series is, and how lucky we were to get any of them. Pick a God - any God - and pray to them for the Yakuza 5 we are about to receive.

This data makes me so sad :(

That Yakuza 4 install music <3

I remember how epic the ending song for Yakuza 3 was; hope Yakuza 4 have something similar :)


Edit. I was watching the Reminiscence of Yakuza 3
I've totally forgot that Rikiya died :(
 
This is one of the funniest posts I've read in a long time. Do you seriously believe that over 50% of the people that played Yakuza 3 even knew about the cut content, let alone cared enough to drop the series over it? I'd be surprised if even 1k of Yakuza 3 players dropped the series over it, not fucking 30k.

I don't think it was the sole reason, nor have I ever stated it to be such. Sega fucked up a lot, but you're pretty clearly not interested in the discussion from before or any discussion going forward.

I'd advise discerning between contributory factors and, well, anything else in the future, though. I did, it's not that hard.
 
as a fan of the even-numbered yakuzas, it's tragic seeing them bomb so hard

They have no one to blame but themselves for Yakuza 2's bombing. They took FOREVER to localize it, by the time it was out the PS2 was pretty much a faded memory for a lot of people, and it became rare quickly. I remember reserving it and the only copy the Gamestop got was the one I reserved. I honestly think that was their biggest misstep overall with the Yakuza series in America.
 
So on the one hand, I want to buy Yakuza 4 and Dead Souls (and 3 if they'd let me!) on PSN to show my support for the series

On the other hand, I'm totally out of hard drive space
 
i'd pay $60, but was hoping/expecting $40-50 to be honest, given that it's been 2 years now

Just because the title is older does not mean that the amount of $$$ put into it, to make it happen is any less unfortunately. You being one of the front line people for the title should understand this. Unless you are drunk again lol.

Even numbered Yakuza games were also my favorites. So excited about 5 though, things may change!

5 is actually pretty unique, am sure folks will enjoy it.

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Yakuza 3 is the only game of the series I played and I LOVED it, for whatever reason I didn't play 4 or DS, so I'll be getting 4 soon to get ready for 5.
 
Yakuza 3 is the only game of the series I played and I LOVED it, for whatever reason I didn't play 4 or DS, so I'll be getting 4 soon to get ready for 5.

Yeah most def get 4 since it has 2 characters from it besides Kiryu who will be main characters in 5. Shun Akiyama and Taiga Saejima.
 
Just because the title is older does not mean that the amount of $$$ put into it, to make it happen is any less unfortunately. You being one of the front line people for the title should understand this. Unless you are drunk again lol.

I mean, i hear you - you're preachin to the choir on this one - but look at how many people in here moaned about "just port it to PS4", "physicalllll only " etc etc. things like the cost of good localization don't seem to be as well known as you might hope here on GAF, and people's perception of a 2 year old game on a last-gen console might make a $60 price tag a hard pill to swallow for said crowd. I might not normally care (it's a great value for me either way) but if our hopes for Zero/etc are somehow pinned on this? yeah man, i hope it comes in under a current-gen retail release if possible

am kinda drunk again tho haha fair call
 
I mean, i hear you - you're preachin to the choir on this one - but look at how many people in here moaned about "just port it to PS4", "physicalllll only " etc etc. things like the cost of good localization don't seem to be as well known as you might hope here on GAF, and people's perception of a 2 year old game on a last-gen console might make a $60 price tag a hard pill to swallow for said crowd. I might not normally care (it's a great value for me either way) but if our hopes for Zero/etc are somehow pinned on this? yeah man, i hope it comes in under a current-gen retail release if possible

am kinda drunk again tho haha fair call

Those people though are usually the same ones who never buy the game anyways. I think whats going to win folks over is just if SEGA actually does some marketing this time around. But at least some of the titles on PSN is a start.

Id be drunk also if I wasnt out of literally anything with alcohol content in it in the house. Need to save $$$ since its christmas and all that so no new patron for parakeet till after that.

Im still surprised that SEGA did not go with the battle plan to release Ishin earlier / announce it since with how the PS4 was lacking titles and Ishin is pretty much standalone since it has nothing to do with the mainline stuff outside of the characters would have been a great way to garner more interest in the series for folks to buy the other titles. Then the 5 announcement and from there Zero and if before that the HD 1 & 2 version or after. whichever.

A lot of this would be non-issue if the PS4 played PS3 titles, but we know thats not going to happen at least not anytime soon Id expect so its a bit of a moot point to ponder on unfortunately.
 
Has Sega even bothered to market these titles? I've never seen anything for a Yakuza other than a magazine add in an old EGM (or some similar magazine.)

Putting Yakuza 3/4 as a PS+ game may drum up some interest.
 
Has Sega even bothered to market these titles? I've never seen anything for a Yakuza other than a magazine add in an old EGM (or some similar magazine.)

Putting Yakuza 3/4 as a PS+ game may drum up some interest.

I think they are more curious to see who is willing to pay money rather than get something for free. As 2 different mentalities exist with those who buy things from PSN vs those who just download things from their PS+ subscription.

There was some marketing at start, but from there it all kinda went downhill no surprise seeing how the series sales dwindled therefore would imagine was one hell of a fight to even get the budget for the game to be made. I remember hearing about complaining about lack of marketing the most from 3, then with 4 people didnt even know it came out.
 
They have no one to blame but themselves for Yakuza 2's bombing. They took FOREVER to localize it, by the time it was out the PS2 was pretty much a faded memory for a lot of people
Heyyy! When's Y5 coming out?

Summer (aka late september/early october) 2015? Nearly 2 years after the PS4 launched?

Hmmm this seems familiar somehow!
 
Didnt realise Yakuza 1 bombed so hard. That was the one they pumped money into.


Oh and I always though Yakuza 3 would make a perfect PS+ game to show people how cool these games are and maybe boost sales of the other games. It probably wouldn't work now since a lot of the audiance has jumped gens already though
 
US Numbers w/ sources, others beat me to it though:

Yakuza 1: 56K, Yakuza 2: 24K (first five months)
Yakuza 3 did 52k, 4 26k and DS 6k
Worse than TW101

It really can't be overstated how niche this series is, and how lucky we were to get any of them. Pick a God - any God - and pray to them for the Yakuza 5 we are about to receive.

I'd like to point out that the Yakuza 3, 4 and Dead Souls sales figures above are not very reliable. Those numbers come from a post from an unproven source that mentioned getting this out from NPD threads (which are usually not lifetime sales) but couldn't even link his source, referencing another post for the 6K number for Dead Souls which was gathered during its first week in the US only (hardly lifetime numbers).
 
Yakuza 3 isn't even on PSN ffs. I would totally buy it along with 4/DS

Most likely it was stuck in the point in time before digital titles really took off. Kinda why we cant get a lot of the older PS3 titles via PSN.

Im pretty sure SEGA would have to go through a re-submission of the game if they were to do a digital version and do not have the budget or manpower to do so, unfortunately. Since do agree it having been on PSN would have been huge. Since I hear its pretty hard to find copies of 3 around anymore.
 
I don't think it was the sole reason, nor have I ever stated it to be such. Sega fucked up a lot, but you're pretty clearly not interested in the discussion from before or any discussion going forward.

I'd advise discerning between contributory factors and, well, anything else in the future, though. I did, it's not that hard.

You were stating it in a fashion that implied it was one of the bigger reasons, when it's clearly not. The big reason for Yakuza 4 doing poorly is more than likely just because this series isn't for many people. Outside of Japan, that is.
 
yeah, maybe 3 benefited from a slower release schedule early in the gen, where 4 (the clearly superior game, my opinion) was dropped druing a flood of titles. binary domain of course got it way worse, sadly

Those people though are usually the same ones who never buy the game anyways.

you might be right keet, god knows the beancounters at Sega might look at such a limited release of an already niche series & say the few customers they'd lose at $10-20 more aren't worth it & try to maximize each sale to the small base actually checking for it. it's entirely possible.

with my cheap ass though, there's few releases i'm willing to pay illegal amounts of money for. this is one of those.
 
I'd like to point out that the Yakuza 3, 4 and Dead Souls sales figures above are not very reliable. Those numbers come from a post from an unproven source that mentioned getting this out from NPD threads (which are usually not lifetime sales) but couldn't even link his source, referencing another post for the 6K number for Dead Souls which was gathered during its first week in the US only (hardly lifetime numbers).

They're rough numbers, but it doesn't really matter. They could be triple what they are and still be absolutely terrible, especially for games that are presumably quite expensive to localize.
 
For the guys looking to get into the series I recommend these video's: https://www.youtube.com/user/Edmantium/playlists

I watched his playthroughs of Yakuza 1 and 2 before playing the rest of the games myself. His way of playing is ideal for anyone looking to get into it without playing the games. He goes through the dialogue at a very good pace, takes the shortest route possible to missions and does all the important sidequests that add to the story.

Yes, it will take a few hours to watch all of it, but this is only for dedicated people that want to get all the backstory. It wasn't boring though, it felt a lot like watching a (very long) crime movie. The summary video's presented within the games themselves are super short and very superficial imo. You will only truly understand Ryuji Goda and his motivations by seeing the cutscenes in the game.

Can't wait for Y5. :)
 
Hope that doesn't happen with this one. I've had my share of Tecmo-Koei's ninja release

At least these days seems to be a lot easier to get folks connected with information with things like twitter and whatnots.

With how hyped the fans are Id imagine folks are going apeshit on their twitter accounts which will help spread the word faster than those who just visited X gaming site. Since social media has really exploded a lot more since then.

At least thats what Im hoping for.
 
Even numbered Yakuza games were also my favorites. So excited about 5 though, things may change!

No hyperbole, Yakuza 5 is the first sequel I would call a 'true sequel' to Yakuza. Even 3 and 4 constantly reused Kamurucho where as Yakuza 5 adds SO much new stuff and SO many new locations. I think they said it was the most money they ever spent building a Yakuza? That's why I'm so happy it's coming out over here.

I mean it has fucking Taiko Drum Master in it ffs.
 
No hyperbole, Yakuza 5 is the first sequel I would call a 'true sequel' to Yakuza. Even 3 and 4 constantly reused Kamurucho where as Yakuza 5 adds SO much new stuff and SO many new locations. I think they said it was the most money they ever spent building a Yakuza? That's why I'm so happy it's coming out over here.

I mean it has fucking Taiko Drum Master in it ffs.

How are the story and characters though? Because that's always the highlight for me. I really liked 4 because of that.

So where is the best place to start with this series? I'm interested but don't have the time to play through all of them.

Check out my other post in this page. If you really want to experience it all that might be the best way to do it if you don't have a bunch of time. Otherwise I would recommend 3.
 
How are the story and characters though? Because that's always the highlight for me. I really liked 4 because of that.

Check out my other post in this page. If you really want to experience it all that might be the best way to do it if you don't have a bunch of time. Otherwise I would recommend 3.

Its good, plus you have 2 returning characters asides from Kiryu as main characters, Akiyama and Saejima
 
So where is the best place to start with this series? I'm interested but don't have the time to play through all of them.

Yakuza 4 has a feature that plays all of the story from the previous Yakuza games in movie form.

Meaning it has all the cutscenes of Yakuza 1-3, so you don't really need to play those games. Plus, Yakuza 4 is the most robust game in the series to date in gameplay mechanics and sheer amount of things to do (outside of 5).
 
It is a shame Tanimura didn't make a come back, I loved his fighting style...

Tanimura got replaced by a fucking loose cannon homeless baseball player.

Shinada's story was just... damnnnn. As much as I missed Tanimura, Shinada was great.

5 was almost my 2012 GOTY, it's no hyperbole that it really is that good.

Zero was just announced this past August and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm apprehensive about how they will handle catfights and betting. Hostess clubs are one thing, underground catfights and wrestling are another.

The whole 1990s was a time of horrendous economy in Japan and I'm looking forward to how they tackle it.
 
I havent really looked into it before, but are these games known for being changed a lot from the japanese to American release? With censoring and what not
 
I see the sales talk has already happened so yeah. We're lucky to get 5 and I was/still am a little shocked that we're even getting it. This will probably be the last Yakuza game we get.

Still I hope people will buy it, I imported and completed it. And I will buy the localized version and complete it again. :) It's a really good game.
 
I havent really looked into it before, but are these games known for being changed a lot from the japanese to American release? With censoring and what not
Only the third game, and only to cut costs. People heard that the hostesses were cut from the game and assumed it was because it was salacious, but what was cut was the conversations.

All the PS3 games do have a quiz mini-game removed from the arcade, but that's a huge localization project, and it's mostly questions about Japan that even die-hard otaku completely choke on. I saw some of the translated questions, we're better off without it.
 
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