Sega’s made some pretty shaky mis-steps lately, particularly with the most recent Sonic Boom game debacle. If there’s one modern Sega franchise that has pretty consistently enjoyed acclaim though, it’s the Yakuza franchise. Outside of Japan however, Yakuza is more of a cult offering in the Sega catalogue, despite essentially being Japan’s equivalent of Grand Theft Auto.
Still, Yakuza does have its English-speaking fans, and said fans will be very happy to hear that the horrendous wait for the series’ latest title to be localized is finally ending. Despite Yakuza 5 releasing in Japan all the way back in 2012, the game will finally release in North America and Europe in 2015. It is exclusive to PlayStation 3. One small wrinkle for Western gamers as well is that the game will only be available digitally via the PlayStation Store, and won’t see a retail release.
Yakuza 5 expands the game’s setting to improve multiple locales, with series protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu attempting to make an honest living as a cab driver. Naturally though, that doesn’t go as planned, when the clans of the Yakuza inevitably end up in battle once again, pulling Kazuma back into the life of a criminal.
In one last nugget of news, Sega also confirmed that the series’ previous two PlayStation 3 offerings, Yakuza 4 and the non-canon spin-off, Yakuza: Dead Souls, will now be made available digitally on the PlayStation Store.
Keep ambushing Eggplante for all news and updates on Yakuza.