Don’t get your hopes high on Sega announcing any plans to bring Yakuza 3 (already released in Japan) or the upcoming sequel other than in Japan. Before you start cursing on me, I’m a big fan of the Yakuza franchise and I finished the first game and it’s sequel, so I hope Sega consider releasing Yakuza 3 and it’s sequel worldwide, as I think it’s one of the few good games Sega produced in a while.


As you all know by now Yakuza games are so popular in Japan and it sells like hot cakes in the land of the rising sun, but in other regions it’s always struggles to sell a respectful number of copies. According to Vgchartz.com Yakuza 2 sold only 40k in the US while in Japan it sold more than 840k. Looking at the sales differences between the two regions and ask your self a question, will sega bother dubbing the game from Japanese to English for this small fan base? I don’t think so. You will say “we will play the game with Japanese voice overs and English subtitles as Sega did in Yakuza 2″ that will not happen again, why? because Sega isn’t satisfied with the sales of the Yakuza games in the US.

Sega started the production of Yakuza 4, this is an evidence that Sega isn’t interested in bringing Yakuza 3 to the state. Also the upcoming huge number of excellent video games in 2009/2010 will make Sega think a million times before they make such a risk like this.

Even if I’m very confident in my reasons, I still hope that I’m wrong. Let us know if you think that Sega will release Yakuza 3 or its sequel other than in Japan.