The Yakuza series has been around since 2005 and in that time the series has been completely exclusive to Sony platforms, which is something that probably won’t change any time soon. Series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi recently talked about how the franchise is unlikely to ever see a release on another platform, say the Xbox 360.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Nagoshi stated:
At the beginning of the project we spoke to all the platform holders including Sony and Microsoft. Every platform holder was negative about this prospect, but we kept on pushing because we believed in the potential, and as we kept going one platform holder that showed interest and saw the prospects of this title was Sony.
That’s how we started working with them, and that’s probably not going to change.
This might not even matter as Binary Domain director Daisuke Sato stated at gamescom that the team had become “fed up” with the Yakuza series. When pressed concerning the series and if it would return, Nagoshi simply stated that Yakuza: Of the End would be the last of its kind.
The basic style and mechanics is really an old game that started on PS2 and continued on PS3. Times keep changing, and if we started on some new games they would be in a very different shape – so the last game was the end of one particular era.
Good thing Sony stepped to that plate, allowing PS2 and PS3 owners to enjoy some really great Yakuza games. Do you think the series is over, and if it continues, where do you think it should go from here?
