Yakuza 3 Confirmed for NA Release

SEGA
1

It’s actually coming after all, even though the sequel, Yakuza 4, has already been announced for Japan (I think). Copy paste from the US PlayStation blog:

After months upon months of requests, a myriad of rumors, and even full campaigns that speak to the unparalleled dedication of the fans, we can finally speak those words that all of you have been waiting anxiously to hear. So, here they are:

Yakuza 3 is coming West.

Featuring the original all-star Japanese voice cast and subtitled in English, Yakuza 3 chronicles the next steps in the life of the man once known as the Dragon of Dojima ? Kiryu Kazuma. As Kiryu works to begin a new life running an orphanage in Okinawa, the world he left behind in Tokyo also moves quickly. When the chairman of the Tojo clan is shot and the rivalry between the families plunges the city into chaos, even Okinawa is not far enough away to escape the grasp of the mysterious forces pulling the strings.


Then, when one of Kiryu?s close friends in Okinawa is found with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, things take a new turn for the worse. Driven to protect his friends, the Dragon is alive again ? Kiryu returns to the dark city of Kamurocho, and will stop at nothing to find those responsible and give them his own taste of justice.

Releasing March 2010, the epic Yakuza saga continues, exclusively on the PlayStation 3.

Last but not least, we?d like to give special thanks to you guys, the Yakuza fans! Your passion and dedication has helped make this a reality, and we?d like to extend that thanks by letting you submit questions to the Yakuza 3 development team in Japan! To do so, just put Dev Question before typing your question here in the comments.

Until next time ? we?ll have lots more news and in-depth looks at what Yakuza 3 has to offer very soon. Spread the word ? Yakuza 3 is coming!

2

It’s great to see Yakuza 3 finally being released over here, but with competition from God of War 3 and FFXIII in March and the lack of English voice-overs, I don’t expect the franchise to sell any better on PS3 than it did on PS2…

3

Yay! More games that will lose Sega money!

In all seriousness, yeah, there are worse games out there. And the story was actually really good in the first one… but even the first one felt dated. The animations suck, the level of interactivity is horrible, etc. I really wish the team would just take a step back and try something new.

4

Since when do they lose money on Yakuza? Why have they already announced the fourth? I thought it’s decently profitable for them. Unless you’re talking just about the localisation cost. Since it was revealed on the PS blog perhaps there’s some Sony deal at hand which guarantees they aren’t losing money with this move.

5

I doubt Kenzan made any money for SEGA at all , and Yak III just about broke even , but in the West this is going to flop hard , more so giving the timing of the title .

Not impressed at all , Too much money on a series that losing its appeal , and going no where fast , just easy updates . Yakuza II was a wonderful achievement for SEGA given the host platform , Kenzan was nothing more than a joke , and Yak II little more than a remake of Part II in High Def , only with less impressive animation and graphics (bar the simply awesome real time cut scenes) that wouldn’t look out of place on a PS2 .
SEGA Japan need to wake up , Multi-Platform and games made with the West In-Mind is the only way to go imo

6

Yakuza 3 sold 372,000 copies in its opening week according to Media Create sales charts. By the third week it was at over 440,000, yet it still remained in the charts, though not high enough to have the actual numbers published. Surely it later passed half a million sales at least? I don’t see what more they could expect for the franchise for this to not be profitable, especially when at the time they didn’t consider bringing it over to the US. The budget must have been on par with the sales it achieved, hence they deemed it decently profitable and recently announced the sequel. Kenzan had accumulated almost 300,000 sales last time I checked, which isn’t bad for a spin off compared to main titles.

7

Game sure as hell won’t go anywhere in the US. Releasing it in the same month that God of War 3 and Final Fantasy XIII release, the two biggest games on the console that PS3 owners have been waiting for since forever, is remarkably dumb.

8

Yakuza III in SEGA own words just about broken even , when posting results a few months back , not really what would call a massive money maker for SEGA . All that money , massive team and expense on a game that just about breaks even , and will have limited appeal onthe world stage .
Kenzan in Nagoshi-san own words was the biggest project at the time he had ever worked on in terms of expense and manpower
It wasn’t a side story , but a massive 20 million Dollar plus game , that sold around 380,000 copies . It doesn’t take a genius to work out , that’s not a lot of profit (if any) coming SEGA way.

Capcom onthe other hand , put their Teams to work on the likes of Dead Rising and Lost Planet , Games miles out in front of SEGA Japan , in terms of tech , being made for all Markets and supporting Online , and as a result getting sales that Yakuza III , Kenzan can only dream off .
SEGA Japan are just complete out of it , and haven’t a clue what to do , They’re beyond hopeless , led by the like of Toshiro ’ I haven’t a clue ’ Nagoshi-san, that’s eating up all SEGA money and wasting what talent SEGA have left on a series with limited appeal, with a piss poor next gen engine ,

Brilliant !!!

9

Well, if they really said that much, that reeks of Shenmue caliber waste of resources, those games could/should have been profitable with those all things considered good numbers for Japan. It seems resource management is their issue more than anything else. Though, buying an engine instead of using their own would likely increase cost and not affect the game’s sales, engines don’t make the games. Also, not to say that SEGA should aim to do mass market games alone or anything because hey that’s what Nintendo does and they aren’t liked any more around here. They should continue doing games like Yakuza and Valkyria Chronicles, just not waste their money while doing so, and at the same time try to find a recipe for mainstream hits on top. Well, I guess they still have Sonic for that fix but it would be nice if they were actually good. Maybe they announced Yakuza 4 because with the groundwork laid out in 3 it will cost much less and therefor allow for good profit margin with similar sales. Hopefully.

10

For games like Kenzan , Yakuza SEGA Japan is forced to charged the top rat of I think 8.800 yen to try and make money.

You’ve taken the Advertising & Promotional , Printing & distributions costs out of that ? never mind the fee’s that Retail and SONY will take for every game sold or printed and GOD knows what else , that people like Abadd will be able to explain better .

I’m simply saying what Takayuki Kawagoe said , I think he would know better than us

Seeing as it was using the same poor engine , I doubt it cost as much to producer , but still would have cost millions , if you need to sell 480,000 plus , just to break even .

If you haven’t got a good game engine that can handle what the Artists and design team want to throw at it , then you haven’t got a good game
SEGA Japan just needs to get with the times, and make its own Multi Platform , Multi purpose game engine, like Capcom have done to such great effect with FrameWork .
I thought Hedgehog engine was meant to be just that , Shame SEGA Japan still doesn’t make or allow Teams to share the tech and engines

NWhen I say Mass market I’m with respect on about your Big money Productions . That to me means games made Multi-Patform and with the biggest gaming Market in mind, not a Market that’s been in serious decline for years and years

What games with limited appeal and userbase , especially in the west . There’s a reason why SEGA been losing money hand over fist the past few years , but the like of Capcom are able to post nice profits

11

I would imagine licencing fees and such are included in costs, though I did remove most of that part of my post as I didn’t wanna bother elaborating further and coming up with the % of $ that goes to the retailers and such, which I don’t know.

For the engine stuff, it seems one of your primary concerns for the visual style of Yakuza 3 was the animations, a different engine wouldn’t make their animators more skilled. Textures and polycounts don’t look really low to me either so if those don’t look good to you then it’s the artists’ fault again. I suppose better lighting and such could improve it.

And yes, games with limited appeal, as long as they can also make them cost little with proper management, why conveniently leave that out of the quote? Or the rest stuff about ALSO trying to do mass market hits on top of that? And all the rest basically. Niche games can be profitable too, hence why the industry’s full of them.

As for focusing on things like Mass Effect, eh, the whole industry’s bleeding money thanks to climbing costs, many studios have shut down or have been otherwise reduced and even succesful companies see their revenue remain static but their profits decrease. I think it’s best to try and find a balance than just constantly risk with such projects.

12

[quote]For the engine stuff, it seems one of your primary concerns for the visual style of Yakuza 3 was the animations, a different engine wouldn’t make their animators more skilled. Textures and polycounts don’t look really low to me either so if those don’t look good to you then it’s the artists’ fault again. I suppose better lighting and such could improve it.
[/quote]

Depends on if the game engine can handle complex animations and handles decent compression to fit it all in limited memory . AM#2 may well have some of the best animation staff in the world , if AM#2 program couldn’t handle the input , or fit all the frames of animation into the Saturn tiny memory , then VF II would have been a rubbish game , no mater the skill of the animator .
We all like Bayonetta right ?. I dare say that unless the game program couldn’t handle all those complex patters , while run at 60 fps , then not matter the skill of the design staff , the game would have sucked

As for Kenzan/Yak. I have problem with the poor rubbish animation and the lack of interactive scenery , and the dire shader and lighting effects , the water and shadow effects in Kenzan are embarrassing . Give the Team had over 20 million to spend , and it contained the Smilebit staff (one of the most talented inside SEGA) it was a massive disappointment , for me

Fine of Yakuza was being made for the Handhelds
There’s a reason imo why Square and Konami have had to make their BIG IP multiplatform . If Square feel the need with FF 13 , a series that sells in number each Yakuza game can only dream of , its kind of say it all

You say that like that’s something new , like loads of once top 8 bit 16 bit companies didn’t go by by with the jump to 3D , Same is true this generation . Konami can post profits , so can Capcom, so can Namco , so can a lot of corps , and if Ubisoft weren’t trying to employ half the world , I’m sure they could have posted profits this year .

Not all corps are as hopeless as TakeTwo or SEGA

13

I’m primarily talking about the western releases, but TA is right in that they are massively expensive games that make only a little bit of money in Japan. I don’t know the exact figures, though.

Regardless, the series has been great for Sega Japan, for market share if anything. It was genuinely a success in Japan, sales-wise. Profitability-wise, not so much. But given the lack of success of most other Sega games (Phantasy Star Portable notwithstanding), it’s understandable that they’d try to push the series as far as it would go. Problem is that it’s now stuck on an annual release schedule. Having a single team work on an annual release schedule is a surefire way to 1) break your team’s will, 2) prevent any innovation from happening, and 3) lose key members of your staff.

14

If Bayonetta’s engine couldn’t handle all that at 60 fps then they would be better off toning down polycounts, effects and texture res before allowing the frame rate to drop as it’s integral to the gameplay, while a lot of the detail is only visible in the close up cut scenes so they had room to tone the visuals down while keeping the experience nearly intact. I’m not sure what that has to do with Yakuza 3, unless you asked the artists and they said their animations were butchered to fit in the engine. I find that highly unlikely for any new engine, not just the best new engines, even Wii should handle animations just fine as seen in games like Tales of Graces). Not to mention since animations are so important for a fighting game I think they would/should first tone down other things before reducing those so it’s another fault of the staff if they didn’t do that.

Damn, I didn’t realise it’s gone yearly. If that’s against the team’s wishes (some developers enjoy episodic-esque development if they like the IP) then I see why it’s a problem. Wouldn’t 4 cost less and potentially make a healthy profit though?

15

[quote=“Al3xand3r”]If Bayonetta’s engine couldn’t handle all that at 60 fps then they would be better off toning down polycounts, effects and texture res before allowing the frame rate to drop as it’s integral to the gameplay, while a lot of the detail is only visible in the close up cut scenes so they had room to tone the visuals down while keeping the experience nearly intact. I’m not sure what that has to do with Yakuza 3, unless you asked the artists and they said their animations were butchered to fit in the engine. I find that highly unlikely for any new engine, not just the best new engines, even Wii should handle animations just fine as seen in games like Tales of Graces). Not to mention since animations are so important for a fighting game I think they would/should first tone down other things before reducing those so it’s another fault of the staff if they didn’t do that.

Damn, I didn’t realise it’s gone yearly. If that’s against the team’s wishes (some developers enjoy episodic-esque development if they like the IP) then I see why it’s a problem. Wouldn’t 4 cost less and potentially make a healthy profit though?[/quote]

You may not have played Bayonetta , but it already features some very simple textures and effects, same goes for Call Of Duty 6 to get the game running at 60fps while being able to throw around loads of stuff. With out a decent game engine and combat engine , Bayonetta wouldn’t be half the game it is. In gameplay terms , REZ and Jet Set Radio are incredible simply games, that really the 3D0 Could handle , they wouldn’t be half the games there are with out the game program being able to handle what the Artists drew up (even 1 as good as GOD himself Ueda-san) . Game engines are of course important to any game

And have you asked or spoken to any of the Yakuza team yourself ?, Lets not go down that route , since most of us on here never will speak to the teams (sadly) , much less make games for a living (unless you’re a drone :P) Try playing Kenzan or Yak III , and they you can quite rightly pick apart my views , and point out the game positive aspects

Me I just see Yakuza and the Yakuza Team going the same way as Tomb Raider and CORE respectively

16

One can always reduce certain things further to bump up the really important to the given game things (and style can make up for a lot when it comes to reduced visual assets, things will look crap if they’re made for high res and then reduced but they can get a better result if they try to make it look good with the given resolution limits in the first place). Just like you say, nobody complains about MW2 running at 600p with low res content on consoles because they see the gameplay is worth the sacrifice even if in screenshots it doesn’t look as good as Killzone 2 (which is 30 fps) or Uncharted 2. Besides, there are no engines focused on fighting games to licence, so if you really think they’re so incompetent they couldn’t make an engine that handles their animations decently then they could just as easily screw things up by trying to modify an existing, even better engine into incorporating the elements they want. And no, none of us can speak to these particular developers (I’ve interacted with plenty but not of that caliber and they haven’t worked with SEGA’s engine so it makes no difference in the end) but then again I’m not the one blaming the engine for inefficiencies which could be due to all sorts of other things. And again better animations and such wouldn’t make it sell better anyway, only if it was a completely different game it could sell better, so Yakuza 3 with a licenced engine would have just cost more and not sell more. What should they do, fire everyone at SoJ and hire Rockstar to make GTA: Yakuza Stories?

17

Well, Yakuza 1 launched in Japan in December of 2005, and it is now 2009 and we have seen 4 different Yakuza games released.

It’s one thing if it’s episodic (meaning shorter chunks), but these are full-blown, 20 hour games that are somewhat open-world.

And yes, sequels will benefit from cost reductions, but it also depends on how much additional content is being built. You also lose a lot of efficiencies in development when you have to overspend just to ensure that you can make your release on time (particularly when you’re on an accelerated dev schedule from the start). It may or may not be easier to make a profit on Yakuza 4 than Yakuza 3, but you would never be able to tell that without actually looking at the financials.

18

It looks poor because the game makes so little of next gen shaders and lighting to hide the lack of polygons .
I’m sure that Polygon wise , COD IV and 6 are using less polygons per Character than that in Part II, just that they’ve made fantastic use of lighting , shadow and parllax bump mapping , and GOD knows what else to make the game look a hell of a lot better , while using the same , if not less Polygons .
The shading and water effects in Keznan are terrible , even if in -game there’s a lot of polygons being used

This I don’t get … At its heart Yakuza is nothing more than a RPG , with semi real time battles . I’m sure if SEGA had good direction they’re perfectly able of making a RPG that can handle real time battles .
But I have to question are the Teams being trained up well enough , for next gen development .

Maybe Abadd can correct me , but to me you still need a shit hot program to handle the animation in game , even if you’ve got the best Artists and motion experts working on the game
Unless the program can handle the player inputs, calculate the hot points , and so on in game , then it doesn’t matter how good your animators are , if the program isn’t able to handle them during the game

Even with having the GOD like Ueda-san working on Zwei and designg the bosses , would the game have been so impressive , if the programmers couldn’t handle what the art team wanted to throw at it .
I love the animation on the tail of the Dragon , but to me that’s also dependent on the skill on the program to fit and make that all run on the system and fit into Ram. I’m sure on paper Virtual Cop sounded brilliant , and taking Gun Games in a new direction , with different animation patters depending on where the Gun shot hits
Unless the program could handle that on the Fly in game it’s meaningless imo

Whu do you keep harping on about a licensed game engine . I like to ‘have’ Seen SEGA, did like what Capcom did with Framework , what Ubisoft did with thier 2 main nextgen engines, and that’s lots of R&D and years of planning for next gen engines, that can handle different style of games , and the tech to be shared between diffferent Teams , before the next gen started , sadly SEGA Japan just didn’t get that at all.
4 years in , is still playing catch up with gam engines, While Capcom is able to move forward and improve its tech with Framework 2.0

Is Capcom forcing its Lost Planet , RE, Dead Rising Teams into yearly updates ??. Lost Planet II looks to have improved over the 1st game in every possible area , and must be pushing the consoles to breaking point. Yakuza IV adds hardly anything new at all, looks much the same , bar some simple new weather effects .
I bet Lost Planet II will sell more in 1 week, than what Yakuza IV will sell in its life time , yet Yakuza will costs around the same to make and take a Team that I bet is much bigger to make it .

19

I’m a big fan of the first game, it somehow reminded me of Shenmue. I even got the movie, which is… alright. ^^

Yes, it didn’t have the best graphics on the platform but it did have a certain atmosphere. And I just have to love a game that screams SAVE THE PUPPY!! at me. :slight_smile:

20

Good sales or bad sales aside, I am pretty stoked for Yakuza 3 in the U.S.

Everybody is definitely entitled to their opinions but I am totally surprised by the negativity in this thread regarding this announcement / Yakuza 3 in the West. Sega games, well, good Sega titles that is, have always created some sort of special feeling when I played them. Yakuza has definitely fit into this mold for me.

Maybe it is because I am a fan of brawlers - particularly titles in the Bare Knuckle and Dynamite Deka series. I always felt Sega created superior titles in this genre. Yakuza feels like a modern extension or update of these series (with a hint of Downtown Nekketsu Monogatarai). Maybe some of you just don’t care for this genre? I guess I am trying to understand some of the criticism here. For someone like me who enjoys these types of games, the Yakuza series have been a great source of enjoyment. Sega created a very competent brawler in an age when the genre is dying / dead. That being said, the semi annual updates have great news to me.

I personally don’t want a GTA clone or another button mashing action game that plays like Devil May Cry.

I’m also pretty surprised how hung up people are getting over the graphics. I have only played Yakuza 1 and 2, and while I enjoyed the story of 1 much more, the game play and mechanics were tightened up quite a bit in 2. I would agree graphics are important, but I guess I am more concerned with the game play.

No disrespect meant here, but why do you consider the battle system to be “semi real time?” The battle system is very reminiscent of the those found in the Dynamite Deka series.