Ryu Ga Gotoku Director Credits Subscription Services for Yakuza's Popularity in the West

That’s not really true, 2 things drove the resurgence, the release of Yakuza 0 which was a breakthrough success in the west, and the subsequent release of the games on PC starting with Yakuza 0.

I personally played my First Yakuza game on PC on the release day of Yakuza 0.

Y0 was the breakout hit the series really needed, after Y5 was almost never translated at all.

@ChrisDeku I was thinking the same thing. Right afterwards, they felt the demand was high enough in the West to include a PS3 Yakuza 5 case in some collector's edition of the remastered PS4 versions - a case for a game that was previously only available digitally. I'm pretty sure Gio Corsi is the major catalyst in bringing Yakuza to the West.

Without Plus/GP I never would have played any of the games and now I've beaten 3 already! Definitely agree with what he's saying.

Thanks to GP I got introduced to them, I doubt I would have even tried them without them being on a subscription service. So I am one of those people where it did help. Since playing them all I also bought them all, including all spinoff avalaible on modern systems and it became my favorite series of all time. Can't wait for Ishin, Gaiden and LaD 8.

Please remake Dead Souls!

The first time I came across Yakuza is when they gave 4 with PS Plus way back. I since bought them all. If subs get a new generation into them then this is great. Although their popularity has coincided with a dilution of some of the more risqué elements unfortunately. Hopefully that changes soon.

For me it was finding Kiwami in the bargain bin. Personally find the playing order should be part one and then zero to have more of an emotional impact, but chronological is fine too.

Sega know their attach figures better than us but i dont think this tells the whole story. Yakuza 0 had introduced a huge new audience to the franchise before the series landed on game pass - and obviously going multiplatform will have been beneficial too. But yes, subscription services definitely will have helped get eyes on the franchise

Ultimately the important thing is that the series has now become a popular franchise in the west. I remember buying Y3, 4 and dead souls on PS3 and then it looked like that was going to be it. Yakuza 5 being localised was by no means a certainty (thanks Gio) and the future of the series in the west was in peril. Yet now look at how its flourished. We are even getting Ishin in a few months which i never thought would see the light of day over here

@Romulus What does that even mean, what would I be Salty about?

I also know enough to know that Yokoyama directed Zero previous Yakuza games.

The yakuza games only came onto the Subscription services in the last 12-18 months and the sales increase was 4-5 years ago. He's probably being diplomatic when answering a question that isn't his area of expertise.

@ChrisDeku You are salty about 'Ryu Ga Gotoku Director Credits Subscription Services for Yakuza's Popularity in the West' obviously. Turns out that gamepass and ps plus are great services!

@Romulus I'm a subscriber of both and have no issue with them. What he is saying simply appears to wrong from publicly available information(Sega posts a lot of information on their financial reporting including yakuza franchise sales numbers).

You have to remember that people who work on games and people who do the bean counting are very very different. This is most certainly not his area of expertise

PS he didnt direct any Yakuza games(he's credited on a few games as a writer or producer)

@ChrisDeku The person who is tasked with creating the next game in this series credited subscription services like GP for the popularity of the franchise in the west.

GP and PS Plus are great services. Probably the best things to happen to gaming in the last decade!

I'm sure those services did help but I started on 0 and have since played every single one available in the West. (Well except Yakuza Dead Souls but I hear I didn't miss much with that one 😄 maybe one day)

I did this crazy thing called buying games and you know what? This series is worth every penny.

@Romulus Do you know that the actual director of Days Gone admitted he had no idea how many copies it sold and he used a 3rd party website(the now defunct gamstat) to guess sales numbers?

The people who handle the money are not the creatives.

@ChrisDeku The studio that owns Yakuza knows all of the stats.

GP and PS plus will elevate gaming to heights that people years ago couldn't have even imagined!

Honestly looking at the gameplay for Ishin remake, it looks terrible. Maybe it's because I was watching from Gamespot who are notorious for bad gameplay videos but still it looked clunky. Although maybe it will be like Yakuza 0 and I'll actually enjoy it more when playing it.

@Romulus Riiiight, the guy who was the writer sat in the meetings with the Sega executives and boardmembers 🙄

@ChrisDeku What we do know is that the director of the games credits GP and PS Plus for the popularity of the games in the west!

They are amazing services. Best thing about gaming!

@Romulus He didn't direct a single game, are you a bot?

@ChrisDeku 'Ryu Ga Gotoku Director Credits Subscription Services for Yakuza's Popularity in the West' You are salty!

All he’s saying is that Gamepass grew the popularity a bit. Which makes sense since right around the series becoming multiplat it debuted on Xbox with gamepass and has consistently been on the service for 2+ years.

He isn’t discounting how 0 blew up in the West, followed by the remakes. This is mostly about PC and Xbox players. I’d also take the word of someone involved with the series over conjecture from users on a console specific website.

@Romulus ok let’s keep things simple, here’s the actual quote

“personally, I do think subscriptions like Game Pass, allowing people to play the previous games over the years, have contributed largely to the increase in audience."

The preface “Personally” means it is his personal opinion, presumably without access to any actual knowledge of series sales or data.

@ChrisDeku His opinion matters. GP and PS PLUS are the best things to happen to gaming!

Nah this is false. If it wasn't for yakuza 0 and word of mouth from that from youtubers and reviewers being introduced to the series. It would not have gotten so big.

@ChrisDeku Everything you've said is correct. Ignore the normy.

Yep. I bought 0 on sale and since then have been able to play nearly every yakuza that has come to the west on the ps plus plan. Just waiting for lost judgement which i am sure will be added soon. Great series.

@Romulus Such a silly argument