Sega today announced that its Japanese smash hit Ryu ga Gotoku 3 will be officially localized for the west as Yakuza 3. Selling over half-a-million copies in Japan the game has established an ardent fan base in its native land and has achieved cult status with true video game connoisseurs in the west. SEGA’s decision to bring the game to its western territories was heavily influenced by the recognition of Yakuza’s enthusiastic fan base throughout the U.S. and Europe. Yakuza 3 will be available exclusively on the PlayStation 3 in the spring of 2010.
“Since its release in Japan, gamers in the west have wanted to know whether SEGA would be releasing Yakuza 3 in the west,” said Sean Ratcliffe, VP of Marketing, Sega of America. “Today I’d like to tell all the Yakuza fans. We’ve heard you. We’re bringing it. Get ready for your initiation into the Japanese underworld!”
The Yakuza series is the brainchild of Toshihiro Nagoshi, one of SEGA’s most prolific and successful internal developers. Along with the Yakuza saga, Toshihiro also created the beloved Super Monkey Ball series and has worked on other well known SEGA games such as Daytona USA, F-Zero GX, Spikeout. To this day Toshihiro still over-sees work of internal development teams to make sure his creations speak to gamers as he originally intended.
