Ben-DutkaIf there's one franchise American gamers should be upset over missing this generation, it's Sega's Yakuza . We never got the third installment (the first for the PlayStation 3), and now, they're already talking about the fourth.
The teaser website for Yakuza 4 has opened and while it's light on details and information, we know Sega will officially unveil this new entry in only ten days time. Of course, that revealing would be on the first day of the Tokyo Game Show so it's not exactly surprising. However, we seriously doubt we'll hear any news of a North American or European release, considering that Sega didn't see fit to launch Yakuza 3 in any region outside of Japan. We can only conclude that the first two titles for the PS2, which did release here, didn't sell very well, thereby making Sega leery of going through the localization processes again. And they were reluctant even with the first two games; US gamers had to wait over a year after the initial launch of either title in Japan. It's just too bad that Sega abandoned us as soon as Yakuza entered the new generation…we so want to see one of these bad boys on the PS3! Maybe if there's enough of a fan outcry, we'll finally see Yakuza 3 at least, but you may as well forget about the fourth installment (for now, anyway).
Still, it's great for Japanese gamers, and yes, this series is exclusive to the PS3. If you want to import it, go right ahead; the first two games featured all Japanese voiceovers, anyway (with English subtitles, of course).
