Yakuza unlikely on Xbox 360

By Martin Robinson Published 24 August, 2011

But new games could take a different direction.

Yakuza, SEGA's long-running open world series, is unlikely to ever be ported across to Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Having started in 2005 on PlayStation 2, the games - headed up by SEGA's Toshihiro Nagoshi - have stayed on Sony hardware, with recent iterations releasing on the PS3.

That's likely to stay the case, Nagoshi recently told Eurogamer.

"At the beginning of the project we spoke to all the platform holders including Sony and Microsoft," he said, "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."

Nagoshi, who's currently working on futuristic third person shooter Binary Domain, was reluctant to say whether the series would return, but said that Yakuza: Of the End, the spin-off game recently released in Japan, was the last of that style of Yakuza.

"The basic style and mechanics is really an old game that started on PS2 and continued on PS3," Nagoshi said, "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."

Picture of Martin.

About Martin Robinson

Martin is Eurogamer's features editor with responsibility for commissioning, editing and often writing our feature and preview content. He's also passionate about driving games.

Read more articles from Martin by visiting the Martin Robinson archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 9 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • gm914 #1 9 months ago

    Hopefully Binary Domain will include the two things that made Yakuza great:
    Handjobs from Geishas and batting cages.

  • oldtrusty #2 9 months ago

    As long as they keep making Yakuza games, I'll keep handing over cash. Easily some of the best games to come out over the last give years.

  • Badassbab #3 9 months ago

    Handjobs from Geisha? Might have to give this game a go. Never been to Japan so it's as close as I'll get.

  • JoeGBallad #4 9 months ago

    Kazuma Kiryu: gaming's hardest bastard. I'll always love Uncle Kaz.

  • Dr_Salvador84 #5 9 months ago

    The Yakuza games are so sadly overlooked and underrated in the west. I can only hope that Of The End gets a UK or US release.

    Like a Dragon

  • dagas #6 9 months ago

    The Yakuza games are some of the few games that makes me want a PS3. I loved the PS2 games. It's too bad they won't release them on 360, but not unexpected. If it would happen it would have happened by now.

  • coomber #7 9 months ago

    I loved the series until the fourth game, which was a disappointment to me. It had run its course as a series. I'm glad they are taking it in new directions with The End and hopefully if there is a true Yakuza 5 they will bring something new to it.

  • HL706 #8 9 months ago

    I'm surprised MS were negative about this giving they wanted to crack Japan so badly!

  • gallow #9 9 months ago

    I recently completed Y3 - well as much as I wanted to play after 6 or so solid weeks. Its so full of content. I never even tried the batting cages but based on my pool and darts skills I expect to hit lots of fouls. I thought 3 had really good characters (and voice actors) which, for me, generated quite a lot of emotion in me as the story progressed which doesn't normally happen while playing games.

    I will miss meeting women in the ice-cream parlour, taken them on one or two dates before solving a their problems with my fists and then getting some lovin.

  • Ror1984 #10 9 months ago

    That's a bit of a shame, as I know a few 360-only gamers that would love to play Yakuza 3 and 4. Having said that, I have them both and I've yet to play either. I have far too many shelved games these days! I guess that's what happens when prices drop through the floor after a couple of months.

  • lolercopter #11 9 months ago

    Bought a PS2 and a PS3 for them. No regrets.