The much anticipated western release of Yakuza 5 is set for this November, Sega has confirmed.
Yakuza 5 was released in Japan way back in December 2012, with international fans yet to have a chance to play the game in English.
Earlier this year we discovered Yakuza 5 will be coming to the west as a digital release before the end of 2015, and now we finally have a release window.
Digital pre-orders for Yakuza 5 went live on the Playstation Store in August, displaying a possible release date of December 30.
Sega has confirmed this isn’t the case, Yakuza 5 will launch in mid-November exclusively for the PS3.
“Fortunately, this is not the case–it looks like we’ll be releasing the game mid-November, if all goes to schedule,” Sega announced in a blog post today.
“Unfortunately, it’s a little later than we would’ve liked, and a few weird development bugs that popped up in localization caused the delay.
“Without getting too technical, there were just certain parts that didn’t like switching the Japanese text out for English, and we had to actually search through the source code to find a fix, taking more time than we expected.
“But! Everything is more or less back on track. Once we have details beyond just ‘mid-November,’ we’ll make sure to share them!””
Related: PS4 vs Xbox One
The last game in the Yakuza franchise to be released outside of Japan was Yakuza: Dead Souls in 2012, a quirky spin-off set in a zombie apocalypse.
Yakuza 5 features a brand new gameplay engine and will be available exclusively on the PS3.
Last month at the Tokyo Games Show Yakuza 6 was announced, and is development for PS4.
A remake of the original game was also confirmed which will be coming to PS3 and PS4 in the future.
There is no guarantee we will see any of these titles outside of Japan however; we just have to hope that Yakuza 5 performs well enough to justify another western release.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
