RGG Studios credits PC gamers for Yakuza’s global success

At one point in time, Yakuza was a very niche videogame series, with little recognition outside of Japan. That changed when RGG Studio brought Yakuza 0 and the other games to more platforms worldwide. In a recent interview, RGG director and producer, Masayoshi Yokoyama gave credit to PC gamers for helping to globalise the series. 

As reported by PCGamer, Yokoyama explained during an interview last week that “PC gamers hold a special significance” when it comes to Yakuza's more recent success. It is his belief that without the support of PC gamers following the release of Yakuza 0, the games would not have achieved the same level of global success.

Here is the full quote: “To us, PC gamers hold a special significance. If my memory serves me right, it was around 11 years ago that we first entered the PC market with Yakuza 0. Until then, we had only released our games on PlayStation, and they were exclusively in Japanese, made specifically for the Japanese market.”

“The Yakuza series itself was originally created with the concept of ‘Japanese people making a game for Japanese people,' so we never imagined it would be accepted globally. But once we properly localized the language and created an environment where players around the world could enjoy it, the PC market embraced it in a big way. That acceptance helped our studio grow and pushed us toward globalization.”

For many, Yakuza 0 was their first introduction to the series and as it is a prequel, it allowed millions to jump right in and start the story from the very beginning. Nowadays, the Yakuza series is fully multiplatform, releasing across PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox. Later this year, Yakuza 0 Director's Cut will roll out to PC, containing an all-new English Language dub and around half an hour of added cutscenes.

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KitGuru Says: Was Yakuza 0 your introduction to the series? Did you pick it up on PC or a console platform?

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