While Sega’s Yakuza series has released on PC before, the games have always come to PlayStation 4 first. That may change soon, as Sega now apparently considers Yakuza multi-platform.
Talking to PC Gamer, Sega’s executive vice president of publishing John Clark stated that the series has been a success on PC. As part of this, he also mentioned that the PC ports have resonated well with gamers in Japan.
“It’s in the mindset of [Sega] Japan and Europe now, and the US, to think of it as a multi-format offering,” states Clark. “That’s not saying everything’s going to be multi-format, but we’re able now to consider that data.”
Sega has released three Yakuza games on PC so far, Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2. However, these games came out on PC well after their original PlayStation 4 releases.
This news does not mean that future Yakuza titles will now release simultaneously on PC, at least not yet. Instead, Sega is evaluating the performance of other titles that did receive a simultaneous PC and PlayStation 4 launch. Specifically, Clark referred to Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Shining Resonance Refrain.
Clark states that “with those two titles, we now have the ability to evaluate a multi-format simultaneous launch against more of a phased process that we see with Yakuza. That’ll be evaluated and the best way to launch titles will result from that.”
In addition to this, Clark also talks about titles from Atlus, which Sega owns, making it to PC. The subsidiary just recently made its first foray into the PC market with the release of Catherine Classic on Steam this past January. The company will now be looking at that experience and looking to see if it can possibly do more PC releases in the future.
In the past, Sega has tended to focus more on consoles when it comes to games developed within Japan. Hopefully this new development means that the company will be bringing more games to PC in the future.
