While Sega has created PlayStation 4 remasters of its Yakuza titles, the more recent ones have never left Japanese shores. However, it looks like the company is looking to correct that, as Sega recently announced the Yakuza Remastered Collection featuring Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4, and Yakuza 5 for PlayStation 4.
Sega made the announcement over the IGN Live show at Gamescom 2019. Of the three games, players can already download Yakuza 3. Yakuza 4 follows on October 29, with Yakuza 5 arriving next year on February 20.
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Prior to this, a listing for the the collection was spotted on the PlayStation Store. It seems that Sony may have jumped the gun a bit on the collection’s announcement before it’s official reveal. As of the time of writing, selecting the Yakuza Remastered Collection on the PS Store brings up an error message stating that “The content cannot be selected at this time.” Additionally, when searching for Yakuza 3, the store doesn’t turn up any results. However, this will likely be changing very soon.
Sega has brought remasters of the first two Yakuza games to the West as Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2. However, these came out well after their original Japanese releases. With the Yakuza Remastered Collection, it seems that the company wants to help fans from the West catch up with these remasters.
As for why the company would want to do that, the plan likely has something to do with the new Yakuza game in development. The company officially retired Kazuma Kiryu as the lead character of the series after Yakuza 6. The next Yakuza games will now feature a new protagonist named Ichiban Kasuga. With the release of the new collection, Sega may be hoping to give Kiryu a proper send-off for his fans in the West, at least before this new chapter in the series begins in earnest. As for the next Yakuza game, Sega will be revealing more details in an upcoming press conference scheduled for August 29.
