In an effort to increase the franchise's popularity, the developers pondered a Western move.
As strange as it may sound, Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi has considered developing a Yakuza game that takes place somewhere outside of Japan.
“We have considered it, because there was a feeling that we’d like the Yakuza series to be better known overseas,” said Nagoshi in an interview with IGN Japan. "But the idea disappeared right away. The series was originally intended to target Japanese players, and so setting it overseas would conflict with that original concept, and the popularity of the series within Japan might decline as a result. Also, in terms of marketing, there was concern about the global appeal of a Japanese main character anyway. So it seemed to be tricky.”
The idea that a Western-based Yakuza game might help raise the appeal of the franchise in Western markets is a somewhat surprising sentiment given that it seems that it feels like fans have to beg Sega for years to get any Yakuza games released outside of Japan at all. Those pleas do not go unnoticed by Nagoshi and the development team.
"We get more and more comments from players overseas, and we do listen to them," says Nagoshi. "In the West we have about 100,000 players, which compared to the players we have in Japan is a very small number, but we consider them to be very important fans, and we want to make games that they will enjoy.”
Nagoshi goes on to state that he feels one of the major differences between Japanese gamers and Western gamers is that Western gamers place a greater emphasis on mechanics while Japanese gamers are looking for something a little more stylish and dramatic. He believes that this is part of the reason why the highly stylish, but not always mechanically sound, Yakuza franchise has not necessarily taken off outside of Asian markets where the series continues to grow in popularity year after year.
Meanwhile, the Western fans the series does have are waiting to hear when the upcoming Yakuza 6 will be released outside of Japan.
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