Sega’s Yakuza franchise has enjoyed something of a resurgence in recent years. After not being localized for western releases for a while, the action-adventure series with a dash of RPG went on to have huge success with Yakuza 0 and a series of remakes - but for a long time it remained a PlayStation exclusive. That all changed in recent years with PC releases of Yakuza 0 and the Kiwami remakes of the first two titles in the series - and soon after, Xbox versions followed, even launching as part of Game Pass. Yakuza: Like a Dragon is the seventh entry in the series, but it takes a significant tack to what fans will be used to. It features a new protagonist and kicks off a new story thread for the franchise, but it also trades in its brawling action RPG combat for a more traditional turn-based affair. In Japan it was a PlayStation 4 exclusive, but today’s announcement confirms the western release is coming to Xbox and PC, too.
A steam database entry pointing to Yakuza Like a Dragon hitting PC popped up earlier this week, and though an Xbox version of the game isn’t entirely unexpected, it is a victory for Microsoft in that it’s another major Japanese series releasing on Xbox day-and-date in the west, essentially nabbing a defacto third-party exclusive from Sony. Yakuza: Like a Dragon will launch on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X. On the Xbox side of things it’s a smart delivery game, meaning if you buy it once you’ll then own it on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X. The Xbox Series X version of the game will be part of the console’s launch line-up and will presumably have enhancements and optimization over the Xbox One and PS4 versions - but that wasn’t made clear in the presentation. After the event the game was also confirmed for PS4 - but there’s still no word on if there’ll be a PS5 version.
