Monday
Dec282009
Does SEGA Want Yakuza 3 to Fail?
Monday, December 28, 2009 at 03:10PM
The Yakuza series has constantly been mishandled by SEGA in North America. The first game was billed as "Grand Theft Auto, but with Yakuza", despite the game having almost nothing in common with Grand Theft Auto. The second game was marketed poorly and released on the PlayStation 2 last September, so it unsurprisingly sold poorly. No one was expecting Yakuza 3 to ever come out over here. Recently, however, they did announce it was coming to North America. I was ecstatic, until they said what month they were planning on releasing it in: March.
Here are some other games coming out in March:
- DS:Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
- DS: Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver
- PS3/360:Final Fantasy XIII
- PS3:God of War III
- PS3/360:Battlefield Bad Company 2
- Wii:Monster Hunter Tri
Not all of those are threats to Yakuza 3; I doubt there is too much of an overlap between its audience and Battlefield. Final Fantasy XIII, however, has quite a bit of overlap. Yakuza is an action-adventure series with very heavy RPG elements, almost to the point where I'd call it an RPG. Plus, it appeals to Japanophiles, like Final Fantasy XIII does. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey and Monster Hunter Tri both are attractive to the hardcore, Japan-loving crowd as well and have much larger fanbases than Yakuza.
We also have Pokemon, but not just any Pokemon, the remake of the fan-favorite Gold and Silver games. I suspect many people who haven't touched Pokemon in years will pick those up for nostalgia's sake. Add in God of War III currently being scheduled for the same month and Yakuza 3 does not stand a chance. Two very major PS3 releases, one of which a direct competitor; a few other games in the same niche; and other major releases happening in a similar time frame -- Yakuza 3 will just end up being ignored again.
What is SEGA thinking? Final Fantasy XIII should have been the first clue to avoid that time slot, but Yakuza 3 still is scheduled for March. It's like they're not even trying to give the game a chance, they're just throwing it out there hoping it will work. There's a reason the last two games sold so poorly; horrible marketing and release date choices do not help niche games gain traction. I hope Yakuza 3 does amazingly well, but I'm not exactly counting on it.
Reader Comments (22)
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Thanks.
I agree with you on this. The first one I had to track down a used copy well after it was released. The second one I preordered and I was the only one to preorder it at the gamestop I worked at, even with a $30 price point no one else was interested. Now the third one is coming out and instead of being excited about it, I feel like Sega is just setting up an excuse to not release the 4th one in the states. Why do they even try, aren't they a business? Don't the want to make money on this? If the feel like it's already a lost cause so why waste money on marketing then why are they even releasing it here in the first place? I would love to hear Sega actually chime in on why the would make such a bad move with that release date when this has all happened before. It's so damned frustrating.
I really feel bad for Sega..well, i don't. I remember awhile back i made a comment that I vowed never to buy a sega game again until Y3 made it to the states. But why pick it up now when the way theyre releasing it almost gaurantee's we will never see Y4...or Y:Kenzan. Due to bad sales pitching and publicity on Sega's part. Apparently are voices are being heard across the ocean, because this time last year they said Y3 "would NEVER" make it past the land of the rising sun.
Sega, get on the ball already. You went from leading console seller, to near mediocre 3rd party publisher/developer. We're now in the year 2010, No body cares for Sonic any more. Hell, bring back Ecco the Dolphin before you bother with a nother blue balls came. Shinobi [on the PS2 sucked]..it had/has potential. ShenMue...MASSIVE potential, and I've never even played it. Panzer Dragoon Saga, Virtua Cop...get the hint? People with the money to purchase a PS3 tend to crave ACTION.
1 word for to describe my feelings toward sega, and the yakuza franchise continuing in the US: apprehensive. At best.
[...] Does SEGA Want Yakuza 3 to Fail? | Insert Disc [...]
Sega's retarded, they throw piles of shit for Wii out like candy but ignore something that has the potential to sell. Pathetic
They can prevent it from failing by limiting their run. Publish a few thousand at a time and let them sell before printing more. Sega America is only publishing it. They don't have any money to recoup. As long as they don't print more than they can sell, it's all money in the bank.
yeahbayonetta anyone?
Bayonetta they're doing a good job with, they're marketing it surprisingly well.
To be honest im not interested in final fantasy 13 everyone keeps saying its very linear and i just dont see my self playing it and some are saying its worst that 12 which is the only ff game i have not completed, So i think i will pick up yakuza to be honest.
Well the only games Yakuza 3 really has for competition are the games on it's own platform, which would be God Of War 3 and Final Fantasy XIII. However there's really not too much SEGA can do about this. If they release it before March then they have to contend with Heavy Rain, MAG, Dante's Inferno and White Knight Chronicles. If they release it after March they have to contend with Quantum Theory, Mafia 2 and Gran Turismo 5 and NO GAME want's to go head - to - head with Gran Turismo 5, that would be sales suicide.
Really, SEGA are just unlucky that 2010 happens to be the year that the floodgates open for the huge PS3 exclusives, there's not much they can do about it unless they were to delay it to 2011. The entire year is already flooded with titles, there's a lot of great games that could, unfortunately, go unnoticed next year.
sorry but this game will still fail just like Yakuza 1 & 2!
Sure people will like these kind of games like GTA, but those fans will be skeptical to try out a new game especially when its in Japanese.
It will be overshadowed by bigger games like God of War, Halo etc
Fans who want this ported are just fans who originally played Yakuza 1 & 2:/
The only way for this game to make sale is to invest on advertising.
Isn't Gran Turismo 5 also coming out in March? That's Sony's biggest franchise.
please tell me thats a ironic title.
why would sega want yakuza 3 to fail?
there spending allot of money translating it and localizing it, getting it rated, printing off new copies, shipping it to stores.
spending all that money why would they want it to sell poorly?
as a excuse so they dont have to release yakuza 4 here?
why not just say no we dont want to release it outside its original territory?
sega gains absolutely nothing if yakuza 3 sells poorly.
why they released it in march i dont know, but than you could say the same thing about all the other games.
unless your a big name IP like GOW you dont want to be releasing in the first 4 months of next year because there is a record breaking amount of games releasing.
maybe there releasing it in march so they can get it out the door, and maybe there releasing other games in other months and they dont want it conflicting with them.
Alan - GT5 comes out in March for Japan only, Europe and America won't get it until the summer.
However March also happens to be the month that SEGA have decided to release Yakuza 4 to the Japaneese gamers.......which is a very odd choice.
[...] team over at Insert Disc have an interesting op-ed piece about SEGA’s current release date for Yakuza 3. It was a [...]
they should have released it last summer when i wanted it.Now they plan to drop it in march. sorry i wont get to play it cause there are to many others games that i want more than it now.
Grand Theft Auto is so damn addicting game. I play 8 hours a day of GTA.,"*
my mom has a coffe franchise near seattle and she earns a lot from it:'`
the latest version of Grand Theft Auto have more detail on its graphics, nicely done.'`;
i used to play Grand Theft Auto a lot but i kind of got busy these days so i dont play it anymore.:~
i would like to put up a coffee franchise in our area coz people here love to sip coffe*.`
i always think that Grand Theft Auto is the grand daddy of racing and shooting games, i love this game"*: