Gematsu reports that in an interview with French gaming site Gameblog.fr, Yakuza series producer Daisuke Sato stated he doesn’t think the Nintendo Switch would be a fitting place for their Japanese action-RPG series. Meanwhile, Sato did leave the door open for possible Xbox ports.
The Yakuza series has long been associated with the Playstation, ever since its debut on the Playstation 2 in 2005. What followed were lots of mainline entries, several spin-offs, full remakes and even a few handheld titles for the Japanese beat ’em up adventure franchise. But almost all appeared exclusively on Sony’s Playstation consoles throughout the years.
Publisher Sega wasn’t however producing the Yakuza games solely for Sony in context of an exclusivity-deal but it rather worked its way on its own by the audience’s interest. Indeed, remasters of the first two Yakuza games were released for the Nintendo Wii U but failed to achieve the success to warrant further support as a platform.
That the Wii U failed as a console is hardly a secret, so it might seem as nearsightedness by Sato to blame Nintendo’s userbase for the failure of Yakuza on the Wii U. And that’s without even taking into account that remasters are hardly comparable to new, main game entries.
“To be realistic about what happened, Yakuza 1&2 HD for Wii U was a huge failure. But we are always looking to develop for multiple platforms as much as possible and know that brings in a greater audience to attract more people. However, as far as Switch is concerned, I’m convinced that it isn’t the ideal platform on which to develop Yakuza games. Maybe people don’t expect this kind of game on Switch. Maybe they’re used to different games. It may not be the ideal platform.”
With Nintendo Switch being a surprise hit for third-party publishers and developers, we are witnessing an unprecedented support taking place by the same companies who shunned the previous failing Wii U. There’s no question that this newfound interest by big publishers like Bethesda and the plethora of indie devs is only going to increase. Nonetheless, the words of Sato leave little wiggle room for fans waiting to see Yakuza titles on the Switch sadly.
In the same breath however, Sato opened up the possibility for Yakuza to land on the Xbox One one day. Without revealing any detailed plans on Xbox One ports, Sato thinks that the style of experience Yakuza games offer, might be a good fit for the Xbox audience.
“As for Xbox One, we can consider it, knowing that Xbox One users may be more likely to be interested in a game like Yakuza. This could potentially be an option.”
We are hardly advocating anyone to expect concrete action anytime soon going by this statement alone of course, but one only needs to remember the quasi-Playstation exclusive series has only recently been announced for the PC. So, this glimmer of hope might be brighter than one expects.
