Website Examiner.com has gotten the scoop on SEGA’s plans for a possible western release of PlayStation brawler Yakuza 3, and unfortunately, it appears the Japanese publisher still has no plans to localise the game for the U.S. market.
The reason? Simple – previous installments in the franchise just haven’t taken off across the pond, with Yakuza 2 shifting a disappointing 40,000 units following its launch in 2007. Obviously, it wouldn’t make much of any business sense to release Yakuza 3 in that territory following the underwhelming performance of its predecessors – and naturally, that same philosophy undoubtedly applies to Europe, where the games sadly didn’t fair much better.
Interestingly, the news comes just days after the company announced development of a fourth entry in the PS3 exclusive franchise. Better start learning Japanese and fork out for an import copy, then.