Yakuza Was Also Pitched To Nintendo & Microsoft

Sure, it’s on PC now, but the Yakuza series is synonymous with three generations of PlayStation consoles. And for good reason: Nintendo and Microsoft had their chance, but simply weren’t interested in the Japanese gangster saga.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Lol now there minds are changed. Because Yakuza is an important series to any consoles.

[VenomUK]

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice was pitched to Microsoft but they turned it down. Sony saw it and thought it could be great. They agreed to fund development without demanding ownership. The game turned out to be a critical hit and modest financial hit - it certainly made a profit.

[Lexreborn2]

And somehow with that liberty Ninja Theory said... hey.... we should sell our brand to Microsoft

[kingjohnm]

and now its also out on xb1

[Skull521]

and now Ninja Theory is will only be limited by it's creativity

[solideagle]

I think Yakuza is a great game but I highly doubt its a system seller. I have seen it doing 1 or 2 million but not great sales. I dont think Microsoft is losing much and they bought 5 studios so next gen is going to be really really spicy... :)

as always I will buy 1 console which will be PS5 :)

[lxeasy]

Yeah Nintendo and Xbox aren't missing much with yakuza

[DrumBeat]

I think Xbox players would buy Yakuza games, but I agree that Xbox's user base is less likely to buy them than the PlayStation userbase. For obvious reasons.

[Fist4achin]

It could be a system seller if members of yakuza are present and convincing you to buy it.

[gravedigger]

Thank you, Sony and Sega on great franchise. Kiryu rules

[SockeyBoy]

Hmm interesting since 1 and 2 got released on the WiiU (Japan only).

[masterfox]

I'm telling you time after time if it wasn't by Playstation brand this gaming wouldn't be as big as we know it, imagine how many games have been rejected by MS or Nintendo so far, this industry could it be a mediocre average entertaining business if it was only by Nintendo or MS, Sony Playstation always pushing the boundaries of what gaming can be and this is why we have this industry and awesome games by Sony and their developers.

Thank you Playstation! :)

[doggo84]

5 people think Microsoft are the one's pushing the creative boundaries. Haha it's so funny I could vomit.

[Spurg]

Yeah playstation have had there fair shared of rejects games as well.
Sony rejected Sunset overdrive and it eventually made its way into Xbox because of Ms.

There are also many reasons why Sony have been so liberal in taking in all these mostly single players games. They have failed to appeal to the multiplayer market in comparison to Ms who have franchises with industry leading multiplayer. To compensate for that failure they have bolstered their single player lineup to make their platform more appealing.

This is in no way a bad thing, 90% of the game I play are single player but I can see that Sony(a Japanese compan)y have trouble making games that appeal to a multiplayer audience so they grab every strong single player idea they can get.

[WeAreLegion]

They loved Sunset Overdrive. They just wanted to own the IP because of things like Crash and Spyro coming back to haunt them later. And Insomniac wanted to keep the IP, themselves. Which is fine. I just wish Sony had been open to letting Insomniac keep it. That game is fantastic.

[notachance]

hmm, so the REASON why Sony did it since WAY BACK in PS1
is because of a console which only released the next generation after that

I guess someone at Sony is a fortune teller then

[Ceaser9857361]

Sony wanted to own Sunset but Insomniac didn't want to sell the IP. So they went to MS who allowed Insomniac to keep the IP .. Shame! that it didn't sell well.. Even Heavy Rain was first approached to MS who rejected it..

[rainslacker]

Sony didn't reject SSoD. They wanted the IP if they funded it, which is typical of what they do if they fund a game, and Insomniac wasn't on board with that, and is the same reason why they also went with EA to make Fuse. Insomniac even said they went to Sony first, and they were willing to fund the game.

[Melankolis]

And thanks to the hardcore fans who initiated and participated the petition to Sega to bring this Yakuza 5 to the west. Many gamers became aware and interested in this franchise after that.

Of course, also thanks to folks at Sony to convince Sega, finally after 5, i never have uneasiness feeling and questions whether the latest entry will be localized or not.

[FallenAngel1984]

Didn’t we already know this since 2011?

https://www.eurogamer.net/a...

7 years ago Toshihiro Nagoshi told Eurogamer

“At the beginning of the project we spoke to all the platform holders including Sony and Microsoft. Every platform holder was negative about this prospect, but we kept on pushing because we believed in the potential, and as we kept going one platform holder that showed interest and saw the prospects of this title was Sony."

Why is this being iterated again?

[Skuletor]

I'd assume because Yakuza 0 just got released on PC

[zivtheawesome]

Because of the latest success of the franchise with zero and Kiwami and with the new pc release, MS and Nintendo are once again interested in the series, but they rejected it back then.

[TheColbertinator]

To be honest only the Playstation 2 was indeed the best place to establish Yakuza. Games back then were nurtured and more experimental.

Yakuza continues to be a great series regardless of Sony's efforts to stifle the creative minds of the gaming industry.

Hopefully Microsoft can extend their hand to bring us Yakuza 6 with unparalled 4K graphics.

[doggo84]

"Yakuza continues to be a great series regardless of Sony's efforts to stifle the creative minds of the gaming industry."

There is about 100000 x more creative ingenuity in Sony's First party teams as opposed to publishers like EA, Microsoft and Activision. Try again later maybe.

[Skull521]

Yeah, turn every game into an over the shoulder view action game, real creative.

[TheGoodestBoi]

@Numbskull sure because Horizon, God of War, Unchartered 4 and Bloodborne are soooo alike. Heck Detroit is third person too, must a a clone just like all other third party games mentioned.

[Why o why]

I can't tell if he's trolling or being serious. Normally I can tell. . .

[The_Sage]

Oh... He's trolling. This line says it all.
"Sony's efforts to stifle the creative minds of the gaming industry."

[SoulWarrior]

Microsoft kills the creative minds of the industry with their push for MP and GaaS, not Sony lmao.

[remixx116]

Rare...just look at Rare

[RememberThe357]

Where's Perfect Dark!!😠

[WeAreLegion]

For anyone who doesn't know this guy yet, he is most definitely trolling. He loves getting a rise out of you all. So, just move on.

[jznrpg]

Lol , MS has closed studios cancelled games because they want MP in all their games but Sony is stifling creativity?

[bigmalky]

You don't half talk mince.

[showtimefolks]

That's all you Xbox fans have is that 4k yet most AAA games aren't even native 4k on x

Skull

I guess sales prove that's what gamers want. A lot of games are over the shoulder games so what's wrong with that?

Instead of hating on Sony expect more from MS

[RememberThe357]

Seriously, where's my Yakuza cross play with XBox? Greedy ass Sony! I mean Sega... Wait... What am I mad about again?

[Majin-vegeta]

Fighting kuze for the first time with that theme song will never get old.
https://youtu.be/aJ2AZhbji6...

[cfc83]

It clearly states that sony weren't interested at first either. For what its worth, Yakuza 0 was my goty for 2017.

[LOGICWINS]

Same. Looking forward to rebuying the series on PC.

[rainslacker]

But they eventually became interested because the dev kept pushing it, and likely refining it to something that Sony would be interested in. There are plenty of games which don't make it on the first cut, but often get the 2nd, 3rd, or 10th.

[Edito]

Nintendo being Nintendo and Microsoft being Microsoft...

[kingjohnm]

as great as the games are, the sales are not

[Majin-vegeta]

Obviously the games are selling well enough for Sega to bring the whole franchise to PS4

[strayanalog]

That... sucks.. but at least someone gave Yakuza a chance.

[81BX]

My comment: Yakuza? Never heard of her!
Got marked as inappropriate... meanwhile were talking about a Japanese gang

[JunMei]

Wow. Their loss.