SEGA Interested in Bringing Yakuza and Persona Series to PC

For a long time, Japanese games weren't big PC adopters. With recent successes, SEGA is considering porting Yakuza and Persona games to the PC.

For a long time, Japanese games weren't big PC adopters. With recent successes, SEGA is considering porting Yakuza and Persona games to the PC
For some time, Japanese games and the PC have not been a common pairing. Thanks to successful ports like Bayonetta and Vanquish, along with modern releases of many Japanese games, onto Steam, that Western audiences have never heard of, that may be about to change. According to an interview conducted by PC Gamer, SEGA has a list of games they're interested in sharing with PC gamers.

John Clark, vice president of commercial publishing with SEGA Europe, talked about how the company is just as interested in branching out to PC as their fans are. On the short list of game series, he says, that those at SEGA are interested in porting are Yakuza and Persona. These series are no slouches, at least not in Japan, and they have found recent success with their latest entries in the West. Both of them have a growing following of dedicated fans, who would no doubt be happy to pay for another copy if they could play it on PC.

The reluctance of Japanese games coming to PC has a lot to do with the Japanese view on PC gaming. In Japan, for years PC gaming sparked images of Western shooters and Japanese dating sims. Not to mention the expense turned many gamers away. Whether it be because of a changing perception in Japan about the PC, or because Japanese companies are willing to port to the PC for their Western audiences, the result is the same: a push for PC.

(This man is a hardened criminal; the Yakuza series likes to blend a serious story with wacky side quests and mini-games.)

Yakuza 0 and Persona 5 have been huge successes, both critically and financially, showing Japanese publishers that there's a market for these series in the West. Both  games rely on the ins and outs of Japanese culture and lifestyle, so the fear was that Western audiences would be too confused by the tropes to enjoy the games. Thankfully, that has not been the case.

Both of these recent games have been huge selling points for the PS4. In an age of dwindling exclusivity, losing these titles to a second platform may not be something Sony would agree to, assuming they have control over that decision. What Japanese titles, that have until now not been on PC, would you like to see make the transition?

2 Comments

  1. Avatar photo

    That would mean Sony loses some exclusives, but then again is third-party companies doing it.

     

     

    Since PC is eternally backwards compatible, I’m all for throwing them in there.

    Reply
    • Avatar photo

      If Sony decided to open up their own e-shop on PC (I assume they haven’t yet because view of PC gaming is still skewed toward niche in Japan, though it’s changing), then I could see them pushing some of their exclusives out toward PC.

       

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

×