Xbox Series X’s biggest Japanese launch game isn’t releasing in Japan

Xbox Series X/S’s biggest Japan-made launch title, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, won’t be released in Japan.

That’s according to a report by local publication Game Watch, which reports that release of the next-gen version of the action-RPG has been “delayed indefinitely”.

According to Sega, a Japanese release “has not been officially announced by us,” it told the publication.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon has been available for almost a year in Japan, having released for PlayStation 4 in January. In the West, the game will also release for PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on November 10.

Further complicating the game’s release schedule, a PlayStation 5 version of Yakuza won’t release until March 2, 2021, Sega recently announced.

In VGC’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon review, our critic Matthew Castle called the game “hugely entertaining”.

Yakuza’s new direction maintains the series signature drama and deckings, while finding rich new comedy in its weirdest beatdowns yet,” he wrote.

Xbox Series X recently sold out of pre-orders for the second time in Japan.

Given Xbox’s historically poor market performance in Japan, Series X and S stock allocation is unlikely to have been high for the region’s pre-orders. Regardless, it’s a positive start in a country where Xbox has typically struggled, but one which it recently claimed had become its fastest-growing.

Commenting on the pre-order performance in September, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer said he was humbled but added that it was “the first step in a much longer marathon.”

“It humbles me to consider how well the Xbox Series X/S has been welcomed by Japanese fans,” he told Famitsu (translated by VGC).

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Review: Yakuza: Like A Dragon’s RPG shift is a thumping success

Yakuza’s new direction maintains the series signature drama and deckings, while finding rich new comedy in its weirdest beatdowns yet