Yakuza 0, the prequel of the series, has been confirmed to be on its way to North America. The game, originally released last March in Japan, has been announced on stage at the PlayStation Experience 2015 a couple of weeks ago.
However, any further indication as to when Yakuza 0 will become available in North America is still very much up in the air. In fact, the Canadian PlayStation Blog currently lists the game for a 2017 launch; then again, it was never confirmed that the Western port of Yakuza 0 was supposed to release in 2016.
Of course, it could also be an error made by whoever listed the game. At this point, it's hard to make a better guess; still, given the proven history of huge delays between Eastern and Western releases of Yakuza games, it doesn't seem far fetched at all.
Yakuza 5 just released for PlayStation 3 here and it came out three years after its original release in Japan. If Yakuza 0 was really scheduled for 2017, it would still be an improvement of sorts over Yakuza 5 (two years instead of three). As a reminder, this prequel hasn't been confirmed yet for a European release.
Naturally, if SEGA intends to launch the prequel in 2017 then we'll have to wait even longer for Yakuza 6, due in Japan in late 2016. Let's hope that the company manages to cut these obnoxious porting times very soon.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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