SEGA have been auditioning nice young ladies to feature in an upcoming sequel to the Yakuza franchise. Between May 8 and June 19, there were over 1,500 applicants. Groups of 2-3 were interviewed by the game's creators. They were asked to read lines and questioned things such as whether they liked karaoke. Apparently all this is an essential part of making a good game.
Examiner: "A fan of the series pleaded with Jeff Rubenstein, Social Media Manager of Sony Computer Entertainment America, to bring Yakuza 3 to North America."
Executive Officer of SEGA Japan, Kawagoe Takayuki, has announced that Sega were encouraged by Yakuza 3 sales.
In the latest issues of Famitsu, they reported survey results of gamers' satisfaction levels on recent releases and consoles. There were five possible responses to each game/console: very satisfied, satisfied, indifferent, unsatisfied and very unsatisfied. Each game and console is then assigned a satisfaction score out of 5 accordingly.
Sega announced today that Yakuza 3 has shipped more than 500,000 copies in just 3 weeks in Japan, and the Yakuza series has shipped 3.2 million copies globally.
According to this blog's early Media Create numbers, Yakuza sold 380,000, Dynasty Warriors Multi Raid (PSP) sold 200,000 copies.
PS3 exclusive Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 (Yakuza 3) went on sale February 26. How'd it do? Let's hear what its designer Toshihiro Nagoshi, has to say: First and foremost, it sold 300,000 copies.
Well, it looks like the game is a true success in Japan because Enterbrain, the publisher of Famitsu, has confirmed that Yakuza 3 has sold over 232,000 units in Japan during it first day.
Ryu ga Gotoku 3 (Yakuza 3) isn't kicking in Japanese PS3s yet. Still a week to go before it comes out and Sega is already teasing the future.
The game hasn't released in the United States, yet, but it seems that SEGA has the downloadable content all figured out. When speaking on DLC, SEGA confirmed it's plan for releasing the future downloadable content for Yakuza 3 in a very elaborate manner.