GOONL!NE: SEGA Europe has given GOONL!NE a "no comment" on whenever a Western release of Yakuza 3 will happen.
According to NeoGAF member, Cyntec, Sega will be publishing Yakuza 3 in North America with Japanese voices and English subtitles.
In Tokyo Game Vandal Show it has been able to know that Yakuza 3 will arrive at Europe in the month of March, and that in fact the Castilian will do with translation. Although it has not been confirmed what company is the one that is behind the project, although the information which we have rather little indicates one habitual one in Japanese games, yes we know that one of the controverted parts more of the game, the one of the management of clubs of alternates, will be eliminated in the western version, reducing therefore the task of location of the game.
Shak @ PS3Center.net writes:
Examiner: 1UP recently revealed that Yakuza 3 is coming to Europe and North America. They also hinted that Sega may not be the publisher for the game in the western regions. So who could be the mysterious publisher behind localizing Yakuza 3?
Just a few days ago Sega rep Aaron Webber commented that the possibility of Yakuza 3 coming to the U.S. still exists and that it's a subject discussed quite often at Sega.
PS3 Attitude writers:
Kotaku writes: "Keep hope alive! It seems SEGA America's Ray Almeda misspoke and gave his own personal opinion to The Examiner that Yakuza 3 will not be released in the States because of subpar Yakuza 2 sales.
VG247: Sega Europe's told VG247 this morning that it has "no current plans" to bring Yakuza 3 to the territory.
Examiner: "Earlier this evening, I was talking with a friend who works at Sega and we did some catching up and had a bit of small talk. Before our conversation ended, though, I asked him about the current status of Yakuza 3 coming stateside. He gave me a blunt answer."
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."
The Playstation 3 has now outsold the Nintendo Wii in Japan for the 10th week in a row, according to Media Create. The streak started with the release of Yakuza 3 at the end of February.
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.