14 DAY TRIAL // The Yakuza series has been so far exclusive to the PlayStation 3 home gaming console from Sony and the creator of the concepts says that it's highly unlikely that it will make the move to the Xbox 360 from Microsoft.
Toshihiro Nagoshi, who is the original creator of the franchise, has told Eurogamer that, “At the beginning of the project we spoke to all the platform holders including Sony and Microsoft. Every platform holder was negative about this prospect, but we kept on pushing because we believed in the potential, and as we kept going one platform holder that showed interest and saw the prospects of this title was Sony.”
Microsoft might now be interested, after Yakuza has become a success, but the developers are loyal to Sony and will probably not consider an offer from the rival company.
Nagoshi also commented on the release of Yakuza: Of the End, saying that it is truly the last game in the series.
He said, “The basic style and mechanics is really an old game that started on PS2 and continued on PS3. Times keep changing, and if we started on some new games they would be in a very different shape – so the last game was the end of one particular era.”
This probably means that more games using the Yakuza name might be launched in the future, but that the developers will re-invent the underlying mechanics and will deliver very different experiences.
Of the End tells the story of a zombie invasion which affects Tokyo and brings back some of the most interesting characters of the series to fight off the undead menace.
Nagoshi is currently working on a new game called Binary Domain, which will arrive on both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 on February 14 in the United States and three days later in Europe.