Yakuza 5 Gets Western Release in 2015

Open world, crime-themed Yakuza 5 is finally getting a Western release, Sony and Sega announced today at the PlayStation Experience Event in Las Vegas. It will release on the PlayStation 3 via PSN in 2015.

The game's Western debut follows Sony's #Buildingthelist campaign, which asked fans to name third-party games they wanted to see most on PlayStation platforms. Director of Third Party Production at SCEA Gio Corsi said Yakuza 5 was one of the most requested games.

Sega and Sony also announced that Yakuza 4 and Yakuza: Dead Souls will be available to download from PSN starting Sunday.

The last Yakuza game to be released outside of Japan was Yakuza 4 in 2011. Yakuza 5, which features a new graphics engine, follows Kazuma Kiryu and four other protagonists in their struggles and conflicts in the seedy underbelly of Japan’s Yakuza underworld.

Sony and Sega didn't say whether Yakuza: Ishin, the first PlayStation 4 game in the series, will release outside of Japan.