Some of you may recall a few years ago I went through and listed all of the Yakuza games with their Japanese release dates to see how long a localization announcement usually takes from SEGA America. Now that we’re just a few days from the launch of Yakuza 6, Kiryu’s final game, and a day after the announcement of both Kiwami and Yakuza 6 coming west. I thought it would be fun to have a new look at the turnaround time for our favorite series.

Again these are comparisons for the announcement date in the west to the day they were released in Japan. It’s amazing to see how far SEGA has come with yakuza 6 setting a new record with -5 days!

Thanks to all the fans that have kept the flames burning for this series as long as you have. This is your pay off.

Yakuza 1
Released in Japan: December 8, 2005
Announced for NA: February 23, 2006
Time: 77 Days

Yakuza 2
Released in Japan: December 7, 2006
Announced for NA: July 16, 2008
Time: 587 Days

Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan!
Released in Japan: March 6, 2008
Announced for NA: Never

Yakuza 3
Released in Japan: February 26, 2009
Announced for NA: Dec 08, 2009
Time: 285 Days

Yakuza 4
Released in Japan: March 18, 2010
Announced for NA: Jun 08, 2010
Time: 82 Days

Ryu ga Gotoku Kurohyou
Released in Japan: September 22, 2010
Announced for NA: Never

Yakuza Dead Souls
Released in Japan: June 9, 2011
Announced for NA: October 5, 2011
Time: 118 Days

Ryu ga Gotoku Kurohyou 2
Released in Japan: March 22 2012
Announced for NA: Never

Yakuza 5
Released in Japan: December 5, 2012
Announced for NA: December 6, 2014
Time: 731 Days

Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin
Released in Japan: February 22, 2014
Announced for NA: Never

Yakuza 0
Released in Japan: March 12, 2015
Announced for NA: December 5, 2015
Time: 269 days

Yakuza Kiwami
Released in Japan: January 21, 2016
Announced for NA: December 3, 2016
Time: 318 days

Yakuza 6 – The Song of Life
Released in Japan: December 8, 2016
Announced for NA: December 3, 2016
Time: -5 Days