Recent developments have certainly given the very strong impression that Sega has big plans for the Yakuza’s spinoff series, Judgment. Not only is the publisher pushing for global simultaneous launches to be able to sell more copies of its releases, seeing as developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio recently confirmed that Judgment would be their brawler action series going forward while Yakuza stuck with its new RPG formula, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the future looks bright for Judgment.
However, it seems that Lost Judgment, the second game in the series, might also end up being the last one. That’s according to a report published by Japanese outlet Nikkan Taishu, based on insider information. Allegedly, Sega and Johnny and Associates, the talent agency for actor Takuya Kimura, who plays the role of Judgment protagonist Takayuki Yagami, and that disagreement has led to what might be the end of the series.
Apparently, the two parties have failed to reach an agreement over which platforms the Judgment games should be sold on. Sega wants to release the Judgment games on PC, but the talent agency – which has a reputation for not exactly being completely in the know with technology and the internet – doesn’t want the work of Kimura to be distributed on a platform it doesn’t consider to be related to gaming. Apparently, the fact that PCs are connected to the internet is also a problem- which is strange, because so is every other console, especially the cloud-centric Stadia, which recently saw the launch of Judgment Remastered.
Given the fact that basically every Yakuza game is available now on PC, and that Sega clearly views PC as an important platform, the discrepancy of the Judgment games skipping PC hasn’t gone unnoticed- and would certainly be explained by Johnny and Associates’ meddling, who have proven to exert far too much control over their clients’ activities, especially when it comes to the internet and social media. Sega has previously only said that it currently has no plans for bring Lost Judgment to the PC.
Of course, this is all still unconfirmed and unverified, so it might be best to wait for official word from Sega on this.
When Lost Judgment does release on September 24, it’ll be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and Xbox One.
