Microsoft and Nintendo Rejected Yakuza; Now They Want it According to Toshihiro Nagoshi

[Gammalad]

abronn627 said:
I’m sorry if I missed something, what was Sony’s involvements in this game ? I don’t know much about the Yakuza franchise, but from the article it’s seems the development was possible because of the merger with Sammy.

Nagoshi pitched the game to several platform holders to see which system(s) they would develop it for. Only Sony was interested in the idea, and Nintendo and Microsoft did not like the idea of a game about the yakuza on their system. Fast forward to now and both Nintendo and Microsoft want Yakuza on their system. 

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Sony have had a pretty health relationship though. In Japan Sony goes as far to consider Kazuma Kiryu as one of their mascots for the PlayStation brand, and even paid for the localization of Yakuza 5 when SEGA was going through their restructure after buying Atlus.