1UP recently revealed that Yakuza 3 is coming to Europe and North America. They also hinted that Sega may not be the publisher for the game in the western regions. So who could be the mysterious publisher behind localizing Yakuza 3?
The answer might be Ignition Entertainment. On the recent Interactive Distractions podcast, Shane Bettenhausen (Director of Business Development for Ignition Entertainment) made the following comment when Yakuza 3 was brought up as a possible candidate for the publisher to bring over from Japan:
“We’ll see. Never say never. I can’t promise anything but I’m a big fan of that series.”
Furthermore, he stated earlier that Ignition Entertainment will have some exciting announcements soon:
“I’m going to be excited for Tokyo Game Show. We’re meeting with lots of developers and publishers there. Definitely keep an eye on Ignition just in the next few weeks and definitely in the next few months for the kind of games we’re going to be announcing. I think people would be surprised.”
Shane Bettenhausen used to be an editor at 1UP. His comment about when to expect some big announcements coming from the company he works for mirrors the following excerpt from the 1Up story about Yakuza 3 being localized:
“We anticipate more news on this front will be coming from Sega -- or another publisher, were the game shopped around -- in the coming weeks or months.”
With Ignition Entertainment taking a more aggressive approach recently in regards to acquiring publishing rights to Japanese titles, don’t be surprised if they ended up bringing Yakuza 3 to Europe and North America.
