Except they're not similar at all. You can keep saying this and we can turn this into arguing about VGChartz's fake numbers all everyone wants, but it's not the same. The Persona games are much cheaper to make and are localized and published by a company specifically built to handle breaking even on selling 50,000 copies. That's hasn't been Sega for years. They've always wanted Yakuza to be as big in the West as it is in Japan. That it's impossible for a multitude of reasons doesn't matter if it's the expectation they have as a mid-sized publisher who doesn't want to waste their time with smaller projects. And when, in their minds, those resources could be better used on Football Manager or Total War or Relic or things that actually make them money and appeal to far more people than a niche Japanese PlayStation-exclusive franchise and they've tried it five times to no real success, no wonder they're done.

Of course, that doesn't preclude Atlus USA from jumping in.

Who cares about what they cost to make? Yakuza sells gangbusters in Japan, so the whole point is whether localization is worth it, which should be a given, since it doesn't even have english voices. So since it probably takes little effort to localize it, throw it on PSN and make a few bucks, I think they are assholes for not doing it - especially since Y5 got a proper 2 year development. Now it is unfortunately a sad trend, and Sega is far from the only publisher to go this route. Demon's Souls of all games almost got thrown in the shitter by Sony, had Atlus not picked it up.

And the japanese market is full of people who don't buy western games.... the cultural differences in taste is nothing new, in fact one could argue the Asian markets refusal to ever seemingly embrace anything in the video game market that isn't japanese would make me think that the asian culture is more closed off than the western when it comes to video games.

God damnit. I was holding out hope that we may eventually get 5, too...

I guess I'll import it once THE BEST version comes out or something. Ugh.

See I wonder this with more games, for some there is even already a fan-translation. Just hire 2/3 translators and release it digital. You probably need to sell what, a thousand games to get the costs out?

No one really could imagine the success of Demon Souls. There were games like that I think it was called Kings field? And it was a disaster sales wise. And I really get why Sega is not doing it anymore if its not profitable or you even lose money. That is why fansubber should step in and do the job because they love the series. Fansubs are often even better translated than the original ones.

@grissefar: @darji: This topic is to discuss the shut down of sites related to the Yakuza franchise. A discussion pertaining to the accuracy of VGchartz or the NPD is off topic. Please cease this conversation.