Before this, Sega's spinoff of the Yakuza franchise was notably absent from PC for years due to disagreements with the lead actor's talent agency.
Developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio held a special event for the future of the Yakuza franchise, where it revealed that the Judgment sub-series is now available on PC. While the mainline Yakuza games have all been made available for the platform, Judgment has previously only been on consoles.
The reason for this comes to actor Takuya Kimura, who plays Judgment protagonist Takayuki Yagami. Kimura's agency Johnny's reportedly believed the PC releases would negatively impact Kimura's image. But an agreement has apparently been made, as Lost Judgment and Judgment can be purchased on Steam, either separately or in a bundle that also includes the former's story expansion.
Johnny's is responsible for several Japanese boy bands, and was notoriously internet shy. It allegedly didn't allow for its talent to have a social media presence until 2018. The friction over Judgment between Johnny's and Sega, which has never been shy about bringing its games to PC, allegedly would've seen the franchise end after Lost Judgment's release in 2021.
Like the mothership Yakuza series, Judgment has a strong following, and the original game sold over a million worldwide copies as of June 2021.
As for if the franchise will continue beyond this, that remains to be seen. Ryu Ga Gotoku is currently developing a trio of Yakuza games, including Yakuza 8 in 2024 and a remake of the spinoff, Yakuza Ishin, due to release in February 2023.
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