RGG Studio Dev Comments on Yakuza Kiwami 3 (2024)

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the team behind the longstanding Like a Dragon franchise, has expressed interest in remaking Yakuza 3, the franchise's third mainline entry that originally released in 2009. The studio had previously remade the first two games of Sega's celebrated Yakuza series, Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2, in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Ever since, fans have been eager for confirmation of a potential Yakuza 3 remake.

Most recently, Ryu Ga Gotoku has been busy releasing three Like a Dragon games in the past year. Just over a year ago, it released Like a Dragon: Ishin, a remake of the original 2014 spinoff game that had previously only been available in Japan. Bridging Kazuma Kiryu's gap from Yakuza 6: The Song of Life to 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon, RGG released Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name late last year in preparation for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which launched in January. Touted as the largest mainline Like a Dragon title in the franchise yet, Infinite Wealth is also considered one of the best with its stellar cast of characters, gripping narrative, and satisfying turn-based RPG combat.

In a recent livestream held by Ryu Ga Gotoku, Masayoshi Yokoyama, the series director of Like a Dragon, provided some updates on the exciting future of the franchise. Via Gematsu, he first revealed that the team is getting the ball rolling on the casting process for the next mainline game. He later mentioned that this next game won't be Yakuza Kiwami 3, but that the studio is still heavily considering remaking the third game, saying "I think we'll do Kiwami 3 at some point, I think we'll definitely do it sooner or later."

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio Is Considering Making Yakuza Kiwami 3

With Yakuza 3 already having been remastered as recently as 2019 alongside Yakuza 4 and 5, it'll be interesting to see whether Ryu Ga Gotoku is planning to give the franchise the Resident Evil treatment of fully remaking all the early titles for modern fans. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, the final entry in the proper Kiryu saga, was released in 2016 and has yet to receive any sort of remake or remaster treatment at all. Perhaps in time plans to do so will arise, especially if most of the Kiryu saga sees full Kiwami remakes in the coming years. Recent years have seen RGG display its ability to work on several smaller titles alongside its big mainline games, so it may be possible for the studio to develop Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Like a Dragon 9 simultaneously.

RGG doesn't currently have any DLC planned for its most recent hit, Infinite Wealth. With that said, it'll likely be several years before the studio is ready to reveal its next mainline title, as it's only just begun the early casting process. However, there's always the possibility of smaller-scale spinoffs such as Like a Dragon: Ishin,Gaiden, or Judgment to be released in the meantime. As for Yakuza Kiwami 3, fans will likely have to wait several more years for more concrete information.

Yakuza 3

The third installment in Toshihiro Nagoshi's Like a Dragon franchise sees series protagonist Kiryu take over an orphanage on the island of Okinawa. When the deed to the orphanage is stolen though, he's forced to return to the familiar streets ofKamurocho and the life he'd sworn to leave behind.

Platform(s)

PC , PS3 , PS4 , Xbox One

Released

March 9, 2010

Developer(s)

Sega

Publisher(s)

Sega

Genre(s)

Action-Adventure