Yakuza 15th Anniversary Livestream Announced for December 8, Will Feature Announcements of “Future Developments”

On December 8, 2005, the first Yakuza game launched for the PS2 in Japan. That means the series’ 15th anniversary is approaching soon- and to commemorate that occasion, on that exact date, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio will be hosting a livestream celebration event.

As the developer announced on Twitter, the livestream will be broadcast on December 8, a little over two weeks from now. The event will have in attendance Takaya Kuroda (the voice of longtime series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu) and Kazuhiro Nakaya (the voice of Akira Nishikiyama).

Notably, not only will the livestream be a celebration of the series’ history, it will also feature announcements of “future developments”. That’s pretty vague wording, and open to interpretation, but Yakuza fans will be hoping that we’ll be hearing something about a new game at the event.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is out now for the Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, and PC (though the Xbox Series X/S release is on hold in Japan indefinitely). The game will release for PS5 worldwide on March 2, 2021.

In our review of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, we wrote, “Yakuza is reborn in this brilliant and compelling new addition to series canon that recontextualizes series tropes and mechanics for an entirely new genre, delivering one of the best outings the series has ever seen.”