Sega Bringing Zombie-Themed Yakuza Game To The West

Sega has announced that the zombie-themed crime game Yakuza of the End will be coming to North America and Europe next March as Yakuza: Dead Souls, exclusively for Sony's PlayStation 3. The latest game in the Yakuza series, which takes place in a Toyko red light district overrun with the undead, is the first title in the popular series series to feature gunplay involving everything from pistols to machine guns and rocket launchers. The Yakuza series is a consistent top-seller in Japan -- Of the End dominated Japanese sales charts upon its June release, selling nearly 300,000 copies in a week. Previous editions of the Yakuza series have seen Western releases only a year or more after their Japanese premieres, and have attracted a smaller but still devoted following outside Japan. "We know how much people love Yakuza in the West and with Dead Souls being the latest and greatest in the franchise, it is only right we bring it to them closer to the Japanese release than ever," Sega SVP of marketing Gary Knight said in a statement. Sega drew controversy last year for removing content including 22 side missions and four mini-games from the Western release of Yakuza 3, citing the need for a speedy translation. Yakuza 4's Western release saw only minimal changes when it hit store shelves earlier this year. In a press statement for Yakuza: Dead Souls, Sega assured the Western translation will include "the entire storyline, Japanese downloadable content and a brand new mini-game Pachislot!" The company announced in June The Yakuza series has shipped over 5 million copies worldwide since it began in late 2005.