It’s been a while since we’ve heard updates on Yakuza 5‘s localization. Sega of America recently took to their blog to offer some words on its progress. It turns out that the localization team encountered a particularly strange type of text replacement issue with the game’s script, forcing them to pore through the game’s source code. Having since rectified the issue, the localization is back on track.
When the blog entry was initially posted, it mentioned a possible release window of mid-November (hoping to avoid the release date of December 31st suggested on some preorder venues) and was reported on such outlets as Gematsu. That suggestion has since been removed from the Sega blog post, which now reflects a promise to share more details as they become available.
Sega fansite Sega Nerds contacted Sega to ask for a comment on why the release schedule had been removed. We’ve reproduced the comments from Sega Nerds’ writeup below:
However, soon after it was published, the post was edited, removing any mention of the mid-November release window. We reached out to SEGA and received some clarification for why it was removed.
SEGA PR rep John Hardin explained that the release date was removed because SEGA was worried people would take the language too specifically and that it would be able to release Yakuza 5 in that time frame if everything goes to plan.
He reiterated that SEGA still hopes to release the game in mid-November but is non-committal on the date.
So at the moment, it appears there isn’t much else to say about the release window for Yakuza 5. We should find out more in the future.
Credit goes to the above-mentioned Gematsu article for reference of the previously-existing release window comment, and to the above-mentioned Sega Nerds article for the words provided on the changing of the Sega blog entry.
