Pictured above is the Yakuza Zero-themed A Series of the Sony Walkman. Push Square writes that Sony is producing these special Walkmans to help celebrate the Yakuza series’ 10th anniversary in Japan. A product page for the Walkman is already open and Sony is taking preorders. It is another item in what’s becoming a substantial list of instances of Sony showing support for Sega properties in Japan. Most recently, we wrote about limited edition Yakuza Zero-themed Playstation 4 consoles being offered in Japan. It’s truly a remarkable sign of the times.

The “Walkman” name has long been a part of Sony’s product history (sometimes as a mobile phone! though the Walkman-branded phones are now discontinued) but it is probably most well known for being an iconic name in portable music players before the advent of the iPod. The Walkman was the first portable music player released for mass consumption. It’s still iterated upon and is now present in the form you see above. Just by quick research of my own, some notable A-series features include the expansion of memory by using an SD card, and the ability to play FLAC and .wav files (which Apple’s iTunes doesn’t properly support.)

Buying this will set you a back a cool ¥29,980. You may want to put in some time with the Tojo Clan to secure this one! If you purchase one of these Walkman devices from Sony, it does come preloaded with a selection of tunes from the Yakuza series, which you can check out on Sony’s product page linked above.

In other news, a Japanese demo for Yakuza Zero is out on the PSN store, for both Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 users. It’s been out since last week and is exclusive only to those who already have Playstation Plus, but the demo will be available to non-subscribers at a later date according to this Gematsu article. The demo features the first hour and a half or so of Kazuma Kiryu’s scenario. There is video footage of the demo posted after the break captured by a generous gamer; it’s an hour and ten minutes long, so get a drink or two ready!

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Sega showed off Yakuza Zero at the Taipei Game Show held this past weekend. This game is being localized in Chinese, so it’s a move that is understandable as Sega increases their overtures to this market with the Chinese localizations of Shining Resonance and Phantasy Star Nova. There was a Chinese interpreter translating the speaker’s demonstration on stage.

These videos were shown off at a stage event and are captured through mobile phones, and are not direct feed videos. The quality is pretty good, in my opinion. They are all under two minutes long, and feature combat sequences: two with Kiryu, and one with Majima. Some random encounters have unique introductory sequences, which is a nice touch.

To watch the videos, continue reading!

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