Sony has announced a new Yakuza Kiwami-themed model of PS4 for Japanese consumers, to be released on January 21st alongside Kiwami itself. If you didn’t remember, Sony produced Yakuza Zero-themed PS4’s too, to celebrate the release of the last major Yakuza game. What we’re getting here is basically the same idea as what we got with the Zero-themed PS4’s. The featured image for this article is taken from the Japanese Sony Playstation Store’s product page for the Yakuza Kiwami PS4’s; preorders are also being taken for the hardware now.

It will cost ¥36,980, and it includes a PS4 + Dualshock 4 controller (both of which are either Jet Black or Glacier White-colored, depending on your choice), HDMI and USB cables, a power cord, and added bonuses including a Kiwami-themed hard drive bay cover and a monoaural headset.

Let that sink in – Yakuza Kiwami will be out in Japan in less than a week!

Interestingly, it’s also been announced that a demo of Yakuza 6 will be made available for Yakuza Kiwami owners on January 28th – one week after Yakuza Kiwami is released. This is reported by Sega by way of Gematsu. The demo will feature Kiryu as a playable character. There isn’t really anything problematic about this decision in itself, in my opinion, but I’m not familiar with demos designed to accompany one game being made available after that game is released. I wonder if we may expect a similar situation for Valkyria Chronicles Remaster and Valkyria Azure Revolution? To be clear, we don’t have indication that such a course of action is set to happen, as of yet. Maybe it’s a reflection of a time that is increasingly relegating demos to the digital space rather than the physical space?

In December, SEGA aired a live stream to promote Yakuza Kiwami, and it’s now been uploaded to their Youtube channel. Toshihiro Nagoshi was present to show a bit more of the game’s footage, Rather than in-game footage, this video focuses more on the in-game cutscenes, including new story elements that weren’t included in the original game. Also shown was the Yakuza 6 trailer, which was revealed near the end of last year. You can watch the video here:

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Yakuza producer Toshihiro Nagoshi appeared on a new video posted on the official Yakuza Youtube channel to show a bit more of Yakuza Kiwami, the upcoming remake of the original Yakuza game. First we get to see a comparison between the old game and the remake, and the difference is certainly remarkable. Additionally, some gameplay was shown which showcased the game’s combat and the “Majima Anywhere” system. The latter involves Majima making surprise appearances throughout the game to fight Kiryu. You can watch the video after the break. Fair warning: the last 5 minutes of the video involves some content that may be considered NSFW.

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