Yakuza 3 is the next mainline game that has yet to receive the Kiwami treatment, so when might fans expect it? Continue on to read our best guesses on when it could come out!
When Will Yakuza Kiwami 3 Be Released?
2025 at the Earliest
A Yakuza 3 Remake, or to be formally known as Kiwami 3, has a likely chance of being released by next year in 2025. Games from the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise almost always have yearly releases due to their frequent asset recycling(though it’s not necessarily a bad thing mind you). Two Like a Dragon games, a spin-off in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and a mainline game in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, released two months apart. So the developers, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, aren’t completely averse to quick releases.
Kiwami 3 might as well be the next title to be released for all we know, as the studio has recently opened live-action auditions for their next project. However, series director Masayoshi Yokoyama has clarified that the recent auditions are for the next Like a Dragon, and will not be for Kiwami 3. Though, he then continues and says that doing Kiwami 3 is a certainty. "I’m just going to say, I think we’ll do a Kiwami 3 at some point. I think we’ll definitely do it sooner or later."
We can never fully trust what Yokoyama says though, as the stream was held on April Fools’. Infamously, he announced Yakuza 7 on April Fools’ before, so he certainly engages in a little bit of trolling to mislead fans. The name-dropping of Kiwami 3 might be him hinting that development is already underway and that it could be released very soon.
Regardless, seeing as they are already in progress for the next Like a Dragon game, be it another mainline or Gaiden, with the mention of Kiwami 3 being developed "soon," it could likely be announced as early as this year. In lieu of the aforementioned asset recycling, the most recent Like a Dragon game, Infinite Wealth, featured three important characters that were previously thought to be dead in the original Yakuza 3. Seeing as they’re now in the flesh in the present-day story, their models, though they would be quite older, could be utilized for the eventual Kiwami 3.
Though nothing is certain, all we can do is speculate from the morsels of information we can get from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Yokoyama.
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Source:
TheGamer | Yakuza Director Says”We’ll Definitely Do” Kiwami 3
