Lost Judgment May Be Last Judgment Game
Sega having disagreements with Lost Judgment actor and his agency over Steam release may lead to an end of series.
 |
| Lost Judgment May Be Last Judgment Game |
Seeing a staggering success of Yakuza series spin-off title Judgment, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and publisher Sega has announced a follow-up sequel Lost Judgment for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
While series fans are eagerly waiting for its upcoming release, a newly surfaced report suggests Sega is having a dispute with its actor and talent agency over a proposed Steam release, which may possibly lead to an end of Judgment series.
Most recently, Japanese news site Nikkan Taishu has reported that publisher Sega is having a few disagreements with Judgment lead character actor Takuya Kimura and his talent agency Johnny & Associates over usage of his likeness.
If you are a fan of RGG Studio's games, you will notice that first Judgment game has only been remastered recently for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S console systems but it's not released for PC platform unlike other games in Yakuza series.
Lost Judgment is the first RGG Studio game to be launched simultaneously in West and Japan. Sega originally said that they could have released first Judgment game worldwide on same day but didn't do it because of business reasons.
Sega has confirmed Lost Judgment for last and newer generation of consoles but no PC version was announced so far. It seems that, Johnny & Associates are stopping Sega from releasing it on PC platform for some still undisclosed reasons.
Although they didn't reveal any solid reasons as to why such otherization, many players on PC and consoles are speculating that it has something to do with modding capabilities, which are exclusively available to PC gaming community.
PC gamers would be able to easily modify character models from game files and replace them with altered or fully different ones for Source Filmmaker animation, which Johnny & Associates probably sees as a threat to the talent's image.
Fans are mocking Johnny & Associates for their backwards mindset because they are mostly an unknown company in West and Takuya Kimura is lesser known outside of Japan, except as his role in Judgment, so there is not much to lose.
Sega has to comply with Johnny & Associates for using Takuya Kimura's likeness, something that is falling apart now. Sadly for them and everyone else involved in this situation, consumers are largely seeing this mess as a negative Judgment.
