Lost Judgment might be the last we’ll see of Yagami and Takuya Kimura
Lost Judgment is the upcoming game in the Judgment series, a Yakuza spin-off following the adventures of detective Takayuki Yagami and his friends as they fight crime. Lost Judgment might also be the last game in the series, thanks to a disagreement between SEGA and Johnny & Associates – the agency behind face and voice actor for Yagami, Takuya Kimura.
According to a Japanese showbiz site called Nikkan Taishu, the disagreement stems from the fact that SEGA – no doubt having seen how popular the Yakuza series has become on PC due to popular storefronts like Steam – wants to bring Judgment and Lost Judgment to Steam. This shouldn’t seem like much of an issue from the business side of things, more platforms mean more of an audience and more money. However, the agency representing Takuya Kimura is against this.
The reason behind this is because Johnny’s is extremely strict with their clients’ image – especially when their likeness is being used in a big video game series like Judgment. The difference between PC and console being the platform for that likeness, however, has not been made clear. If we were to speculate, we’d say that it may have something to do with the modding scene that’s popular in PC gaming. Not everyone wants to see their client be used in lewd ways. Even CD Projekt Red put a stop to that when Johnny Silverhand – played by Keanu Reeves – when sex mods started to surface online. So it is a real issue.
Nikkan Taishu reports that this discussion between SEGA and the agency has been going on for a while now, but Johnny’s doesn’t look like it’s going to budge.
We hope that some sort of agreement does come to fruition without actively damning a series – that is already extremely popular – to just being two games when there are more stories for SEGA to tell about the Judgment series. It’d also be nice not to lose Takuya Kimura either, as his fame from his time as an actor and singer certainly helped Judgment – and hopefully Lost Judgment – rise in popularity in Japan.
Lost Judgment is set to release worldwide on PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on September 24, 2021.
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