After its announcement back in August, SEGA and RGG Studio launched Yakuza Kiwami on the Nintendo Switch last October 24.
This marks the first time a Yakuza game was released on Nintendo’s console. Its release is also quite a surprise given that the Switch is seven years old now, and even during its launch, it wasn’t the most powerful console out there.
While we would’ve liked to see Yakuza 0 get released, Kiwami is also a good way to start the Like a Dragon series. After all, it’s the remake of the game that started the entire franchise.
Even though it has only been a week since its launch, RGG Studio director Masayoshi Yokohama already said that the game has sold quite well (as reported by Nintendo Everything), enough that its sales numbers have beaten the projections made by executives.
This should mean that there’s big interest in the series among Nintendo Switch users, so this might mean we’ll see more Yakuza game releases on the Switch in the future. We probably won’t see the Dragon Engine games get released on the Switch though, but these titles may get released on the Switch 2 which we’ll likely see get revealed in the coming months.
In the meantime, fans on other platforms can look forward to Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii which launches in February 2025.