Just a couple of months ago, Sega finally announced Lost Judgment, the full-fledged sequel to the spinoff title from the Yakuza franchise, Judgment. The sub-series has garnered its own dedicated fan base, and the anticipation there when it launches later this year on September 24. However, due to an internal dispute, this might be the final game in the series. Revealed from Japanese publication Nikkan Taishu, and leaked through Reddit, a dispute between the publisher and Johnny’s, an acting agency in Japan, over the use of the main character’s image. The most startling point of this is that Johnny’s does not want the game to come to the PC gaming platform, which is completely counterintuitive to Sega’s strategy.
The agency represents Takuya Kimura, who portrays the main protagonist of the series, Takayuki Yagami, and reportedly has strict policies over how the images and likenesses of their talent is shown in the media. According to the original publication, no clear reason was given as to why the PC version would be the straw that broke the camels back, it most likely has something to do with Johnny’s claims on using the likeness of their actors. Due to this, Sega has now been put into a very awkward situation.
According to Nikkan Taishu, because there has not been any sort of agreement between the two parties, and because of the apparent legalities involved, it is now possible that both Lost Judgement and Judgment will not see any release on the PC platform. In addition, and to make matters worse, Sega may have to end the series after Lost Judgment launches. That sounds like it’s a bit too much, and quite frankly it is, but if these ramifications are in any way a violation to Johnny’s policies, then Sega might have no choice but to comply.
As we stated earlier, Sega’s current strategy is to make as many of their IPs as possible available on the PC gaming market. This direction has been working wonders for the company in recent years, especially with the Yakuza franchise, in which all of the main entries are now available through Steam and the Xbox Game Pass. Hopefully, both companies will be able to work something out, as not having either title for PC would be a rather unfortunate situation for those without a home console.