Yakuza Kiwami
Image: Sega

Following its recent launch on Nintendo Switch, Yakuza Kiwami is supposedly "selling like crazy" on the hybrid platform.

This comes from comments made by head of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, Masayoshi Yokoyama, over on YouTube (thanks, VGC). According to Yokoyama, he assumed that many people had already experienced Kiwami before on other platforms, and so may have looked at potential Switch sales too conservatively:

“So, it looks like Kiwami is selling like crazy. I’m really glad. You know, the company’s executives had been making sales predictions, but I was way off. I guess I looked at it too conservatively.

“The whole thing has been really exciting. But yeah, this is great. It’s been 20 years since we made the first Yakuza game. And now, even though it’s been rebranded as Kiwami, we already released Kiwami a while ago, right? I thought it had been out for quite some time and that people all over the world had experienced it already.

"This time, though, with the drama on Amazon Prime and other factors coming together, it’s finally arrived on the Switch. Though, technically, it’s just a port. And it’s only available as a digital download. But still, the fact that people are willing to play it again makes me really happy as a game developer."

He went on to state that he downloaded the game on Switch himself, and is looking forward to playing it on the go:

“Remakes are tough to pull off. Selling the same game a second time isn’t easy. So I’m just really relieved. I feel great about it. I think a lot of people are going to enjoy it on the Switch. I even downloaded it myself! Being able to carry it around is really nice.”

Perhaps this could be an indication that more Yakuza ports may be considered for the Switch in the future. We'd love to see the entire series on Nintendo's platform, though we suspect the likes of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Judgment, and the upcoming Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii would perhaps be better suited on the eventual Switch successor.

What do you make of Yakuza's apparent success on the Switch? Would you like to see more entries from the series ported over? Let us know with a comment.

[source youtube.com, via videogameschronicle.com]