Despite being initially released in 2005, the Yakuza series has gained a massive amount of popularity in recent years. With a memorable cast of characters, tight and responsive combat mechanics, and a slew of humorous and engaging side quests, if given the chance, players can find a lot to love in terms of Yakuza. Now, given the recent port of the sixth mainline installment, the entire Yakuza series is available to play on Xbox.
Yakuza has been largely present on PlayStation platforms, with Yakuza 6: The Song of Life being a PS4 exclusive for many years before finally being ported over to other platforms. Although, what's exciting is that now with the Xbox port of Yakuza 6, Xbox players will be able to experience the every mainline Yakuza game on Xbox.
The release of Yakuza 6 on Xbox platform completes the series on Xbox platforms. With the remakes of the original Yakuza games in the form of Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2, Xbox users will be able to play nearly every mainline Yakuza game via Xbox Game Pass. Though, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is only available for individual purchase, but that's still a lot of selection for players to choose from.
This will give Xbox users a proper chance to experience a series that was largely exclusive to PlayStation for the longest time. It's nice to see that players are being given the chance to play the games they want on the platform of their choice. With more PlayStation games receiving PC ports, players are certainly taking advantage of the new found accessibility of these games.
Where Yakuza is concerned, it's amazing how much popularity and growth this series has received in recent years. It seems now more than ever, Japanese oriented series are growing extremely popular in the west, with series like Yakuza, Persona, and Xenoblade Chronicles becoming more prominent and commonplace in the gaming community. With how much attention the series has received, it seems likely that Xbox players will take advantage of being able to play the series all the way through.
It will be interesting to see if other Japanese or PlayStation exclusive games find their way onto other platforms. Given the recent success of the PC port of Persona 4: Golden and now that the entire Yakuza series is available to play on Xbox, it seems like cross platform support is continuing to expand. With any luck, more and more Japanese series will find their way onto Xbox and other platforms.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox.