The
Yakuza series is one of Sega's most popular franchises in recent years. Originating in the PlayStation 2, the series has always been considered a Sony exclusive, although some games have made it to other consoles in the past—the Wii U getting
Yakuza and
Yakuza 2 HD remasters comes to mind.
Recently,
Yakuza series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi has revealed that Nintendo and Microsoft were, indeed, pitched Yakuza but both companies said 'No'. The news comes from an interview he had with Edge magazine, featured in their latest issue, in which he mentioned that neither company wanted the series at the time.
"
I’ve never said this before, but while we released this game with Sony, I’d done presentations about it to Microsoft and Nintendo. Back then they said 'No we don’t want it'. Now they say, 'We want it!' (laughs) They didn’t understand the reason why I created it".
Yakuza 0 was recently released for PC and
Yakuza Kiwami is on the way, making a first for the series to be on a platform that isn't a home console like the PlayStation and Wii U. The Wii U versions of
Yakuza 1&2 were considered a major flop, but this is mostly because of the console being a flop itself so the main reason why the series isn't currently on Nintendo hs to do more with timing rather than it not having an audience.
This also agrees with some sayings by
Yakuza series Art Director Daisuke Sato, who recently made some comments about
Nintendo not being an ideal console to develop Yakuza games for. Keeping in mind that Sato and Nagoshi have been working together since the series' inception, Nintendo declining on
Yakuza when it was pitched to them may have something to do with this.
Yakuza is currently one of Sega's longest-running franchises that saw its ending this year with
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. The series even got a prequel with Yakuza 0, two HD remakes with
Yakuza Kiwami and
Yakuza Kiwami 2(currently on its way), and Sega has already announced that
Yakuza games 3, 4, and 5 will be getting a re-release on the PlayStation 4—proving that the series has never been more popular. It's just a shame that Nintendo and Microsoft missed out on having such a successful franchise like the
Yakuza series.