RGG Studios is known for its quick turnaround for certain titles, with the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series maintaining a steady yearly release cadence for almost a decade now. While the studio is currently making big plans for its future with new, IP Stranger Than Heaven and looks at the next mainline Virtua Fighter game, studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama has teased that the future of the Yakuza series will be teased in the upcoming Yakuza Kiwami 3.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is a compilation including a remake of Yakuza 3 in the style of the series’ more modern entries, and a spin-off prequel centered around Yakuza 3’s main villain, Yoshitaka Mine. Kiwami 3 is a ground-up remake of the PS3 game, adding new combat styles, mini-games and more, while Dark Ties is an entirely new game promising up to 10 hours of content.
RGG Studio Head Teases Yakuza Kiwami 3’s Big Surprises
Speaking to GameWatch (via Automaton) ahead of the “Like a Dragon: Four Ceremonies of Life Exhibition” (an event where fans can fictionally marry their favourite characters from the series) Yokoyama stated “[Kiwami 3] contains some major hints about the future direction of the series. We haven’t officially announced anything related to that yet. But once you play it, I think you’ll get an idea, or rather, a pretty solid sense of what we intend to do with the series going forward”
Given the events of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, it’s hard to tell exactly what Yokoyama is talking about here and if it pertains to the return of Kazuma Kiryu as a protagonist (for a third time).
In this same interview Yokoyama also claims that the introduction of Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s protagonist Ichiban Kasuga was the series’ biggest turning point in the last 20 years, so hopefully he’ll still be in action by Yakuza 9, if and when we eventually see it.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties will release on Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on February 12, 2026.
Are you excited to revisit Yakuza 3? What’s your hopes for Dark Ties? Let us know in the comments below or join the friendly and active Gamer Social Club Discord to chat about Yakuza and all your favourite games.
