Director Masayoshi Yokoyama talks about whether Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is coming to Xbox Game Pass and shares some interesting thoughts…

Masayoshi Yokoyama, one of the directors of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, has stated that Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the company’s latest game, is not currently planned to be released on Xbox Game Pass. This may come as a surprise to some. Because Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name was immediately included in the Game Pass catalogue. Right when the game comes out in November. However, Yokoyama seems to have good reason to change his tactics this time around.

RGG Studio is the Japanese development company behind the famous Yakuza/Like a Dragon games: the studio has completed the difficult task of expanding and conquering its overseas audience with games that were once only popular in Japan.

RGG Studio’s games have generally received favourable reviews. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth aims to continue this trend. The title will be published in a month.

Masayoshi Yokoyama gave an interview via Automaton Media. In it, he revealed that, unlike Gaiden, Infinite Wealth won’t be coming to Xbox Game Pass immediately. The director mentioned that the reason for bringing Like a Dragon Gaiden to Game Pass so early was that the studio wanted to expand overseas. Making it easy for new players to learn about the legendary Yakuza, Kazuma Kiryu. In retrospect, this proved to be an effective marketing tactic. After all, Gaiden received great reviews from critics, which made players more inclined to try the game for less on Game Pass.

Yokoyama also admitted that he initially did not think that Gaiden would be as famous as it was in Japan. This is due to the fact that it is a much shorter game compared to other titles in the franchise. In fact, Like a Dragon Gaiden was completed in just six months. The director called Gaiden RGG Studio’s “best-selling title in recent times”. Before, he hyped the upcoming release of Infinite Wealth by mentioning that the game’s story spans several days. He then revealed that the title could set a new pre-order record.

“At the moment, there are no plans for Infinite Wealth to come to Game Pass. (…) for Gaiden, I thought of Game Pass as a way of ‘handing overseas users our business card,’ in other words, letting players new to the series enjoy the game and get to know Kiryu.”

“Game Pass proved to be a very good method to invite new users to interact with the series.”

Even though Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth won’t be joining the Xbox service on day one, there’s a good chance it will arrive at some point. This is likely, since all previous games in the series were previously available on Game Pass.

Source: Automaton Media