Former Yakuza developers removed from credits, including series creator

by Danny Craig ·

Sega

Several former developers of the Yakuza series (now known as Like A Dragon) have had their names removed from games included in the Yakuza Complete Series bundle released on GOG.

The details:

As noted by Reddit user Timo653, former developers who worked on the games at Sega's Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (RGG) have had all mention of their work removed from all seven Yakuza games included in the bundle. This includes the entirety of Lab42 from 0 to Kiwami 1, QLOC from 2 to 6, Daisuke Sato, and even the series' creator, Toshihiro Nagoshi. Sega has even gone to the trouble of removing QLOC's logo from the Kiwami 2 startup screen by editing a script file, even though the ports are based on those worked on by the Polish developer.
Although the credits for each game in the GOG bundle appear to have larger text and spacing, they seem to be noticeably shorter than the Steam versions due to the number of names missing. Aside from the aforementioned developers, some other names removed appear to be former RGG employees who joined Nagoshi at his new studio, Nagoshi Studio.
A Reddit user claiming to be an employee at Sumo Digital subsidiary Lab42 has also commented on the situation, suggesting that no one affected was made aware of the decision in advance, writing, “Well that’s not ideal. We put a LOT of blood, sweat, and tears into those games, I tell you what!”
The reason for the removal of the staff's names is unknown, but failing to credit those who have worked on video games properly is still an ongoing issue in the industry, with Luminous Productions' action RPG Forspoken from January failing to acknowledge the majority of its localization and quality assurance teams.

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