On Wednesday, SEGA subsidiary Ryu Ga Gotoku (RGG) reportedly removed a reference to an unannounced remake of the 2010 crime beat-’em-up game, Yakuza 3, from its website. Observant fans of the Kazuma Kiryu-centered Like a Dragon titles shared screenshots of the brief mention across social media platforms like X and Reddit, which show the tentative title on the series website and in web search results. News of a potential re-release comes just one week ahead of the studio’s RGG Direct presentation, slated for Wednesday, September 24, 2025.
While RGG fans suspect the reveal will comprise information about the team’s Stranger Than Heaven project, first teased at The Game Awards in December 2024. Ryu Ga Gotoku’s pre-Direct information isn’t exactly transparent, either: “RGG DIRECT will immediately follow the SUMMIT, giving you a closer look at some of the studio’s latest announcements,” the studio’s vague statement starts. “Keep an eye out on the latest from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio as they continue to push boundaries and evolve!”
Yakuza 3 would be the latest entry in the series’ Kiwami remake collection. Yakuza 1 (2006) and Yakuza 2 (2008) received Kiwami re-releases in 2017 and 2018, about a decade after the original games first hit shelves. Yakuza 3, released to North American gamers in 2010, is comparatively overdue. The Kiwami games do more than zhuzh up the visuals; the series’ remakes introduce quality-of-life improvements
Since the franchise first landed stateside nearly 20 years ago, SEGA and RGG have released two dozen Yakuza/Like a Dragon games. Its most recent — the zany, Goro Majima-focused spinoff, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii — was released this past February. Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, the team’s last re-release, added multilingual dubs, a multiplayer mode, improved frame rates, and 4K resolution. Director’s Cut was released alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 as a console exclusive.
There’s no denying that the hardworking RGG team stays busy, and while we’re all excited about the Stranger Than Heaven news, I’m holding out for Kiwami 3. Hey, there’s still hope — at the time of writing, Google still shows Kiwami 3 in the studio website’s meta description.
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