Yakuza Studio team currently has no plans to localize Yakuza 5

The Yakuza Studio team does not "have a plan at the moment" to localize Yakuza 5 for a Western release, studio head Toshihiro Nagoshi recently told Edge.

The studio is currently working on Yakuza Restoration (known in Japan as Yakuza Ishin), a title expected to launch Feb. 22 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. According to Nagoshi, the studio feels as though it owes its PlayStation fans "to be there at the start of PS4," even if the upcoming date puts pressure on production.

"The Yakuza Studio team is a fixed size, and we have to choose between forging ahead with the next game or localizing the one that just came out," Nagoshi said. "This time the size of the game was so large, so rather than localizing that game we chose to focus our manpower on the new game."

Yakuza 5 launched in December 2012 in Japan. Localization plans for Yakuza Restoration have not been announced, though Nagoshi said it's possible if the team has "the manpower and the money."