The Windows PC version of Yakuza Kiwami will be released Feb. 19 on Steam, publisher Sega appeared to announce on Monday.
Sega didn’t put out the news with any fanfare; quite the opposite, in fact. The publisher merely uploaded a brief GIF to Yakuza Kiwami’s Steam page under the heading “MAJIMAAAA!” The GIF, which you can see below, is a clip of Goro Majima — frenemy of Yakuza series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu — emerging from a manhole on a city street.
It’s no ordinary GIF, however. A message is hidden in the very last frame, meaning that it appears for a fraction of a second in the looped animation: “February 19th.” (We’ve captured that final frame for you here.) Since the GIF was posted to Yakuza Kiwami’s Steam listing, fans are putting two and two together, taking the clip as a stealth announcement of the PC version’s release date.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13704935/yakuza_kiwami_february_19th_616.jpg)
The news has been a long time coming. It’s been more than six months since E3 2018, when Sega announced that it was bringing PC ports of Valkyria Chronicles 4, Yakuza 0, and Yakuza Kiwami to Steam. But while the company released the ports of Yakuza 0 in August and Valkyria Chronicles 4 in September, it hadn’t said anything about the release window for the PC version of Yakuza Kiwami. (In fact, the release date field on the Steam page still just says “coming soon.”)
Yakuza Kiwami debuted in Japan on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in January 2016. It is a remake of the original Yakuza, which was first released in Japan on PlayStation 2 in December 2005. Sega’s remastered PC version will support 4K resolution, ultrawide monitors, an uncapped frame rate, and customizable controls. The publisher says the port will also feature “enhanced gameplay, an expanded cinematic story, the return of the battle styles from Yakuza 0, more nightlife spots, and re-recorded audio by the series cast.”
We’ve reached out to Sega for further details, such as a price for the Yakuza Kiwami port, and we’ll update this article with any information we receive.
Update (Jan. 22): The PC port of Yakuza Kiwami will cost $19.99, according to its updated Steam listing. There’s a 10 percent pre-order discount in place — customers can get the game for $17.99 until its Feb. 19 release date. Anyone who pre-orders will receive the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game, which comes with a digital manga, two wallpapers, and four avatars. Sega also published a trailer for the PC version on Tuesday that confirms the Feb. 19 date; you can watch it above.
