In a press conference held today at the UDX Theater in Akihabara, Tokyo, the father of the Yakuza saga Toshihiro Nagoshi announced the creation of his new development studio, the Ryu ga Gotoku Studio (Ryu ga Gotoku is the Japanese title of the Yakuza series and translates as "Like a Dragon").
Other prominent members of his original teams will follow him: Masayoshi Kikuchi (Producer of the Yakuza series and of Binary Domain), Daisuke Sato (Director of the Yakuza series and of Binary Domain), Yojiro Ogawa (Producer of Yakuza Black Panther) and Masayoshi Yokoyama (Scenario writer of the Yakuza series).
The new team won't only take care of the following chapters of the Yakuza series, as their first release will be the already announced third person shooter Binary Domain, scheduled for release next February on Xbox 360 and PS3.
During the press conference Nagoshi also confirmed the development of Yakuza Black Panther 2, to be released on PSP in spring 2012 (while we still hope for a western release of the first chapter of the series... Ok, let's say "dream", as chances are rather slim) and will feature a new combat system focused on situational awareness and attention to the environment of each battle. The game will also reintroduce the city of Osaka, that was a fan favorite environment from Yakuza 2.
Last, but definitely not least, Nagoshi announced that Sega greenlighted the development of Yakuza 5 (tentative title), and that the production of the new chapter of the saga has just recently begun. Looks like Yakuza: Of the End wasn't really the end, after all.
You can see a couple screenshots from Black Panther 2 in the gallery below. Let us hope that Sega West will finally wake up and understand that the series can be marketed in the west much better than it has been done so far. Let's hear some localization announcements soon, shall we? My fists are itching.