A year after its release in Japan and the same month that the sequel released in Japan, Sega brought Yakuza 3 to North America and Europe. The reason it took so long to arrive was specifically due to Yakuza 2‘s low sales on PS2. However, with recent word from Sega, it looks like low sale numbers aren’t the case.

“As was mentioned a couple times above, SEGA doesn’t generally release any specific numbers in terms of game sales,” Sega Assistant Community Manager RubyEclipse said on the official Sega boards. “(Even in Valkyria‘s case, after a huge surge, we listed percentages.)

“So, while I’m not able to give you any numbers, I can at least still confirm that the initial sales were really positive, and that all of the fans who jumped in to support the franchise in the west did a great job.”

As mentioned earlier, Japanese gamers are already playing Yakuza 4. Hopefully with the positive outcome of Yakuza 3 in the west, Sega is motivated to bring the fourth game over, as well.