Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s Timed Xbox Series X and S Exclusivity Finally Explained in Leaked Emails

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s next-gen version enjoyed a puzzling period of exclusivity on Xbox Series X and S back in 2020 that was never properly explained — until now.

As part of this week’s huge Xbox leak, emails between Xbox executives Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Damon Baker confirm this four month next-gen exclusivity period was, from Microsoft’s point of view, an “added bonus”.

As spotted by resetera user Clippy, the email conversation begins with a question from Xbox boss Phil Spencer, who links to an IGN tweet (thanks for reading, Phil!) dated May 7, 2020, about the confirmation of Yakuza: Like a Dragon as an Xbox Series X and S launch title.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon has been announced as an Xbox Series X launch title. https://t.co/csbgFQhfYA pic.twitter.com/SkbmrEoxVF

— IGN (@IGN) May 7, 2020

“This isn’t next-gen exclusive is it?” Spencer asks. Baker, who has since left Xbox, responds to explain Yakuza: Like a Dragon is not an Xbox exclusive and will launch on Sony platforms as well. Microsoft, Baker reveals, has “rest of world marketing rights outside of Japan and also Game Pass secured for February 2021 (90 days after launch)”.

Spencer responds: “It’s funny that they don’t even list PS5 in their graphic.”

So what happened? It’s a little confusing, but here’s the breakdown:

Yakuza: Like a Dragon was a PlayStation 4 exclusive in Japan, with a 12-month exclusivity set to expire on January 16, 2021Microsoft was blocked from releasing an Xbox version in Japan until the end of this exclusivity periodDue to the terms of Microsoft’s parity clause with Sega, Sony was blocked from releasing a next-gen version in Japan until Microsoft did the sameSince there was no Series X version because of Sony’s exclusivity, there couldn’t be a PS5 version in JapanBecause of this, Sega didn’t have a PS5 version ready, leaving Microsoft with the “added bonus” of timed exclusivity for next-gen in the west

Yakuza: Like a Dragon went on to launch as an Xbox Series X and S next-gen timed exclusive on November 10, 2020, before it released on those consoles in Japan on February 25, 2021. It then came to PS5 worldwide on March 2, 2021, four months after it launched on Xbox.

So, in a roundabout way, the reason the Series X ended up with a Yakuza: Like a Dragon timed next-gen exclusive is because Sony paid for timed exclusivity.

“It’s a big deal that the next Yakuza is Scarlett launch exclusive, can we say that?” Spencer asks. “It might even be worth some money from us if we can market this,” he added.

Last night, Spencer weighed in on the massive leak of documents from June’s Microsoft vs. FTC trial, which accidentally exposed tons of plans for both Xbox’s hardware future and slate of games.

“We’ve seen the conversation around old emails and documents,” Spencer said in a statement on X/Twitter about this week’s leaks. “It is hard to see our team’s work shared in this way because so much has changed and there’s so much to be excited about right now, and in the future. We will share the real plans when we are ready.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.