Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi has announced his departure from Sega.

A report from Bloomberg (paywall) published in August said Nagoshi was leaving to join Chinese company NetEase.

In a farewell post on the website of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, developer of the Yakuza games, Nagoshi thanked fans for their support over the years.

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Last year, I encountered an urban legend of videogaming for the first time, the mythical Big November. November, people had told me for years, is the busiest time of the year for gaming, a time when every publisher scrambles to release something that you, or your children, then inevitably put on the Christmas wish lists to spend the cold months inside with. Finally, after years of hearing about Big November like Nessie from the depths, I experienced it. I experienced the start of gaming season in a year in which time is essentially meaningless. It led to me playing a lot of games in rapid succession, and I didn't like it. Yet I often see it suggested that for many people, this is the done thing.

Because two new consoles released and those tend to sell better if you simultaneously offer people some games to play on them, I played a lot of games in the span of one week, and so did my colleagues. I saw talk about a game for less than a week before people moved on to the next one, and something that released two weeks ago impossibly felt like old news already. I saw people make lists of all the games coming out in the span of a week that they wanted to get their hands on. "Get that in before Cyberpunk" was a phrase I heard often.

Sure, this is a symptom of my job, but everyone knows there are more games released per month, any month, than you could feasibly play. Then there's sales that constitute a regular temptation and the pile of shame that isn't so much a pile of shame as it is a bit of a status symbol. But there is a weird paradox of gaming being a perfect example for the trappings of capitalism, telling you how you need the cool thing of the hour now, and many games taking quite a lot of focus and time. The excitement around new releases made me forget that most people don't actually get all the stuff immediately, and that many of us just like to announce our intent of getting a game, you know, sometime.

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The E3 leaks keep on coming: this time it's Yakuza: Like a Dragon for Xbox Game Pass.

Confirmation comes from a snapshot of Yakuza: Like a Dragon's listing on the Brazilian Microsoft Store. There was mention of "included with Game Pass" for accompanying content. It looks like this reference to Game Pass was swiftly removed, but not before Twitter user @pedroxbz noticed.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Yakuza: Like a Dragon launched in Japan for PlayStation 4 in January 2020, before coming out internationally in November that year on multiple platforms. It was a launch title for Xbox Series X and S. It came out on PlayStation 5 four months later, in March.

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Sega is asking for 650 staff to take voluntary redundancy amid financial woes.

Executives at the Japanese company have also taken a pay cut as they struggle to cope with the impact of coronavirus.

This week we reported on Sega's sale of its arcade business, driven by uncertainty brought on by Covid-19.

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UPDATE 29/9/20: Yakuza: Like A Dragon's PS4 edition will offer a PS5 upgrade for both digital and disc copies, developer YGG Studio has confirmed, following some confusion.

Oddly, however, this upgrade will not let you carry PS4 save files across to the PS5 edition. There's no word on why.

ORIGINAL STORY 28/9/20: The PlayStation 5 version of Yakuza: Like A Dragon launches on 2nd March 2021, four months after it arrives on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

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Fans of Yakuza could soon have another avenue in which to sate their desire for crime-hued soap opera and sudden-onset absurdity, thanks to a new effort to adapt Sega's long-running video game series for the movie screen.

That's according to Variety, which reports that Sega has teamed up with US companies 1212 Entertainment and Wild Sheep Content in order to create a new live-action Yakuza film.

Few details have been shared about Yakuza's big screen effort, but 1212 say the series "offers us a new playground in which to set compelling stories with complex characters in a unique environment that audiences have rarely seen before".

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Now Microsoft has formally announced Xbox Series X and S' 10th November arrival, publishers are finally free to put dates to the games coming to Microsoft's next-gen consoles; and now Sega, which had previously committed to releasing Yakuza: Like a Dragon as a Series X launch title, has taken the opportunity to confirm that means a 10th November release.

As for the Xbox One, PS4, and PC versions of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which Sega slapped with a 13th November release date last month, the publisher hasn't indicated their previously announced launches have changed despite today's news (although I'm seeking further clarification), meaning they could still arrive a little after Xbox Series X and S.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon should make an excellent addition to Xbox Series X and S' launch day line-up, having already garnered plenty of praise on its original Japanese release at the start of the year. While the series' familiar blend of crime drama and comedic extracurricular activities remains intact for this latest instalment, there are big changes to the formula, going far beyond its new protagonist Ichiban Kasuga and its new Kamurocho setting.

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Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the latest entry in developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's acclaimed action series, finally has a proper release date in the west; it'll be heading to Xbox One, PS4, and PC on 13th November, and there's a new trailer - showcasing its ridiculous Job classes - to celebrate.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon, if you're unfamiliar, marks a considerable departure for the long-running series; while it retains the gleeful side quests and activities of previous instalments as players explore the streets of new setting Kamurocho, there's a brand-new protagonist in the form of Ichiban Kasuga, and it trades the meaty beat-'em up action of old for a (surprisingly successful) turn-based combat system similar to that of an RPG.

As part of the latter, players are now able to adopt over 20 different Jobs, which essentially function like classes, opening up a range of new abilities that can be deployed in battle.

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