It looks like Yakuza spin-offs Judgment and Lost Judgment are headed to PC
Indicated by new ESRB ratings
One of the best developments in PC gaming over the past five years has been the arrival of the entire, silly, joyous Yakuza series on our platform. Well, now it looks like Yakuza's detective agency spin-offs are also heading to PC, as 2018's Judgment and 2021's Lost Judgment have both received an ESRB rating for "Windows PC".
The listings on the Entertainment Software Rating Board website were spotted by Nibel on Twitter, and remain searchable on the ESRB site. Game ratings are a reliable indicator of future platform releases, although they don't necessarily indicate when a game will come to a new platform.
That said, Yakuza and Judgement developers Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is hosting a "RGG Summit" livestream later this week, which would be a perfect time to announce PC ports. The stream wil take place tomorrow, September 14th, at 11am BST/12pm CEST/6am EST.
The Judgment games star a detective played by famous Japanese actor Takuya Kimura, and they have a different tone and flavour than the more exuberant Yakuza games. They have a lot in common as well, however, from the brawling real-time combat to the variety of side activities possible in Kamurocho.
It was Kimura's involvement that was rumoured to be preventing the Judgment games from being released on PC before now, with Japanese outlet Nikkan Taishu reporting that Kimura's talent agency "Johnny's" wouldn't grant rights for his image to be distributed on the internet, and by extension Steam. Very odd.
In any case, given the Yakuza series recently switched to turn-based fights with Yakuza: Like A Dragon, it's only natural that its real-time brawls continue to be represented on PC via these spin-offs.It will certainly make Ed happy.