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Sega is delisting a popular AAA game from digital marketplaces in roughly 24 hours. Over the past couple of years, Sega has been under fire for slowly delisting many beloved games from its history. While some of these delistings have only impacted those on certain platforms, others have taken hold across all console and PC marketplaces. Unfortunately, this latter situation is playing out once again in the coming day, and the reason for its removal is quite upsetting.

The game in question that Sega is delisting is that of Yakuza 3 Remastered. Originally released on PS3 in 2010, Yakuza 3 was eventually remastered for PS4 in 2019 alongside its sequels, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5. It would later come to Xbox and PC platforms as well, where it has continued to be available since. Now, in a move that will take effect tomorrow on February 12th, Yakuza 3 Remastered is being taken off of all storefronts, which means that this is your final opportunity to pick the game up by itself. Moving forward, it will technically still be available, but only as part of the Yakuza Complete Series collection, which retails for a whopping $130.

Why Is This Sega Game Being Delisted?

The reason that Yakuza 3 Remastered is being delisted is one that is a bit frustrating. As of this week, RGG Studio is releasing a new remake of Yakuza 3 on modern platforms dubbed Yakuza Kiwami 3. For publishers to delist previous versions of games to push people toward buying a new edition of a game isn’t anything new, and as such, it’s not a shock to see RGG Studio and Sega do so in this instance.

What makes this delisting an annoyance, though, is that Yakuza Kiwami 3 happens to change the ending of Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 3 Remastered. This change isn’t a small one, either, as it’s a story alteration that could have big ramifications on every game that comes after it in the Yakuza series. RGG Studio hasn’t yet fully explained why it made this decision, but the early reasoning from company boss Masayoshi Yokoyama is that Yakuza Kiwami 3 will spawn an entirely new series of games moving forward.

With this in mind, it’s hard to understand why Yakuza 3 Remastered is being taken off of digital storefronts. For those looking to play through the entire Yakuza series either now or in the future, the stories seen in Yakuza 4 and onward won’t make perfect sense to those who have only ever played Yakuza Kiwami 3. Instead, Yakuza 3 Remastered will continue to be relevant to anyone who wants to play through the franchise as it currently exists in chronological order. Even if RGG Studio’s new plan to create a separate Yakuza timeline of sorts is something that fans come to love in the years ahead, these future entries aren’t yet available. As a result, it’s a baffling choice to take Yakuza 3 Remastered down at this point in time.

The saving grace of this situation is that Yakuza 3 Remastered will still be available to pick up physically on PS4 as part of the Yakuza Remastered Collection once it’s removed from digital marketplaces. In the wake of this delisting, the price for this physical collection could begin to jump, though, which means you might want to snag a copy sooner rather than later.

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