Yakuza creator Nagoshi told Edge that the size of Yakuza Studio's development team prevents it from juggling multiple projects, and that it's currently focused solely on Yakuza Isshin for Sony platforms. "We don't have a plan for that at the moment," he said. "The Yakuza Studio team is a fixed size, and we have to choose between forging ahead with the next game or localising the one that just came out."
Yakuza Isshin will be available as a PS4 launch title in Japan next February alongside a PS3 version supporting Vita Crossplay. The game takes place in the Meiji Era, with Ryoma Sakamoto starring as the protagonist. Isshin is considered to be a sequel to Yakuza Kenzan, which took place in the Edo era.
According to Nagoshi, the size of Isshin has warranted the full attention of the studio's dev team: "This time the size of the game was so large, so rather than localising that game we chose to focus our manpower on the new game. But we get asked about it a lot. We get lots of complaints!"
When asked whether Isshin would ever be localised for the West, Nagoshi said he'd "definitely love to reach the whole world" and would consider it if given the "manpower and the money to do it".
The last Yakuza game to be released in the west was Yakuza: Dead Souls, a zombie themed spin-off title.