Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth dev surprised by unprecedented speed of sales and big change in sales pattern - AUTOMATON WEST
RGG Studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama has commented on the speed of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth's sales, which are record-breaking.
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In a statement to 4Gamer, Like a Dragon series producer and RGG Studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama explained just how unprecedented Infinite Wealth’s performance has been so far: “We gave a press release about how (Infinite Wealth) sold over 1 million copies worldwide in one week following its release, but it’s really a speed we have never experienced before.” He adds, “Like a Dragon games sell in the long run, rather than right off the bat. This has been the case ever since the series’ early days. It has an adult player base, after all, so there’s no rush, you know? People hear about the games from their friends, they happen to come across them, and that’s how the titles grow. That’s why the way (Infinite Wealth) started off was quite surprising to me.”
Due to the nature of Yakuza games and their target audience, the Like a Dragon developers are not used to expecting explosive sales immediately upon launch, but rather a steady accumulation over time. However, it seems that Infinite Wealth has changed this pattern with its unexpectedly high launch sales. Furthermore, sales in Japan and Asia seem to have made up a big part of this momentum, as Yokoyama notes, “The game is incredibly strong in Japan. Sales in (the rest of) Asia are also quite strong, but the momentum in Japan is even greater than in the past
