The Yakuza Series is Joining PlayStation Plus

The Yakuza franchise is a hefty one with a lot of entries and a few spin-offs to boot. Although the spin-offs are a bit all over the place in how you can play them, the main series is a lot easier to access. All together it accounts for eight games, two of which were entirely remade under the Kiwami title more than ten years later and three that were remastered for new releases. Seven of them focus primarily on protagonist Kiryu Kazama and the latest entry follows a new protagonist named Ichiban Kasuga.

Lately, the easiest way to play them is with Xbox Game Pass. Each is currently playable through the service, with Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2 being added back onto the service at the beginning of this month. However, the Xbox Game Pass service will no longer be the only option for having easy access to these games. Announced via a new PlayStation Blog post, the mainline series will be added to their PlayStation Plus service throughout this year.

Half of them will be added soon in August. The previous three I mentioned that were added recently to Xbox Game Pass will be added to the PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium tiers. Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the latest entry that’s separate from the Kiryu Kazama saga of games, will be added as one of the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games.

That leaves the remasters of Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4, and Yakuza 5 to join the PlayStation Plus Premium tiers later in 2022. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life will round it out later as well on the PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium tiers. If you need a refresher on the different tiers, you can read our first report on them when they were announced.

With how popular the series is, this is a pretty big selling point for the PlayStation service and a great opportunity for another player base to replay or experience them for the first time. They’re each capable of having substantial playtime as well, so players can find themselves still enjoying what’s brought on in August by the time the rest of the games are finally available.