Nagoshi Hints at Record Sales for Yakuza 4

Yakuza series director Toshihiro Nagoshi said during launch day interviews that Yakuza 4 had seen the highest initial shipment in series history. He's since followed up on this with a similar message of success at his blog.

On Friday, one day after the game's release, Nagoshi wrote: "It's flying off shelves. It's to the point that we feel it may break records in Yakuza series history."

The Yakuza team's official blog confirmed the game's initial success, writing on the 19th: "Yakuza 4 was released on 3/18. It's selling well. First day sales are number one for the series."

The blog has some pics from the Shinjuku launch signing event. It seems that Nagoshi was asked to sign the cover of a mahjong set and a lady's leather jacket!

With slightly over 500,000 sales, Yakuza 3 is the third (or possibly fourth -- Resident Evil 5 is about the same) best selling PS3 title to date here in Japan. First week sales for the game were around 350,000 units.

Above Yakuza 3 are Final Fantasy XIII with 1.88 million lifetime and 1.52 first week sales and Metal Gear Solid 4 with 706,000 lifetime and 476,000 first week sales. Catching FFXIII is probably unrealistic. But Snake should watch his back.