Like A Dragon Gaiden looks like it will be a digital-only game in the west

It looks like Sega won’t be releasing a physical version of Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name in the west.

The publisher announced last month that the Yakuza spin-off will be released on November 9 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC.

While a physical version will be available for PlayStation consoles in Japan, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has now seemingly confirmed that boxed copies won’t be released outside of Asia.

The game will be “available for download” in November, the Sega studio’s western Twitter account posted on Wednesday.

This appears to confirm claims last month by Ryu Ga Gotoku fan channel KamurochoBros, which said it had “spoken to retailers that have reached out to Sega” only to be informed that a physical version of the game won’t be released in the United States.

Players who pre-order the game, which is priced at $49.99 / £44.99 on digital storefronts, will receive a Legendary Fighter Pack featuring characters from previous Yakuza titles.

Alan Wake 2 developer Remedy recently revealed that the sequel will be released in October as a digital-only game. It said there were several reasons behind the decision not to released a boxed copy.

“For one, a large number of [players] have shifted to digital only,” the studio said. “You can buy a Sony PlayStation 5 without a disc drive and Microsoft’s Xbox Series S is a digital only console. It is not uncommon to release modern games as digital-only.

“Secondly, not releasing a disc helps keep the price of the game at $59.99 / €59.99 [£49.99] and the PC version at $49.99 / €49.99 [£39.99].”

“Finally, we did not want to ship a disc product and have it require a download for the game — we do not think this would make for a great experience either.”

Further reading

Like a Dragon Gaiden gets a new trailer and an official release date

The Yakuza spin-off's date was learker earlier today

Last month, Circana (formerly NPD) analyst Mat Piscatella said players should expect digital-only releases for consoles to become commonplace over the next few years.

“Digital only AAA releases are here,” he wrote. “Over the next 2 years this trend will accelerate, and by 2028 or so I think it’ll be the norm for most Xbox and PS releases. Nintendo likely won’t move as fast, but then again it’s Nintendo and they’re always full of surprises.”