500x_yakcoverDear Sega of America,

Yakuza 3 will not be a huge success over here.  We both know this. You have done very little to explain to the people of the West what this game is, and why they should buy it.

But where you have failed... Facebook, Twitter, message boards, and gaming blogs, can and will do what you cannot.  If the game is good, word will spread. If Demon's Souls can do well enough, so can this game.

So I have a request.

Stop fucking up what little you are doing for this game.

This might seriously be the worst box art I've seen in a decade or so. We might have to go way back to the 90s to find something as bad as this piece of crap. Not only will this not help sell Yakuza 3; this might even convince already curious people to pass on the game. This ugly cover says nothing of the game. There is something iconic about the crowded, neon sign infested streets of Tokyo nightlife; yet none of this imagery ever appears on any of the Yakuza covers. Whoever approved this cover choice should be ashamed.

It's bad enough that you are releasing Yakuza 3 right around the same time as other big PS3 games. Why so damn close to Final Fantasy 13 and God of War 3? What the fuck? You had a year to localize this thing and you decide to bring it out NOW?

Fanboyishly frustrated,

Brad

P.S. I do so love his ESRB soul patch. If anything stays, keep that. So classy.

Comments

  • Avatar
    sumerion12
    14 years, 10 months ago

    "Fanboyishly frustrated" is definitely the only sound explanation for this post.

  • Avatar
    Nuclear_Oat
    14 years, 10 months ago

    Box art makes me disappoint.

  • Avatar
    Phoenix
    14 years, 10 months ago

    Meh, the covers not THAT bad, but yeah...

    I just hate the way Kazuma's head mysteriously disappears near the PS3 logo.

  • Avatar
    Sgtpierceface
    14 years, 10 months ago

    Not nearly as bad as the N.A Heavy Rain cover in my opinion.

  • Avatar
    Greg
    14 years, 10 months ago

    TAG YOUR FUCKING POSTS!!!11!1!11!!!11ONEONEONE

    And that is one ugly-ass cover. Especially if you see it in the store next to all the other games, most of which have GOOD cover art that will completely overshadow it. This looks like it was specifically designed to be skimmed over at the store as people's eyes drift over to GOW3.

  • Avatar
    Mordiford
    14 years, 10 months ago

    I would laugh if this wasn't so despicable.

    SEGA has had plenty of time and I would assume experience with this shit, how are they still making these mistakes. Perhaps they think Yakuza 3 can actually compete with titles like FFXIII and GoW3 here in the west, if so then they seriously need to lay of the drugs.

    This series never got enough backing to be successful and for all intents and purposes... it's too late now. I don't see the logic behind this move at all unless they have no idea what other games are being released in March.

    And as far as the cover art goes... I agree, it's terrible.

  • Avatar
    Schmangeetay
    14 years, 10 months ago

    "I r serius yakooza, this r serius game"

  • Avatar
    Accolade
    14 years, 10 months ago

    There was all that room on the top where his hair turns the graphic black. They could have put the Sega logo there and the M rating where the Sega logo is. And then, they could have decided how bad both covers are and created a new one.

  • Avatar
    Coderandom
    14 years, 10 months ago

    Looks like a fan-made box art.

  • Avatar
    Nuxunumo
    14 years, 10 months ago

    brad wins. haha

  • Avatar
    dae
    14 years, 10 months ago

    it's not even a straight-on half of his face, it's so awkwardly cropped it's painful to look at. honestly, there's so many design issues with this cover, it's almost as if they made it bad on purpose.

  • Avatar
    myeev
    14 years, 10 months ago

    Sega needs to get new artists.....preferably with better taste when it comes to designing a box cover.

  • Avatar
    Roughplague
    14 years, 10 months ago

    ESRB soulpatch ftl, seriously, this is the least interesting cover-art for a game I've seen in a looong time.
    If they want this game to sell at all here, they should redesign the cover-art, and release it in a different date, as Brad said, theres FF:13 and GOW3 around this date, and that is a very bad idea.

  • Avatar
    Palad1n
    14 years, 10 months ago

    Fuck you Sega! Fuck you up your ass with a big rusty metal dildo dick!! Ugly boxart is UGLY!!!!!!!!

  • Avatar
    ZCaliber
    14 years, 10 months ago

    If there's one thing Sega is consistently good at, it's screwing up.

    Oh Sega, and especially your American subordinate... You need to start TRYING again sometime. =(

  • Avatar
    xerotwo
    14 years, 10 months ago

    Someone has some bad photoshopping skills there, why doesn't it have the JPN box art instead? Is smoking a taboo in American society? It's a fucking Mature rated game, so why is it restricting something older people (mainly adults) occasionally do in a daily basis?

  • Avatar
    Heavy Weapons Guy
    14 years, 10 months ago

    I ate a poo today. It was brown, yet it came out green on my end.

    What gives?

    Could I just be envious of Brad's awesomeness?

  • Avatar
    Miles
    14 years, 10 months ago

    Well that's disappointing. But I'm still happy it's coming over here.

  • Avatar
    Fridgenator
    14 years, 10 months ago

    I still haven't seen advertising for it, frick.

  • Avatar
    swordsman24
    14 years, 10 months ago

    Well, looks like Gamestop has Yakuza 3 release date for March 9! What the hell is wrong with Sega? So now they think that releasing 2 games on the same day as Final Fantasy XIII is gonna be better?!!

  • Avatar
    Rex
    14 years, 10 months ago

    Maybe they were forced into releasing Yakuza 3 here when they didn't want it to. So they try to fuck it up as much as they can, so they won't have to release it in NA again.

  • Avatar
    thatguy80111
    14 years, 10 months ago

    Maybe it's just me but, i can almost see a certain sadness on Kazuma's face after being printed on to that cover.