Remasters are increasingly common these days, with Unreal Engine 5 streamlining the process significantly and making it a lot easier for companies to bring their old games back to life (Oblivion's recent remaster is one of the better examples of that phenomenon).
Remakes are a little rarer, because they require the developer to rebuild significant areas of the game's mechanics from scratch, often changing how the game plays entirely to bring it into 2025. That said, it looks like we're about to get another one, and it's one of the biggest cult classics from the PS3 era.
As first reported by PlayStation Lifestyle, a remake of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Yakuza 3 is currently in development, if a leaked mistake from the developer themselves is to be believed.
Over on the website for Ryu Ga Gotoku, it was possible to search for the third game, which brought up results for Yakuza Kiwami 3, which would more than likely signpost an upcoming remake. Though that has now been scrubbed, the proof was posted on Reddit, and it's safe to say that fans in the responses couldn't wait to see it officially.
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"Yakuza 3 is one of my favorites, one of the best stories of Kiryu, only the gameplay is a bit janky. A kiwami version will do it wonders," one read.
Another added, "Hell f***ing yes. Yakuza 3 is probably my least favorite game in the whole series, but it isn't for story reasons. I think this could be really great with the modern "Like A Dragon" treatment."
"Yakuza 3 is unironically in my top 5 for the series! Hopefully people will finally give 3 a try in some way rather than just playing it painfully or outright skipping!!" a third said.
The first two Yakuza games have already received complete remakes or "Kiwami" versions (meaning "ultimate" in Japanese), but Yakuza 3 was bizarrely chosen to ony receive a remaster, despite it probably being the most beloved of the three.
That remaster did come with some additional cut content that elevated it above the original, but it has been crying out for a full remake for some time now.
Obviously there hasn't been any official word from the developer on this just yet, but with this information now out in the wild, it's safe to assume that they'll probably come out fairly quickly to confirm its existence and get pre-orders started.
