Hello and Happy New Year - is it okay to say that now? I'm not sure where the cut-off point is. Some people still have their Christmas trees up. We had ours out before New Year. Welcome back to What We've Been Playing! Or as I like to call this particular edition of it: What We Played Over Christmas, because it's been a couple of weeks since we've talked.
UPDATE: Sega has officially responded to the passing of David Rosen, saying it's "deeply saddened" to hear of the news.
It's a big year for gaming anniversaries. There are five massive series that turn 40 years old in 2026 - The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Dragon Quest, Kid Icarus, and Castlevania - whilst Sonic the Hedgehog turns 35, and Persona and Pokémon both turn 30. There's probably a lot of celebratory stuff coming over the next 12 months, but let's start with a franchise we know is getting some attention this year before anything else: Persona.
It's been another strange, difficult, and yet somehow also brilliant year for video games in 2025. Triple-A releases have been sparse again, compared to the boom times of old, with a great big GTA 6-shaped hole left in the final few months of the year. And yet once again, every gap left by the established order has been filled twice over with something brilliantly new.
A couple years ago, the Persona 3 Reload soundtrack was uploaded to Spotify. The issue? Developer Atlus hadn't released the album digitally. That album, and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey's soundtrack, were uploaded by a random guy and quickly removed—likely from a DMCA request—in 2024. Now, Sega is suing over it.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Florida, Sega said it discovered in March 2024 that a person with the username Ziodyne (a reference to a skill in Shin Megami Tensei) uploaded the two soundtracks to different music platforms, like Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon. That person used a music distribution service called DistroKid to get the soundtracks on the platforms, offering them for sale and streaming. Sega says the person "received significant revenue and profits from the unauthorized sales," and that the person used the Persona 3 Reload logo to "deceive or mislead consumers concerning the source of the sound recordings."
DistroKid is a distribution service that advertises itself as an easy way to get music on all different platforms—Instagram, Spotify, Amazon, Tidal, and more. It charges a yearly fee, collects payments from streaming and sales, then pays out the artist. The company has been sued at least nine times for how it handles DMCA takedown requests, failing to pay out artists, and other reasons. Many of these cases are pendings, but a few have been dismissed.
Sega wasn't offering these soundtracks digitally yet, but people were looking for them. People immediately noticed them, according to several different Reddit posts, which showed the Persona 3 Reload soundtrack as having more than 26,000 monthly listens on Spotify. On Reddit, another screenshot of Ziodyne's page showed more than 134,000 monthly listens, including the popular Burning Men's Soul from the Persona Trinity Soul anime. Sega says in its lawsuit that it subpoenaed Apple, Spotify, and DistroKid to determine Ziodyne’s identity.
Commenters on Reddit called Ziodyne an "unsung hero" for getting the music out there: "They reuploaded it like 3 times despite it getting taken down each time what a legend," one person wrote. Ziodyne appears to have been beloved by the Reddit community for his perseverance in uploading Atlus' music, which was often otherwise hard to find online.
"Defendant has taken advantage of a set of circumstances, including the anonymity and mass reach afforded by the Internet and social media, coupled with the cover afforded by international borders, to violate Sega’s intellectual property rights with impunity," Sega's lawyers wrote in the complaint.
Sega is looking for "at least $60,000" in monetary damages, according to the complaint. The counts listed in the complaint include copyright infringement, trademark infringement, false designation of origin, and unfair competition.
Since the unauthorized version was removed, Sega and Atlus have uploaded their own digital version of the Persona 3 Reload soundtrack to music platforms. Strange Journey's soundtrack doesn't appear to be available digitally.
Aftermath has reached out to Sega of America and Ziodyne for comment.
I don't want to be the Game Announcement Police here, ACAB, but over the last month there have been two big, new video games revealed that were notable not for what they showed off, but for what they didn't.
First up was Total War: Medieval III, which was announced via a live-action trailer (below) and blog post:
Amazing news! There hasn't been a proper historical Total War release since Three Kingdoms (I'm not counting Pharaoh's mea culpa), and Medieval is a long-time fan favourite, so this should have got people excited. Only problem is that there wasn't any gameplay shown. There weren't any screenshots. There wasn't even much art for the game, aside from a single piece shown at the top of a follow-up blog.
Only days later, Creative Assembly announced a second upcoming Total War game coming out much sooner, this time set in the Warhammer 40K universe, and its debut trailer was packed with gameplay footage, right down to giving us a look at the menus and interface.
I'm not drawing a very long bow here to speculate that the Medieval announcement was made a few days prior in an attempt to head off any uproar over the 40K announcement. For those unfamiliar with the franchise, there's a kind of uneasy divide among some in the community, with Total War's longest-serving fans (going back to 1999's Shogun) preferring the series' historical focus over the wilder, more fictional stuff that has featured in the Warhammer (and now 40K) entries. They look at how much money and effort has been poured into the Creative Assembly collab, then look at the relative neglect shown to the historical games (from ending Three Kingdoms support early to whatever the hell happened with Pharaoh), and get pretty mad.
While getting Medieval III out in front like that probably made diplomatic sense to publishers Sega and developers Creative Assembly, I dunno, I think I'd rather a game be announced on its own merits and with something genuine to show off and talk about, rather than shoot a clip and write a blog just so you make some of your own fans less angry. Medieval III is clearly years away (they didn't even hint at a broad window for it to come out), and you went and announced a whole other game a few days later– you didn't have to Elder Scolls VI-ify your next big game!
IGNryan_dinsdaleThe second game I wanted to talk about is even funnier. Earlier today Netflix announced that Delphi, a company you've likely never heard of (they're relatively new, and their only public credit is as support on IO's upcoming 007 game) will be both developing and publishing a new FIFA game. You might remember that back in 2022 EA Sports (developers of the long-running series) and FIFA (the world governing body for football) split, and ever since EA's series has been called EA Sports FC, or EAFC for short.
Netflix's announcement contains zero images or video of the game. And there's probably a good reason for that: the press release says stuff like "All you need is Netflix and your phone", and "We want to bring football back to its roots with something everyone can play with just the touch of a button", suggesting that whatever Delphi is cooking up, it'll be a lot closer to a casual mobile experience than the blockbuster simulation football fans have long come to expect from series like FIFA (now EAFC) and Pro Evo (now called eFootball).
That obfuscation has paid off handsomely, though, with a ton of mainstream coverage of the announcement hitting today with headlines like:
BBC NewsThere's a small mention of what I've just said above at the bottom of that BBC article, but as a mainstream article intended for a mainstream audience, I guarantee Delphi and FIFA will be thrilled at the number of water cooler and group chat conversations this week that will revolve around the talking point "Boys, did you hear FIFA is coming back?"
I should point out that this isn't the first FIFA game to "return" since the body split with EA; there's already a game called FIFA Rivals, which is basically an antique NFT scam with a playerbase best summed up by the fact the game's official site has a Telegram account.
Rosen, who led Sega from the 1960s into the 90s and who died on Christmas Day, was a hugely important figure in the history of arcade and home gaming
It is difficult to think of a more influential figure in the arcade game industry than David Rosen, who has died aged 95. The co-founder of Sega, who remained a director of the company until 1996, was instrumental in the birth and rise of the video game business in Japan, and in the 1980s and 90s oversaw the establishment of Sega of America and the huge success of the Mega Drive console.
As a US Air Force pilot during the Korean war, Rosen found himself stationed in Japan, and once the conflict was over, he stayed on, intrigued by the country and seeing possibilities in its recovering economy. In 1954 he set up Rosen Enterprises and noticing that Japanese civilians now required an increasing number of new ID cards he started importing photo booths from the US to answer the demand. From here he expanded to pinball tables and other coin-operated machines, importing them for installation in shops, restaurants and cinemas. In 1965, he merged the company with another importer, Nihon Goraku Bussan, whose coin-op business Service Games was shortened to Sega for the new venture.
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© Photograph: AAMA - American Amusement Machine Association
© Photograph: AAMA - American Amusement Machine Association
© Photograph: AAMA - American Amusement Machine Association
When Sega’s Yakuza series first punched, kicked, and swaggered its way onto the scene in 2005 with enough testosterone to destroy a small planet, it’s fair to say the games industry hadn’t quite seen anything like it before. Sure, you could argue that Yakuza is ultimately a fusion of well-worn genres and mechanics, but Sega’s brashly violent new franchise was — and still is — defined by a much broader range of qualities than that alone. With that in mind, here’s how the Yakuza franchise has gone from strength to strength as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.
I get it. At first glance, it’s easy to see why those unfamiliar with the Yakuza (or Like a Dragon, as the series is now also known) games might assume they share a close kinship with Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto. Crime-opera storytelling, colourful characters, sprawling urban environments, open exploration, and freewheeling violence all make the comparison understandable — especially for players yet to be fully initiated into the franchise’s charms.
What we actually got with Yakuza, however, was something entirely different. Where Grand Theft Auto is built around rapid vehicular traversal across vast open worlds and the freedom to do almost anything, Yakuza deliberately keeps its world smaller and more intimate. Players are encouraged to walk — or run — through its streets, soaking in every handcrafted inch of an evocative recreation of Tokyo’s real-world Kabukicho district. With an emphasis on bone-crunching, face-to-face combat over firearms, a wealth of eccentric side activities, and a flawlessly executed tonal balancing act that shifts effortlessly between the profound and the absurd, Yakuza stands worlds apart from Rockstar’s marquee series.
Indeed, one of the most surprising things for newcomers to the Yakuza franchise, and certainly an enduring quality for those who would consider themselves long-time fans, is the manner in which the series walks the tonal tightrope. Deftly oscillating between super-serious, double-hard tattooed dudes gruffly talking stoically about honour, mafia politics and Yakuza tradition, through to the glorious nuttiness of its many, many scenarios that has our hero doing everything from stopping a peeping tom to beating up a bunch of thugs dressed up as babies in a creche(!) It’s fair to say that no series quite manages (or even attempts) this sort of tonal double act.
And somehow – it all works, and a big part of this is down to the fact that the series knows to keep the more serious stuff in the domain of its main story quests, while the much-less serious, grin-inducing stuff is found almost exclusively in the veritable wealth of side quests and incidental activities.
One of the more compelling aspects of Yakuza’s design has been how its long-running saga spans across time periods that can quite literally stretch across the centuries. From the early Tokugawa period, which Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan embraces as its own, through to the Bakumatsu era of Like A Dragon: Ishin, the heady 1980s of Yakuza 0 and the shining modernity of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s 2023 setting, the Yakuza franchise doesn’t just take place in different eras; it fully acknowledges the passage of time, too.
From long-time protagonist Kazuma Kiryu to fan-favourite anti-hero Goro Majima and everyone in between, Yakuza hardly lacks compelling characters. Yet, without sounding too clichéd, the city of Kamurocho arguably stands as a character in its own right — one that has played a central role for nearly the entire lifespan of the franchise.
A neon-lit labyrinth of bars, storefronts, hostess clubs, winding alleyways, and towering skyscrapers, Kamurocho is more than a convincing recreation of a real-world location. It’s a near-permanent fixture, appearing in almost every entry across a timeline that spans close to four decades. Like any character followed over time, Kamurocho ages too — not through wrinkles or scars, but through architectural and structural change.
Shops and street stalls that exist in the 1980s-set Yakuza 0 may later be boarded up or removed entirely, while the relentless march of progress sees dormant retail units transformed into sprawling shopping centres in Yakuza 6. Returning to Kamurocho across successive games often feels like reconnecting with an old friend — familiar, yet subtly changed.
More than almost any other aspect of its design, Yakuza’s brutally satisfying, fully three-dimensional real-time combat acts as a powerful hook for first-time viewers. If you were being particularly reductive, you might describe it as a 3D evolution of the scrolling brawler combat Sega popularised with Streets of Rage and Golden Axe — or perhaps even SpikeOut, for the half-dozen people who still remember it.
In practice, Yakuza delivers immediate, visceral savagery. Every encounter sees players punching, kicking, grappling, throwing, and unleashing devastating combos. Weapons abound (both carried and improvised), and the series’ iconic Heat Action system elevates combat into something unforgettable. With a full Heat gauge, players can trigger cinematic finishing moves: smashing faces into pavement, slamming enemies spine-first into lampposts, crushing skulls with car doors, or far worse. Violence, it’s fair to say, was never in short supply.
While later entries pivoted toward turn-based JRPG combat and reimagined fist-to-face brutality in new ways, the series’ freewheeling violent spirit has never truly left.
With a typical Yakuza game clocking in at 20–30 hours for main story content alone, it’s understandable that players might want to break things up, and that’s where the franchise’s staggering range of mini-games comes in. Far more than throwaway distractions, many offer tangible character progression and are robust enough to stand as fully-fledged experiences in their own right.
From darts, baseball, pool, karaoke, fishing, mahjong, poker, and golf, to miniature car racing, drone racing, skateboarding, cabaret management, real-estate empires, cage fighting, arcade gaming, and countless part-time jobs, the sheer breadth of activities can easily push playtime beyond the 100-hour mark for completionists. And speaking of arcade machines…
True to its love of history, Yakuza is also renowned for its pitch-perfect recreations of classic Sega arcade games. From retro gems like Space Harrier, Super Hang-On, and Out Run, to more modern titles such as Taiko no Tatsujin and Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, these arcade-perfect inclusions serve as a loving celebration of Sega’s coin-op heritage.
As much as it is an enduring action RPG saga, Yakuza also stands as a quietly impressive act of gaming preservation – one that, 20 years on, shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
As Yakuza celebrates two decades of grit, heart, and sheer unpredictability, its journey stands as one of gaming’s most remarkable evolutions — from cult favourite to a genre-defining franchise with a global fanbase. Whether you’re drawn to its brutal combat, sprawling side activities, or unforgettable characters and cityscapes, there’s no denying the series’ lasting impact. For a deeper look at every entry and how they stack up, be sure to check out this comprehensive ranking of the Like a Dragon series from best to least best. Whatever the future holds, Yakuza looks poised to keep surprising, delighting, and punching its way into the hearts of players for many years to come.
The post Yakuza Turns 20: The Rise of Sega’s Most Uncompromising RPG Franchise appeared first on Green Man Gaming Blog.
Developer: Sega Publisher: Sega Release: 11/90 Genre: Sports When the Genesis launched in America new releases were slow. Thanks to Nintendo’s strong arm tactics few if any third parties were there in the launch window. That left Sega...
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You know what I might have most about games? There's no universal way to play them. You buy a DVD, you buy a DVD player, and aside from maybe a region lock issue you're as good as gold. If I buy Snowboard Kids for the N64, and I don't have one of those, well, I'm up a particular creek. That has meant that many a game over the years has been stuck to particular platforms, one of the most surprising being Jet Set Radio Future, to this day a game that's still only available on the original Xbox, and the Xbox 360 through backwards compatibility. But! Thanks to some techy wizards, that might change in the near future.
If you're a fan of both the colour grey being draped all over designs that could be accurately described as both angular and slabby, you're in luck. A third brutalist map jam has hit Quake, with this one being less of a fan-made map pack and more of a huge overhaul mod - the concrete cavernousness of which dwarfs the original game.
While the old saying goes 'A game in the basket is worth two in Steam Wishlist', as we teeter into a new year it's good to highlight a couple of the games shuffling our way. Especially when there are quite so many of them that include big stompy mechs. Some of them as big as cities. My engine oil-starved heart beats and thumps in anticipation.
I've tried to keep the list to games confirmed for release next year – tragically cutting The Free Shepherd, which is planned to release in 2027 – but there is one exception.
So let's begin with the outlier that's likely to wander tardily into 2027.
In the grand spirit of Christmas, I want everyone to know that for this year's RPS Advent Calendar, I nominated a bunch of games about Japanese assassins and at least one point and click thriller featuring a netherworld of torture devices. Some of those assassins appeared on the final calendar, but not all, and the point and click didn't make the cut.
If I were the foreman of an game refinery, I might be dabbing my forehead in anticipation right now because there is a lot coming down the pipeline in 2026. You may be looking at the telltale bulge of Grand Theft Auto, but I'm more focused on the amount of damn fine horror we've got in the plumbing.
New Company of Heroes 3 DLC Endure and Defy has just launched, but there's far more reason than that to check back in with what Relic Entertainment has been cooking up. The new battlegroup pack adds four fresh playstyles across the USA, Britain, and Germany, and it's accompanied by the launch of Company of Heroes update 2.2, a colossal changelog featuring mountains of gameplay changes. With core systems tweaks, balance adjustments, enemy AI improvements, and more than 2,000 new voice lines, it's a total overhaul for CoH 3, and you can grab it right now at a huge 60% discount on Steam.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: New Company of Heroes 3 DLC transforms your battlefield tactics alongside a massive update for the WW2 strategy game
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Paramount has another Sonic the Hedgehog film planned, seemingly a spin-off from the main series.
