Yakuza 0, the prequel of the series, has been confirmed to be on its way to North America. The game, originally released last March in Japan, has been announced on stage at the PlayStation Experience 2015 a couple of weeks ago.

　　However, any further indication as to when Yakuza 0 will become available in North America is still very much up in the air. In fact, the Canadian PlayStation Blog currently lists the game for a 2017 launch; then again, it was never confirmed that the Western port of Yakuza 0 was supposed to release in 2016.

　　Of course, it could also be an error made by whoever listed the game. At this point, it's hard to make a better guess; still, given the proven history of huge delays between Eastern and Western releases of Yakuza games, it doesn't seem far fetched at all.

　　Yakuza 5 just released for PlayStation 3 here and it came out three years after its original release in Japan. If Yakuza 0 was really scheduled for 2017, it would still be an improvement of sorts over Yakuza 5 (two years instead of three). As a reminder, this prequel hasn't been confirmed yet for a European release.

　　Naturally, if SEGA intends to launch the prequel in 2017 then we'll have to wait even longer for Yakuza 6, due in Japan in late 2016. Let's hope that the company manages to cut these obnoxious porting times very soon.