Sega’s Yakuza 6 Was Briefly Free Today
Sega’s Yakuza series wasn’t originally popular worldwide and fans have had to struggle to get English translations released, but it’s finally paid off — the series is at last growing in sales. This morning the demo version of the soon-to-be-released Yakuza 6 hit the Playstation Store….and it set off alarms when it hit the scales, weighing in at 36.5 GB. It was one of the largest-sized demos ever released.
As of this evening it’s gone. What happened to it? Turns out the demo was that big because it was the entire game. Sega had programmed it to stop past a certain point, and the rest would be unlocked when the full version’s street date hit (for the right price). They apparently didn’t program the wall very well because some American gamers reported being able to play past it. They’re now playing Yakuza 6 for free, and Sega has yanked the entire demo offline until they can sniff out what went wrong.
For one thing, this didn’t happen to everyone. Another thing, the same demo was released in Europe and Australia and there were no reports of anyone getting the full Yakuza 6. It’ll take Sega some time to identify the bug, but once they do, they’ll re-upload the demo for those who didn’t get to try it yet.
Sega promised all progress made in the demo would carry over to the purchased game. No word yet if this bug puts a hitch in those plans. The full game comes out April 17.