Report: Lost Judgment Might be Last in Series Due to Actor Image Rights - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 August 2021 / 1,487 Views
Lost Judgment may be the final entry in the Judgment series due to an issue with Sega and actor Takuya Kimura’s talent agency, according to sources who spoke with Japanese news site Nikkan Taishu.
Kimura's talent agency Johnny & Associates has blocked Judgment from getting a release on PC because they don't want Kimura to appear on a game for PC.
It is not made clear as to why this is the case, but the site says (via VideoGamesChronicle) the Johnny & Associates talent agency "has strict control over the [likeness] rights of its talent, and the use of their image online is still limited to a few."
Sega has been trying to release Judgment and Lost Judgment on PC via Steam, but the talent agency has been blocking this from happening.
"The game makers have decided that if they can’t distribute the game on Steam, it would be very difficult from a business standpoint, and the series will end with the second game, Lost Judgment," reads the report.
Every game in the mainline Yakuza series has been released on PC via Steam.
Lost Judgment will launch for the Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One worldwide on September 24.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I feel like replacing the likeness is the obvious solution here. Couldn't be that difficult. They'd have to recreate every cutscene with him, but if they saved the original assets, that shouldn't be hard either.
Have the character get beat up so badly that he needs plastic surgery and has a completely new face model. Problem solved.
So stupid. Hopefully Sega tells them to suck it, and the actor dude also tells them to suck it, they shouldn't have "rights" over him like that. Insane as heck.
Johnny's is always pulling this shit. Why would anyone willingly join up with them?
