Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Yakuza spin-offs, Judgment and Lost Judgment, will reportedly be the last games in the series due to a disagreement that Sega has with the talent agency behind the star of both titles, Takuya Kimura. According to a report from Japan’s Nikkan Taishu, the problem lies with potential PC ports of Judgment—while Sega is eager to release these games on the lucrative PC platform, Kimura’s talent agency, Johnny & Associates, seems to be against the idea because its online nature wouldn’t line up with the company’s tradition of keeping certain elements of its business off of the internet (in the past, Johnny’s went so far as to prevent photos of its stars from being published online). Sega has reportedly decided to end the Judgment series entirely because it couldn’t come to an agreement with the anti-internet talent agency.
The control that Johnny’s has over the likenesses of its artists has meant power. By allowing Takuya Kimura, one of the agency’s most famous stars, to appear in a game released on an open platform like PC, the agency might think it’s giving that up. Thus, this could explain why Johnny’s is rumored to be against a possible PC version.
Sources: Nikkan Taishu, Kotaku