Lost Judgment Might Be the Last Game in the Series

Takuya Kimura’s agency and SEGA seem to be having disputes over Lost Judgement, which could mean the end for this beloved spinoff series. For those unfamiliar with the matter, Takuya Kimura is the main actor for Judgment, playing Yagami. Judgment was originally released on December 13th, 2018 in Japan, and since then has been released in the West, which helped the title surpass over 1 million copies sold. Just this year, SEGA brought the title to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, bringing texture and frame rate enhancements to the next generation of consoles. Its sequel, Lost Judgment, is scheduled to be released worldwide across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on September 23rd.

The title is being eagerly anticipated by fans, and as a result, SEGA is putting the game everywhere they can, seemingly eyeing PC as another platform to publish Lost Judgment. According to a report from Japanese news outlet Nikkan Taishu, SEGA is wanting to release Lost Judgment on Steam, however, Takuya Kimura’s agency does not want to allow it. As a result of these disputes, the company is considering ending the series with this next installment instead of continuing it. Takuya Kimura is no small name, in fact, he is massively popular in Japan, which made his appearance in Judgment a huge deal in the first place. Kimura seems to absolutely love the series, with him appearing in many different videos and streams for it over the course of its lifetime. His agency does not want the title to be released on PC, and if we were to guess, this most likely has to do with how they operate and manage their actors in Japan. The agency is incredibly tough with where and how an actor’s likeness can be seen or used, and in this case, they do not want his likeness on the PC platform.

Many might be asking – why is SEGA so dead set on releasing the title on Steam? The answer is quite simple really, the profit and popularity. The company released ATLUS’ Persona 4 Golden on the platform last year for a price of $19.99, and it was recently announced that the game had sold over one million copies on the platform. Following its release, SEGA has said they want to utilize the platform more countless times, and we have seen this already kick into effect with Persona 5 Strikers launching on Steam. PC is very much so an incredibly important platform to the company now, and they want all titles to be released there if possible.

We are hoping that SEGA and Kimura’s agency can resolve the disputes between them so we can receive more games in the Judgment series in the future. Lost Judgment releases on September 23rd and is available to pre-order now. Check out the various editions of the title available to pre-order here.