Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Removes New Game +, Puts It Behind a DLC Paywall

I'm not a fan of these games, but damn that is some BS from Sega. Guys and gals please don't support this kind of stuff .

Sega becoming greedier and greedier every year.

You can tell there's an "EA" in SEGA

@UltimateOtaku91 that made me laugh 😂 . I appreciate that 🙏🏻

I do not support this idea at all. Although I never really played NG+ in the earlier titles, locking it behind a paywall is such a greedy move by SEGA. I only pre-ordered the standard edition as I don't want to give them even more money. Thankfully DLC trophies are separated from the base game ones on PSN for those who are going for the Platinum such as myself.

Stay classy San Diego

This series has been getting worse and worse with this BS each entry so this isn't a shock. The fanboys lap it up though so it won't stop.

Pretty disgusting progression of predatory content gating here....

You just have to stop buying these games period. This, persona, even the Sony studios cash grabs. Just stop. No matter your Fandom for it. It's the only way it will change. The alternative is just more and more cut content from the original base game design, in order to sell it to you for an additional premium.

@UltimateOtaku91 To give EA credit when it comes to their single player offerings they have really toned down this BS these past few years.

I really enjoy getting the platinum trophies in all the Yakuza games. NG+ makes the almost obligatory second playthrough on hardest difficulty faster, but other than that it’s not really needed as nothing can usually be missed in the first playthrough. Depending on what the trophy challenges are this may or may not be an issue, but from past experience probably not

Edit: No difficulty based trophy in this one, so no issue. We just do everything in one playthrough, nothing to see in a second (and if you do want to play just for more challenge, no need to carry over progress).

Seeing a lot of marketing for this game. Nonsense like this can undo all of that in a day.

Well, that’s BS!

Really disappointed to see something like this locked behind a premium edition as DLC, especially a big game like this.

Their at it again 🤦

Didn't SEGA do this before with another yakuza game? Can't find it rn but pretty sure it sadly ain't new

Gaming is heading into an awesome direction.

Now this is way worse than the Persona 3 dlc

You know, I love RGG as a studio but I can't condone this move. Hopefully it was decided by Sega and not them. Such a bizarre choice, can only hope they reverse this after all the bad press they're getting over it.

The benefits of a niche series hitting it big and going mainstream 😅

Sega at it again

I guess on the bright side if you care about NG+ that means you are playing the game a 2nd time so you are at least getting your money’s worth I suppose, as sucky as this is.

My most egregious “lock” is still the green map line in Zelda Breath of the Wild which was already in the game invisible but you needed to pay $20 to see it. Second worst, also Zelda BotW, was you needed to purchase a hard to find amiibo to unlock Links pet wolf which helped to find things and in battle. I still can’t believe they never incorporated that pet wolf into any complete editions b/c no one is finding that amiibo.

So yeah, all paid dlc sucks, but at least PS players don’t need to find an amiibo on eBay.🤑

Sega's known for being greedy. This is no news to me. Altough they do tend to include stuff for free that you have to pay for in Japan..

@thefourfoldroot1 I'm actually happy about this if it means a second playthrough is not required for Platinum... I love platinum'd this games except for the second playthrough part

And just like that, Infinite Wealth moved to the bottom of my wish list (which is looong). I'll get it on sale in a year or something, maybe.

EA, Activision, and Ubisoft would be proud.

What does it mean BS?

Ha, glad my comment in the Persona 3 Reload DLC thread became it's own news story

I was excited for this game, but now I'm gonna hold off for a sale. Don't want to reward these companies by paying $15 more for the full game. Sadly if the game doesn't sell well SEGA will probably just blame RGG and not their business practices.

Completely unnaceptable. Same for the end-game dungeon to be dlc.
This SEGA is unrecognisable from the one i knew and was a fan of for decades. Right when they were starting to turn it around.

SEGA put nearly all the girlfriends behind a pay wall in Lost Judgment. People need to face that they're a bad company when it comes to dlc.

Never played the games before, but any interest I had is gone now. I’m excited to see sales numbers drop as these companies push this crap. Vote with your wallets

@themightyant While they didn't charge $20 just for Hero's path I will still die on my hilltop screaming that it was a really stupid thing to lock behind a paywall when it was already in the game, just invisible. For $20 we should have gotten to choose our color for the line.😂

Most people aren't buying amiibo codes when they pick up BotW for their kids when TotK came out. I bet for people who picked up BotW a couple of years or more after release didn't even know that wolf amiibo unlock is a thing. I'm ok w/ them doing it at launch but a few years after release they should have just put it into the game as a free update, it's kinda cool. But maybe that's just me, I'm partial to sidekick pets in game. You ever play Starfox Adventures? I still hear Tricky's voice in my head whenever I'm lost in a game. "Fox where are we going?"😂

That is just backwards...

If Ichiban knew this, he'd storm Sega's offices and demand it to be in the base game.

I'm really looking forward to this but paying for new game plus can do one.

Yet this fan base will glady open there wallets to support this franchise. So why wouldn't Sega do it.

another low point in gaming!

And worst of all, there will be enough idiots who defend it.

And this is why institutional investors in video game companies deserve to be hated and despised. They're the ones encouraging crap like this.

This is a second news of a game launching with important content behind paywall today. And both launching day 1 to Game Pass. Not saying PS Plus launch would have been different, but this is the quality straight to services releases will bring you... :/

EDIT: Just learned Like A Dragon is not launching to GP. No idea what were they thinking.

Doesn’t bother me, I only do the NG+ thing on souls games. A 100 hour plus rpg doesn’t get a redo in my book, got other games to play.

Really ? Thanks, i will pass on this one then. There is way too much releases at the same time anyway.

That's cheap but still excited for the game. One doesn't need to buy Ng+. If nobody goes for it they'll probably just patch it in for free at some point, and if you're really upset at sega just buy the game second hand and enjoy it without them seeing any money.

That sux, but im done with these games anyway, too much on repeat for me.
Shame for the legions of fans though....

I always find it so weird seeing a company not be self aware of their own games showing that being greedy like this is bad.

@DualWielding
Same here. I just can’t think why someone would want to play such a long game through again after 100%. Still scummy they stopped people who might want to from doing so though.

@Cherip-the-Ripper i think it was in lost judgment?

I think they should implement that your character has a pig face all along the game unless you unlock Face+ for 3 bucks.

Curious if PS will let this bleed in the review score.

Good lord this is a new low. Not sure it was necessary to tell everybody what NG+ is as I'm sure everybody knows exactly what it is.

@Cherip-the-Ripper They did it for Like a dragon, but only in Japan. However, because this is a simultaneous release, we can't b**ch and moan to get it fixed

It's a dumb practice for sure. I don't really do new game plus much if at all myself so it's not a big deal for me but I do find this sort of dlc quite annoying.

@DennisReynolds yeah EA aren’t even top
5 for bad practises anymore and yet the cool kids always mention them. TBH these days they are one of the better ones! lol. What a crazy timeline we ended up on

Nobody better buy this *****, don't need this becoming a new trend, seriously hiding ng plus behind money wow...just wow

Sounds a pretty absurd decision they’ll soon backpedal on, claiming they really care and listen to fans.

Stupid to do something that’ll be very clearly unpopular when the game has otherwise been extraordinarily popular.

Welp, I guess Yakuza was good while it lasted as a cult game.
This kind of BS comes hand in hand with the mass market franchise-isation effect, so I expect the entries to become more and more frequent and with less and less innovation (See: Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry...)

I was already lukewarm on LAD and I have concerns about IW (seriously, Kiryu doesn't have to be in every single game)

The names change, but the people who run Sega are always scummy morons.

Sega been playing the good guy. They're finally showed their true colours

Looks like SEGA wants payback for y'all abandoning Dreamcast and Saturn 😆. Absolutely horrible!

Another crazy thing about this and P3R is that they are PS4 games but fxxking cost $70. All other Japan companies like SE and Capcom never did that.
Activision, EA, and now SEGA. Just BS.

Corporate greed never fails to astound me. MK1, SF6, now even Yakuza...these companies are just self sabotaging their franchises with these stupid business practices.

It's a bit scummy but if I'm honest I never really play NG+ in anything and move on to other games once I've finished a game. Sucks for others though.

@Issen_Mode apparently not since casuals think SF6 is the best street fighter ever and it’s sold over 3 million copies so far . they’re making bank off little avatar cosmetics 🤮

Looking forward to paying the extra dosh for NG+. Can't be easy making a profit these days, so happy to help out.

Even yongyea spoke out against this and he works for the company on this

The first playthrough will probably require 50+ hours, at which point I’ll be ready to move onto the next game. I don’t have enough time in my life to play these long games over and over. And there’s too many other great games to dive into. So long as the base game is quality I could care less about the rest. It feels as though players have come to expect more and more out of their games that require more development investment and bigger staffs for the same priced games when factoring inflation from 40 years ago. If companies want to charge extra for these extra modes I could really care less. I have no expectations that a game give me additional modes on top of a base game that can still be played through multiple times. Some games simply don’t even have this option at all. You can’t even pay for it because it doesn’t exist. Simply put, when it comes to post game modes and content, there’s really no consistency in the industry. Companies try out a variety of approaches. That’s their right to try strategies to make money on their hard work, and paying $15 extra in the grand scheme of things hardly seems exorbitant if you really want extra modes. I’m getting my money’s worth and then some regardless with the base game costing me about a $1.5 an hour for entertainment and experiential art. People used to play the base game of older games with no additional modes multiple times without expectations that they deserve more. It seems we’ve gone through an evolution of ever-expanding entitlement to more and more post game content when we’ve already received great value in what we payed. Maybe it’s that the gaming industry is at times in an arms race to sell games and developers at times include bonus content to sell, and then gamers expect that from every developer. The truth is there will always be a spectrum of post game content from a variety of games offering more or less at a range of prices that aren’t consistent.

@DualWielding what game is your profile picture from?

I preordered this, but I won't even be opening it now, this is a next level scum move

Return in progress

@Jayslow exactly that, RPGs have been hit with so many misconceptions, when it's the other aspects within the games people didn't like

I ordered to standard edition (due to ordering several games for early 2024) but I will be buying the specific DLC's I want at launch including the master vacation bundle.

It would have been better to have the NG+ pulled away from the DLC and hopefully there is some kind of "translation error" or it can be fixed so that standard edition purchases can play NG+. SEGA like all business like to make money (no surprise there). SEGA know that the extremely small pool of PS gamers on this site are not representative of the hundreds of thousands plus that will happily be getting the most expensive edition and won't even know this issue exists and base game players are less likely to do a NG+.

RGG offers extreme gameplay value per hour already so I am less fussed than if it was a less established studio that I don't trust on quality. Like everyone else I decide how to spend my own money and won't be talked down to.

@Kienda Dead or Alive 5

Sega makes some great games, but their DLC practices are rather unpleasant, particularly with this and Persona. It certainly makes me less eager to buy their games.

I've still got some Like A Dragon games to play thorough before this title, so I'll wait until it's heavily discounted before considering getting it.

This is really bad but i'm not interested in replaying a 100+ hours game, so still D1 for me

Square-Enix, EA, Namco-Bandai, Atlus all welcome Sega to the greedy club. Soon to be called SSENA

Vote with your wallet. Don't buy the deluxe edition

Not great, however, I pre-ordered the ultimate edition months ago anyway so won't affect me.

I shan't let Sega's stupidity affect my purchases of LAD games as I genuinely think they are the best out there and it's likely not RGGs decision to do this.

if i preorder the physical standard edition game now. will i be able to buy the DLC that includes NG+ separately on the PlayStation Store later?

I have the standard edition pre-ordered and thought about canceling and then realized that if I don’t have to play NG+ for a trophy, I’m not going to play it anyway. I’ll stick with standard, which I’m sure will be plenty to keep me busy.

I would never buy a premium edition at launch. If standard doesn’t have everything I want, I’ll wait for a sale on the edition I do want.

how meny of you all are buying GranBlue Fantasy Relink first. and waiting to buy the Physical like a dragon infinite wealth. in hopes that Sega will decide to reverse their decision and include NG+ in all editions

this is probably a good place to stop playing the yakuza series i suppose. not sure i have it in me to play what is essentially the same game 6 more times anyways gives a little breathing room with the old backlog as well.

I never understood the appeal of the New Game + feature. Maybe it’s just because I have such a backlog of games that the idea of playing through the same game again just seems like a waste of time. Still, for those who like the feature, it sucks that it’s not included in the base cost. 😕

That said, I understand Sega’s perspective, too. 🤔 They ain’t no non-profit organization, and for every game that’s a success💰, there are countless others that aren’t. They gotta get that 💵 while the gettin’s good.

Here’s a jacka💰💰 tip from an old guy (me): Wait 4 months until the game is on sale and THEN buy it. At that point, the combined cost of the base game and New Game + DLC will still be cheaper than what the base game used to cost on day 1. (Yeah, I know. It’s no fun to wait.)

I can't fathom playing this game a second time anyway.

I'm not going to pretend this is okay but they've been charging for new game plus in japan for the last few yakuza titles.

I will just wait until the game is dirt cheap or on gamepass like the rest of them.

I've never played a new game plus before so I don't need this. Tho still a bad move from sega.

@thefourfoldroot1 It's a massive issue if you keep out such a basic and sell it back to the customer.

@jgrangervikings1 Sega is greedy ass company don't they own Atlus that shows how bad they really are.

It's funny to read how low the bar is set. People say they have to make money don't they sell the game for money or do we get it free? The biggest joke is that people complain about the €10 increase with games but Sega games more with the stripped features and extra payed DLC.

@Flaming_Kaiser
The reason I don’t consider it a big deal (although I did say it is scummy to do this to people who wanted it) is just because of the actual game. Yakuza games have an in game checklist that (usually) encompasses everything the game has to do. This can all be done in one playthrough with nothing missable. As such, the only reason ever to play through the game again is if you want to experience the story, and that you can do just by starting over or looking on YouTube.

Now for many other games this would be a big deal. The Tales of series for example, or if the Star Ocean games didn’t have cross playthrough progress, but not this game.

If this game had a trophy challenge calling for another playthrough on hardest difficulty that could be made easier by purchasing the NG+, that would be an issue for me, but it doesn’t. I don’t see that I’m personally losing anything in this game. That’s all. I realise others may feel differently.

@thefourfoldroot1 well said

Glad I'm not that into those games and don't feel the need. I enjoyed many PS Studios NG+ playthroughs and if everyone is copying bad behaviour, others will follow suit, if this bait works. At least they are trying new stuff out to make money. A pity they didn't choose the side of the consumer!

@Darylb88 so you are confident that PlayStation will have the DLCs available to buy as a separate purchase later?

@phoenix1 Yeah they offer post launch DLC purchases for every RGG and Altus game that has launched since SEGA has been the publisher. It will work out slightly more expensive to buy it all at launch but I plan on just buying the more expensive Master vacation bundle first and the rest on sale later on.