Sega details Ryu ga Gotoku 3 collaborations

Sega has been slowly sharing details on its collaborative plans for Ryu ga Gotoku 3 (the third installment in the series that's known as Yakuza in the west), starting with a tie-up with fashion magazine Koakuma Ageha and continuing recently through tie-ups with discount retailer Don Quijote and food maker Ace Cook.

Today, the Sega opened the flood gates. At a press event held in Tokyo today, the company unveiled a number of additional promotional tie-ups, some of which were used in past Gotoku games and some of which are new to the series.

As a new promotion for the series, Sega will be teaming up with Nesta Brand for a set of real-life Gotoku-themed t-shirts. Two designs will be sold starting February 26: What a Crazy Game, and Nesta Brand X Ryu ga Gotoku 3. These will be priced respectively at 4,800 and 6,900 yen and will be available in M, L, XL and 2XL.

Sega's own e-commerce Sega Store site will offer a special deluxe pack bundling a copy of the game and the shirts. These will be offered at 11,550 yen for the What a Crazy Game shirt and 13,650 yen for the other shirt. The pricing works out to a savings of 1,500 yen over buying everything separately. Pre-orders will be accepted starting January 23.

Sega will also be teaming up with Matsuya in a repeat of a promotion from Ryu ga Gotoku 2. The restaurant chain, which has 715 restaurants nation wide and is known for its beef bowls, will see its restaurants appear once again in the game. Players will be able to enter the restaurant, see the menu, and restore their health by making a purchase.

The Gotoku 3 Matsuya bowls.

Gotoku 3 will also be featured in the real world Matsuya shops. Eleven shops in Shinjuku and two in Akihabara will offer QR codes on the back of meal tickets. By scanning these codes with their cell phones, patrons will be able to enter themselves into a drawing for one of one hundred Matsuya bowls marked with Ryu ga Gotoku 3 logos. This phase of the campaign will be held from February 15 through March 28, with the winners getting their bowls in late April.

All shops nationwide will also feature QR codes on table tops, on the back of tickets (except for at the Shinjuku and Akihabara shops) and in-store Gotoku 3 posters (also excluding Shinjuku and Akihabara shops). Accessing these codes will allow patrons to download a limited edition Gotoku 3 wallpaper.

New for Gotoku 3 is a tie-up with B&V's Karaoke-kan chain of nation-wide karaoke rooms. According to Sega's press statement, this chain operates 90 shops nationwide, centered on Tokyo, and sees 14 million customers annually.

The in-game part of this collaboration will take the form of in-game Karaoke-kan shops. Players will be able to head into the shops in the in-game Tokyo and Okinawa night spots for a previously announced rhythm game. The shops have rankings, allowing players to work to beat their own records.

Outside the game, the promotion will take the form of Gotoku-themed consumables. From February 12 through March 31, Karaoke-kan shops will offer real-life drinks based off in-game power-up items Stamina X, Taurina, and Toughness Z, priced at 590 yen each. Two food items will be on offer. Russian Curry Bread, priced at 780 yen, includes five bread sticks, one of which is has been randomly selected to be super spicy. This dish is based off a line from the game in which hero Kazuma Kiryu tells his opponents that they have bad luck. A plate of 10 deep fried tako-yaki balls, priced at 780 yen, will also be on offer. This item was inspired by the Osaka setting of Gotoku 2. While this is a normal item for the shop, Karaoke-kan has increased the volume as a commemoration for Gotoku 3.

In addition to these food promotions, Karaoke-kan will be airing a special Gotoku 3 commercial in its karaoke shops and will also display posters which include QR codes that can be scanned in for special wallpaper downloads. The QR code will also be on the special menu detailing the Gotoku food items.

Continuing the food theme is the final promotion announced today, a tie-up with the Okinawa Health Food Develop Cooperative. This collaboration will also have two faces. In the real world, OHFDC will release a Ryu ga Gotoku 3 "special package" version of its Ryukyucho Shugo Densetsu health supplement drink. Set to be available at convenience stores, grocers, and izakayas, on January 23, this this product will be priced at 210 yen. In-game, players will be able to purchase digital versions of the Ryukyucho Shugo Densetsu as a healing drink for Kazuma.

Outside of these promotions, Sega will be teaming up with Okinawa-ya and Sam's House for in-store poster promotions. These posters will also include QR codes that can be scanned to access cell phone wallpaper downloads. The Don Quijote poster announced last week will also have the QR code. The discount retailer will also be placing the code in the ad papers that are distributed in its shops.