Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth‘s New Game Plus Will Cost Extra

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is shaping up to be the biggest release from Ryu Ga Gotoku (RGG) Studio yet. With a brand new setting, revamped battle mechanics, an Animal Crossing clone mode, and ominous foreshadowings for its story, there is plenty to be excited for when the game comes out next Thursday. However, the game’s publisher, SEGA, has made the decision to lock a core feature behind a paywall. You will only be able to access New Game Plus (NG+) if you purchase the game’s Deluxe or Ultimate Edition. The upgrades will run you $15 or $40 on top of the base game’s price.

To fully explore everything a huge RPG like this has to offer, NG+ isn’t just a bonus tool but an essential one. It’s very unlikely you’ll collect everything and have that 100% completion ranking your first go around. The beauty of NG+ is removing the uphill climb so that you can unleash your fully earned power while going back to explore whatever you missed previously. However, you won’t be able to experience this in Infinite Wealth unless you fork over the extra cash. 

This isn’t the first time the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series has been flaked for its malicious business practices. It goes back as far as 2010 with the North American release of Yakuza 3 for the PS3, which cut out a wide plethora of content including 20 substories and 4 minigames, which fans will recognize as staples of the series. There was DLC exclusive to the Japanese version of the game, which you could only access in North America via a physical copy with a voucher containing the code that expired only a year after the game’s initial launch. So if you missed out then you were just completely out of luck. 

Even today, Infinite Wealth’s Steam page does not mention the specifics for what is included in each edition and what each bundle grants you access to. Given the release is a week away, that needs to be cleared up soon, as most would probably expect the base game to include NG+ as it is a core feature for the series. Paying extra for it will no doubt let RGG and Sega squeeze more money out of a series that was once considered fringe in America, but at the potential cost of consumer goodwill.