Timo654, a sharp-eyed Yakuza fan, noticed something odd in the recent re-release of the Yakuza series on GOG. Namely, many staff members of the Ryu Ga Gotoku studio, and entire support studios like Lab42 and QLOC, were omitted from the end credits of the game.

The full list of changes is too extensive to be presented here, but quickly, Kazuki Hosokawa, director of Yakuza 0, Saizo Nagai, art supervisor, and Koji Yoshida, game design supervisor, are missing from GOG's credits, and virtually all of RGG's departments' names are missing A side-by-side comparison of the Steam and GOG credits shows that while the two sequences roughly match, the GOG one looks as if it has been edited. It also appears that Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of the series, has also been omitted.

Game studios sometimes reduce or remove the credits of developers who leave the company during the development of a game. This is an unfair practice and may be a stretch to the (un)logical conclusion that the credits of developers who leave RGG Studios are removed from the "new" version of the credits. This new development also makes one wonder how the credits for the Steam remastered "Yakuza 3-6" compare to the console versions.

Equally unfair, but far more confusing, is the omission of supporting studios Lab42 and QLOC. In the first Steam release, Lab42 is credited as the PC porting studio for Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, while QLOC is responsible for porting Kiwami 2 and Yakuzas 3-6.

GOG's games appear to be based on the porting work of these two companies, and as Timo653 indicated in his initial post, Kiwami 2 appears to have been modified so that the QLOC logo that appears in the opening credits of the Steam version is missing in GOG. We have reached out to Sega, QLOC, and Lab42 for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

As awareness of labor issues in the video game industry has increased, credit equity has received widespread public attention. The excellent Metroid Prime Remastered, released earlier this year, omitted the staff of the original game from the credits and simply stated "Based on the work of Metroid Prime, the original Nintendo Gamecube and Wii version development staff," which drew outrage. Nightdive, an expert remastering company, pays close attention to the credits of the original developers.