Rumour The unreleased PC port of Judgment appears to have resurfaced on Amazon Luna

Krvavi Abadas

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Jan 22, 2019
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This was basically buried under the rest of The Game Awards announcements, but it was just added to the service a day or two ago.

Amazon Luna specifically uses Windows combined with specialized Nvidia GPUs designed for servers, though they do seem to be considering a move to Linux-based servers combined with a Proton compatibility layer, either of which would make it an incredibly easy "port"....

....If the game was actually released on PC as intended.

Amazon doesn't typically get exclusives like this on the service, the closest was the first two No More Heroes games. But even that was quickly shuffled onto Steam about 4 months later.

General evidence suggests the Johnny & Associates veto happened very late in development.
  • A PC port of the game was one of the few titles in the Geforce Now leak to have non-placeholder data on it, including screenshots. It also had the release date set to the same day as the PS5/Xbox Series version, if i remember correctly.
  • The official site for the game initially labeled the Stadia (more on this later) logo as being a "Steam" logo in the site source.
  • A 2019 interview from series producer Kazuki Hosokawa said they were actively considering bringing the game over to PC (and "other formats"), this was back when they were still gradually porting the whole Yakuza (Kiwami 2 was ported a month after the interview, and 5 was ported to PS4 2 months later, in case you need an idea of the time period.) series over. So it made sense for them to hold off at the time.
Notably, this new version of the game shares a few quirks that normal PC ports of the series have, Such as...

The iconic "Real X use a gamepad" screen, while Luna does support Keyboard & Mouse. You're generally expected to be using a controller on the service. and the screen doesn't appear in the Stadia build despite it also supporting Keyboard & Mouse.


An "exit game" option, i believe this is just down to how Luna works. But it's still somewhat notable.
Some of the earlier Ryu Ga Gotoku studio ports mapped exiting the game to a button (Y) or key, but Like A Dragon moved it into being a menu option.

and before you ask, they at least scrubbed out the PC settings you'd normally expect. Taking the audio settings that existed in the console builds out with it.
(footage provided by WiNDStaR715)

As for how the Stadia build fits into all of this, my assumption is that once the situation with Takuya Kimura happened. SEGA ended up taking a deal with Google knowing that it would be the closest to getting the PC build out there prior to Amazon stepping in. Their rather unusual support of Stadia shows signs of this. As at least two of the games they put on there started as PC exclusives with the Stadia version shortly after, and didn't get proper console ports until later on.

The fact that, as cloud gaming services. Viewing and/or modifying the actual game data would be impossible also satisfies the main factor that Johnny's was refusing to budge on, which was fears of people using Kimura's character model outside of the game.
 
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Panda Pedinte

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Nice findings!

We were this close to get this game on Steam, too bad Johnny's is a completely backwards company.
 
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Cacher

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Great investigation journalism. I bet you are better than 99% of the gaming journalist out there.

I will play the game on xbox or PS5 eventually. It will probably never come to steam unless the old men at Johnny's suddenly understand how digital stuff really works.
 
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「Echo」

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Mt. Whatever
For me who is out of the loop, who is "Johnny?" All I can see on the game's website and wiki page is SEGA and RGG studio?
 

Kvik

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Downunder.
For me who is out of the loop, who is "Johnny?" All I can see on the game's website and wiki page is SEGA and RGG studio?
Johnny & Associates, the talent agency representing Takuya Kimura.

 
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undu

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I doubt Nikkan Taishu will let Sega port this on pc. This is the main reason we won’t get Judgment 3.
Maybe they can work around the "PC" thing by porting it only to Linux and saying it's exclusive for the Deck :censored:
 

Mor

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Maybe they can work around the "PC" thing by porting it only to Linux and saying it's exclusive for the Deck :censored:
Not going to lie, I have been thinking about this potential outcome from SEGA in order to trick them hahaha

Not going to happen, of course, but it's funny to see that I'm not the only one who wondered "what would happen if they showed them Deck?"
 

Cacher

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Not going to lie, I have been thinking about this potential outcome from SEGA in order to trick them hahaha

Not going to happen, of course, but it's funny to see that I'm not the only one who wondered "what would happen if they showed them Deck?"
Johnny's executive: "Is that... let me think, hmm, a Swi----ch? Oh of course I have heard of it. Don't underestimate me. Isn't it popular? Ok, do it. My grandson would love it."
 
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thekeats1999

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This is the one thing that gets me about Johnny's. Everything they do seems to actively hinder the promotion of their clients.
 

Cacher

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This is the one thing that gets me about Johnny's. Everything they do seems to actively hinder the promotion of their clients.
Honestly they don't need to. Johnny's talents are the top idols / stars in Japan, and Takuya Kimura is the name that every single Japanese person should have heard of. Hell, he is very popular in some places in Asia, too.

I have a friend who joined a fan club of one of their idol group, and by paying the membership fees, they can only access to some monthly blog post and early access to concert tickets only. No photos. In this world of Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, their business practice is extremely backward but their fans probably don't mind at all.
 

Prodigy

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I haven't really looked too much into this, but is there any sort of time frame that the agency has the rights over Takuya. Could there theoretically be some port in 10 years?
 

thekeats1999

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Honestly they don't need to. Johnny's talents are the top idols / stars in Japan, and Takuya Kimura is the name that every single Japanese person should have heard of. Hell, he is very popular in some places in Asia, too.

I have a friend who joined a fan club of one of their idol group, and by paying the membership fees, they can only access to some monthly blog post and early access to concert tickets only. No photos. In this world of Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, their business practice is extremely backward but their fans probably don't mind at all.
Thanks for the insight. While I don't have a great deal of understanding of the entertainment industry as a whole I have even less off an understanding of the Japanese talent industry (other than what Perfect Blue taught me ;) ).

However it seems that, where in Europe/America/UK, if you are a big name the agents work for you, in Japan you will always work for the Agent.
 
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Cacher

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I haven't really looked too much into this, but is there any sort of time frame that the agency has the rights over Takuya. Could there theoretically be some port in 10 years?
Very likely no one knows. Takuya absolutely has the wealth and power to go independent but he didn't choose to, so I can imagine that he is willing to stay under the umbrella of Johnny's.
Thanks for the insight. While I don't have a great deal of understanding of the entertainment industry as a whole I have even less off an understanding of the Japanese talent industry (other than what Perfect Blue taught me ;) ).

However it seems that, where in Europe/America/UK, if you are a big name the agents work for you, in Japan you will always work for the Agent.
You are welcome. I think the traditional agency like Johnny's are extremely powerful in Japan. That's why there are idols who need to follow some bullshit rules like no dating.
The reasoning behind the no dating clause is that the stars must stay single in order not to shatter the dreams of fans.
 

thekeats1999

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Yeah. I used to think the deals Simon Cowell had in place with the winners of his various talent contests where bad. Then I saw some of the stipulations for Idols in Japan. Most other places in the world that would be considered abusive.
 
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Krvavi Abadas

Krvavi Abadas

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Maybe they can work around the "PC" thing by porting it only to Linux and saying it's exclusive for the Deck :censored:
Considering they know the difference between a PC game and a cloud gaming service, i doubt they'd be able to get around that way.
Valve has been quite clear in messaging that the handheld is still fundamentally a PC at it's core.

I haven't really looked too much into this, but is there any sort of time frame that the agency has the rights over Takuya. Could there theoretically be some port in 10 years?
Probably not, in general Takuya gets slightly more leeway than most stars under Johnny's due to his popularity.
We know he has a wife and 2 kids, for example. Though i could see him possibly leaving out of frustration with this situation.

Of note, he was originally part of a boy band called SMAP. Which was disbanded after literally everyone but him left the agency due to how restrictive they were.
 
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This whole saga is wild to me. Yes, I know how in japan, and some other asian countries, talent agents basically own you

but if the argument really was about ripping the models ... the ps4 is already hacked so ... kind of moot.
 
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Mor

Me llamo Willy y no hice la mili, pero vendo Chili
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Wait, WHAT.

How did this news completely slip by me?

I heard they "came to PC" as Luna exclusives and that was the last I heard of them.
GO BUY THEM THEN VAUSE' NMH3 IS ABOUT TO DROP (I'm guessing Feb-March?)
 
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Krvavi Abadas

Krvavi Abadas

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but if the argument really was about ripping the models ... the ps4 is already hacked so ... kind of moot.
Japan is known to be fairly hard on people modding their systems, most recently passing a law banning save data modification.

The law is recent, but arrests similar to it go as far back as 2012. So Johnny's was likely banking on that protecting their "image".