The Yakuza series often gets labeled as “Japan’s GTA” due to plots and settings that dive deep into the Japanese underground (sandbox-style), but the beat ‘em up-meets-RPG gameplay mechanics have enough uniqueness to not be unfairly lumped together with Rockstar Games’ cash cow.

Yakuza 3 was awesome (despite some heavy-handed edits for the American release), and must have moved a decent amount of units for SEGA to shoot its E3 load today and announce that Yakuza 4 will be available Spring 2011. That’s a long way off (all that’s been announced is that there will be four playable characters), but you can expect more information when we meet with SEGA during E3 2010.