Excited for Like a Dragon/ Yakuza's 20th anniversary next year? Good, because Ryu Ga Gotoku has promised you can look forward to lots of announcements, events, and merch next year

It's a good time to be a Yakuza fan.

If you can believe it, the Like a Dragon/ Yakuza series is celebrating its 20th anniversary next year, and there's plenty of good news to come.

The Like a Dragon series, formerly and still lovingly known as Yakuza, just hit 19 years old today, December 8, as that's the release date of the original game way back on the PS2. Obviously the games have only really gotten properly popular in the west over the past decade or so, but now they're bigger than ever, and with its 20th anniversary coming up, you'd hope that some big news would be coming. As it turns out, there is! To celebrate the series' anniversary, the official RGG Studio Twitter account shared a video message from studio director and executive producer Masayoshi Yokoyama to commemorate the occasion.

"Today, December 8th, marks the day the first game in the Like a Dragon & Yakuza series was released," Yokoyama said. "19 years have passed since the first game in the series was released in Japan, and today marks the start of the year leading up to the 20th anniversary… From today, we will be holding various events and making announcements leading up to the 20th anniversary next year. We're also creating a global structure to deliver various types of merchandise and content to fans in Japan, Asia, and the west starting from next year. With this, I'm confident we'll be able to surprise gamers around the world."

Who knows how surprised all you Like a Dragon gamers will actually be, but it is nice to know that RGG Studio has no intention of slowing down on tapping into the series' popularity. Right now, though, the developer will likely be focused on Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, the latest entry that pits everyone's beloved Majima as a… pirate! Duh! That's out February 21, next year, so not long to go now.