Judgment sales skyrocket after actor's cocaine arrest - 97% of stock sold-out

Judgment sales went through the roof after Sega announced it would be pulling it off shelves in Japan.

Sega said 97% of Judgment's worldwide stock has been sold following the announcement of it being pulled from sale in Japan.

Speaking in the latest Sega Nama broadcast, Toshihiro Nagoshi said he was disappointed it took a controversy for the game to sell so well.

"I’m bummed that it sold like there was a last-minute surge in demand," said Nagoshi (thanks, Gematsu). "It reached number three on Amazon’s sales rankings.

"But I did kind of think, 'Why didn’t you just buy from the start?' Of course I’m glad in any case [and] sell-through was about 97 percent. Worldwide inventory is nearly gone."

During the broadcast he also touched upon the drug-related controversy surrounding the game's voice actor, Pierre Taki.

"I was surprised to hear [he] was arrested," said Nagoshi. "After that, we started discussing how to deal with the problem. We decided to halt the game’s sales fairly quickly. In the end, I also cast my vote for halting sales because it was just after release.

"If it was an older game released a considerable amount of time ago, our priorities may have been different, but when it was something that had been released only several months prior, I think it’s a different conversation."

Upon hearing the news, many fans and potential customers took to social media. Many were of the opinion halting sales of the game and scrubbing Taki from the western release was overkill.

Nagoshi said such opinions aren't unreasonable, and while he understands both sides of the argument, there was "no correct way to deal with the situation."

Earlier this month, Judgment actor Pierre Taki, was arrested in Japan and tested positive for cocaine use. Sega quickly stopped all future sales of the game in the country. The following week it was announced the character model and Japanese voice for the character he played would be adjusted for the western release.

Judgment releases in the west June 25 for PlayStation 4.