Yakuza producer: "Kiriyu might become a kindergarten teacher in the next game"

Ok, we're pretty sure he's joking about that bit. But whether or not the series trades its hordes of puking zombies for arguably more horrifying hordes of drooling children, Yakuza producer Masayoshi Kikuchi made one point explicitly clear:

"We want to spread the Yakuza franchise into different genres," he stated.

"We don't want to stop the Yakuza franchise. In terms of making entertainment, we're deadly serious," Kikuchi told Kotaku. "We want to have the ability to branch out and create new game experiences [with Yakuza.] We've done it in the past with Yakuza Kenzan, a samurai themed game. Making differently themed games is our challenge to create new types of entertainment."

"For all we know, Kiriyu might become a kindergarten teacher in the next game," he said jokingly.

He even went so far as to proclaim Yakuza the successor to Sonic the Hedgehog's multi-talented mascot throne.

"We definitely are trying to make that happen," Kikuchi said. "But I'm not the company president. I'm not sure if Kiriyu will ever replace Sonic."

Can a Yakuza kart racer be far off? Of course, every race would be blatantly rigged. But then, how is that different from the single-player in any other kart racer?