Will there ever be another Shenmue?

Lionel Messy

Would the kids care about it? I only played the original and didn't finish it but what an experience. Truly great games give you an EXPERIENCE, that was so ahead of it's time and wonderfully Japanese. I want another game buts it all DLC/online bull**** now.

pablomakaveli

I'd love to try it anyway. Never got to play it. Is there an talk of re-releasing the original?

If they did that might help generate enough interest to do a sequel.

Lionel Messy

I think Sega are scared no one will care anymore. Let them make boring Yakuza games.

DeSelby83

you can still buy the second one on ebay as far as i know although im not sure if its backwards compatible on the 360

johnny_ultimate

As much as a new Shenmue would be great, in commercial terms Shenmue was a flop. The production values and artistic intentions of the two games were fantastic, but came at a huge cost (does it remain the most expensive game ever made?). And, alas, both in and out of Japan it could never enjoy the success it truly needed.

Remember: Shenmue is mostly a game for the enthusiast outside of its home market. With Sega's current financial woes, they will simply not take the risk necessary for a new, true Shenmue. It may still happen (there's an audience for it, albeit a limited one), but I'd be surprised if it wasn't with a massively truncated amount of resources.

Supposedly the rumour is HD Shenmue exists, and Sega are just waiting for an appropriate window to release it in. When it comes out, buy it in sufficient numbers and then maybe Sega will reconsider committing potential financial seppuku.

GTR63

Surely Shenmue III is something that should be brought up on something like kickstarter. If there is enough of a response to make Sega make it without risking potential losses surely they'd have to listen

johnny_ultimate

The project would be far grander than a kickstarter would allow. The inherent problem with crowd funding is that it only allows for small scale, independent titles. The budget for a Shenmue game was $70 million in the early 2000s, I can barely see them getting 5% of that through kickstarter. Not to mention crowd funding as a concept has yet to take off in Japan, to the best of my knowledge.

One really has to remember that for a Shenmue with the level of detail and content as previous games, you'd be talking about an absolutely massive budget, with a target market that falls outside the reliable mainstream. Unless the technical ambition was scaled back, or something like the new Yakuza engine was heavily utilised, then a full-scale sequel is impractical for countless financial reasons. I'd imagine if the production ever goes ahead ambitions would likely have to be scaled back.

K.O.Kiki

Lionel Messy wrote: »

Would the kids care about it? I only played the original and didn't finish it but what an experience. Truly great games give you an EXPERIENCE, that was so ahead of it's time and wonderfully Japanese. I want another game buts it all DLC/online bull**** now.

It's been usurped by Grand Theft Auto.

Just... just let it go, man.
It'll hurt less this way.

funky penguin

I seem to remember there being a small announcement for Shenmue 1&2 HD a while back. Firewall for all things gaming in my job so can't look it up to confirm. Was it a dreammm?

Adolf Hipster

There was this.

Linky.

Sega has apparently been sitting on the completed new HD conversions of Shenmue 1 and 2 for intended release on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. Sources claim that the reason is that the company has yet to decide the fate of a potential Shenmue 3 and wants to do so before releasing the first two.

Of course, our source says that what has been reported elsewhere is apparently correct, but puzzling. While our sources claim that HD ports of Shenmue 1 & 2 are at least something that we have been hearing about for a long time, we hate to get too excited without Sega officially announcing them.

It is unknown exactly why or what Sega might be deciding about when it comes to Shenmue 3. What we can tell you is that a lot of those who played the first two Shenmue offerings would be very excited to finally get the third installment that they have always wanted.

Our sources tell us that we should get official word in the form of an announcement from Sega soon.

Nothing since March that I can find anyway!

Kirby

It wouldn't sell well enough to justify the cost as it doesn't have the words "Auto" or "War" in it's title.

Sad but true.

Andy!!

Shenmue War Auto III let's make it happen boys!