Shenmue Online canceled … probably
Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris, News, PC. Tagged with China.
I hate being the bearer of bad news, but I think every Sega Nerd knew it would eventually happen - Shenmue Online has been canceled, and the entire series looks like it may get a permanent spot on the shelf next to franchises like Alex Kidd and Flicky that will more than likely never see another sequel.
Questions surrounding the game’s development have been ongoing for a while, but when it failed to make an appearance at this year’s Chinajoy, things really began to make us wonder.
But now, Kikizo staffer Adam Doree has confirmed the game’s demise with Shenmue Dojo.
“As for Shenmue, I would have to say at this stage, it is worth forgetting about. If all the fans get any rich relatives together and channel it though Dojo perhaps we could buy rights, hire Suzuki (he’d likely say yes) and independently make the game under license from Sega at no risk to them. That is the only way it will get made at this stage I think. “
Doree went on to say that while Sega has no current plans to do anything with the franchise that has lost it millions, but fans shouldn’t close the door on never receiving a sequel to the series.
“… it wouldn’t surprise me if Sega sold off the rights for this IP and somebody went with those rights.
SEGA ON editor Dennis Stachel has also confirmed that Shenmue Online has been canned on the Sega Nerds forums.
Shenmue Online was originally announced announced in 2004, but legal problems with joint developer JC Entertainment in 2005 proved cracks were already beginning to surface in the game’s foundation.
I must say, with all the evidence we have, it truly does look like Shenmue Online is dead and any chance of Shenmue 3 ever seeing the light of day now looks even more doubtful.
Comments on this article
There have been 13 responses to this article.
I’ve never even played Shenmue, but this makes me sad.
Bryan
Posted August 3rd, 2007 at 2:46 am.
With the balls of light and stuff it looks like crap, the idea of Shenmue Online is crap. I’m not really even sure I’d want a Shenmue 3, the second one was horrible and lost all the interesting Japanese atmosphere the first had. Still they should finish it regardless, it’d only be one more game. I’d rather they went with the first idea and made Shenmue 2 about being on the boat instead of ruining it like they did.
Also Sega doesn’t seem like the type to sell their IPs, they’d prefer to let it rot forever. And Yu should just do more arcade games, I’d rather another Hang-On game than more Shenmue.
Kogen
Posted August 3rd, 2007 at 3:04 pm.
From what I heard at Destructoid, the game was intended to be marketed at South Korea and China(And we, the Americans, would have been left out).
udx
Posted August 4th, 2007 at 10:10 am.
The font is Kikizo, the ones who stated Shenmue 3 was completed 2 years ago and was waiting to be ported into next gen… I don’t believe anything from them :o
landman
Posted August 4th, 2007 at 3:24 pm.
Yeah this kind of blows, but I’d rather have Shenmue 3 more so than some MMO.
David Rodriguez
Posted August 4th, 2007 at 5:49 pm.
Nothing Adam Doree has ever said about Shenmue has turned out to be true.
The guy needs to stop lying whenever his site needs more hits and do some real journalism for a change.
TT
Posted August 5th, 2007 at 6:08 am.
Oh no, not a cancelation for Shenmue Online, it will mean the end of Saga.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. The most deep game EVER, NO I don’t accept this fate.
And thus the saga…is dead.
NO no no. Fucking world of shit.
I will sucide me if Shenmue is dead
Posted August 7th, 2007 at 10:09 am.
Well the sequel would probably cost a excess of $50 million to make, maybe even more with the price of development in next gen, even if say, Suzuki left, no one would ever want to take on such a risk, not even Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft, they can make much cheaper games that would make much more money (IE Mario Galaxy, Halo 3 or God of War)
But cancelling a online spin-off of Shenmue, does not signify the end of the series for me, but I also doubt SEGA could ever justify the game, unless then can somehow, miraculously lower development cost, and the amount of characters, level of depth and extensive design work on the world, would be impossible…
Aki-at
Posted August 7th, 2007 at 10:25 am.
Shenmue has been murdered, Joy wont get down and dirty with Ryo, no teabagging, oh noes!!!!!
Teabagme
Posted August 23rd, 2007 at 7:21 pm.
OMG no Shenmue this is not good Sega Sammy.
Suckmynuts
Posted August 23rd, 2007 at 7:23 pm.
Shenmue 3 conspiracy, showing Shenmue 3 secretly in production to come with Shenmue Online king of like PSU.
Link
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=teabagging
Shenmuelegend
Posted August 23rd, 2007 at 7:27 pm.
Hi i’m an onion.
Shenmuejuju
Posted October 21st, 2007 at 2:05 am.
It’s just not going to happen. Shenmue Online was supposed to be the piece of shit that turned koreans onto Shenmue so that then Shenmue 3 could be viably released, but even that has been canned and is very unlikely to be released, and if it was it’d definately screw the pooch. It just looks fucking awful.
Here’s the main factors, without going into detail as to why Shenmue 3 is VERY unlikely to be released:
1) Yu Suzuki has gone off to shower with the guys at some other rent-boy development house and isn’t really showing the enthusiasm he had for it in the DC era.
2) Porting code isn’t a problem, it’s already done and they would likely just release it the same way as Shenmue II if they did, but it’s not really difficult to port it to the 360.
3) Marketing and financing a game release costs a lot of money - distributors, advertisements and sellers need to be found.
4) Previous releases were marginally beneficial to SEGA — they barely broke even with this series.
5) If they pass the code on to some other whorehouse development team, they would likely chew up the code, spit it out and release another Jackie Chan game.
6) Ryo Hazuki has now turned to drugs after being out of the limelight for so long, and now is fat and practices chew-fu on many foodstuffs.
7) Joy is married to a fat production worker named “Jimmy Kabuki” who forces her to watch naruto while she jerks him off.
8) Nozomi got married to her job as a lap dancer.
We’re through the looking glass, people :O
Ryo Handjob-zuki
Posted November 19th, 2007 at 4:21 am.