Should there be a Shenmue III?
Posted by George. Filed under News.
Hey, I’d say yes in a freaking heartbeat. Apparently not Patrick Kolan from IGN. He wrote a article about Shenmue. While the first page is a long recap of the story, the second page gives possible reasons why Sega won’t release it.
Here’s their cons about a new Shenmue game.
- Yu Suzuki is no longer with AM2 This is a pretty big signal that Sega may well have moved on completely from Shenmue. Yu Suzuki is no longer President of AM2, instead forming a new development team, called AM+. It’s entirely possible that AM+ is working quietly on the third game, but it’s equally likely that they’re not, simply choosing to focus on arcade releases and perhaps support for the MMO.
This isn’t a good excuse, I mean didn’t stop Smilebit from doing Panzer Dragoon Orta even though Team Andromeda was no more.
- Sales just don’t justify the costs With total costs upwards of US$70 million, Shenmue isn’t exactly a low-expenditure development. And, if a game series just doesn’t make the numbers, why keep beating a dead horse? Loyalty to fans will only stretch a company so far - and this is a business, after all; Sega is in this for the money. Shenmue just isn’t a strong seller and Shenmue III wouldn’t be a cheap game to develop.
I have to agree with this, I think Sega should find ways to make development cheaper. Though the $70 million dollars included a lot of things. Most of the work is done for Shenmue III. Sega could replace billboards with real ads, giving them some money in there pocket. In Japan, Jet Cola was really Coca Cola. In-game ads is big money now-a-days.
- The Shining Force Sega Saturn debacle Sometimes, Sega just doesn’t release the ends of some series its kicks off. A prime example would be Shining Force 2 and 3 on Sega Saturn, which wrapped up the story - as long as you lived in Japan. Since the Saturn was on a steep slope towards irrelevancy in the U.S. and Europe, the rest of the series was never translated for U.S. gamers. It’s entirely possible that the same scenario might occur for Shenmue. It may never get finished. Sad, but totally possible.
Shining Force was finished at least.
- It’s been too long Games have come a long way and it’s totally possible that the world has moved on to brighter, deeper RPG waters like The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - which offered a similar level of interactivity (albeit with a radically different theme). Would Shenmue’s grandeur be muted by comparison to newer series’?
No, I still hold Shenmue’s AI in high regards. I think the people are more believable then Oblivion. I was amazed on how the city was all differnt and how each person didn’t look like each other. Not to mention the story in Shenmue is put together better.
- Psy-Phi was a big flop It’s possible that Yu Suzuki’s arcade touch-screen action game, Psy-Phi, was such a non-event in Japan that Sega might not want to give Yu Suzuki the keys to the castle again. After a string of games that just haven’t raked in the dollars, there may be pressure from the suits upstairs to stick to easy-sell titles from now on. Most would agree Shenmue III won’t crack the mainstream nut unless it’s utterly mind-blowing in every department.
It either was a flop or not, its not ‘possible’. The game didn’t come out and no one knows what happened, but it was due to the touch screen last I heard. I also heard good impressions from the game (as far as I know). Though I haven’t heard any sources saying it was a big flop since it never officially released.
To be fair, IGN did post did also post a positive side, but it would have made the article way too long. Plus they weren’t as discussion worthy as the cons.
[Via IGN]
Comments on this article
There have been 11 responses to this article.
“Most of the work is done for Shenmue III”
Other then Kikizo, we have no proof or indication of this…
SEGA are already $40 million in the red, if they were developing Shenmue 3, they’d probably be over $100 million right now, lets not forget developing for this gen (unless your making it on the Wii) is more exspensive then last gen, so even the third one could be much much more exspensive then the first. I really cannot see SEGA doing this, at all.
Aki-at
Posted August 8th, 2007 at 4:56 am.
Actually, Yu Suzuki not being with AM2 anymore IS a good reason why Shenmue 3 won’t be made. Why would Sega go ahead and develop another game in a money-losing series? They have no reason or motivation to make it. Yu Suzuki wants to make it.
Nathan
Posted August 8th, 2007 at 5:12 am.
If any of you ever wins the lottery and you’re into financing Shenmue (not only III, but (re)making the whole thing from the beginning, including that lost chapter between Shenmue I and Shenmue II), just approach Sega. They’ll probably won’t mind. :P
Orta
Posted August 8th, 2007 at 5:45 am.
I don’t think that 70 million went all into funding the development of Shenmue I & II. Playstation 3 is the most expensive plateform to make games for and its Killzone 2 will be 21 million. Not to mention it will be translated to 8> languages. I think SEGA should have watched there budget better, I doubt Oblivion, Killzone 2, and Halo 3 dev budgets will get close to 70 million together.
Just because Yu decided to run his ‘own’ studio, doesn’t mean Sega has forgotten about Shenmue or Yu. He isn’t President of AM-2 but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t over see games they make or could have a lead role in a game they will make.
But lets be totally stright, WTF is digital rex doing? There not doing Shenmue Online…. Psi Phy seems dead… whats this (pretty good size) team doing with there time? There profilo only shows Psy Phi (canceled?) and Shenmue Online (also Canceled?)
George
Posted August 8th, 2007 at 5:54 am.
Well to be fair on Shenmue’s cost, we’re talking a high-end saturn game, 2 high end dc games and most of part three. And alot of the things Shenmuue did was completely new and revolutionary, or at least top notch.
Everything they need to do with 3 is already done (script, models ect) though I must admit it would be wise to update it a little.
AMPus could be doing anything right now. Hell, they could be handling 3 for all we no. SEGA is rather tight lipped about most projects until the right time.
Jon
Posted August 8th, 2007 at 9:35 am.
Ad Ryu ga Gotoku/Yakuza 2 to the “Shining Force Sega Saturn debacle”…
landman
Posted August 8th, 2007 at 10:06 am.
“Playstation 3 is the most expensive plateform to make games for and its Killzone 2 will be 21 million”
Does Killzone 2 even have the same level of detail that Shenmue 3 would need to have? I really doubt it, a single person would need a original model, his/her set move set, where they go, their own lines, there is fair bit of things to do, and that’s not even talking about the weather data they’ll put in and significant amount of research in the local weather, hell that’s not even the surface!
Shenmue 3 would cost quite a bit, quite a lot, and without any indication that they’ve had anything done (other then Kikizo whispers, which I don’t believe) it would be a massive project to undertake on the PS3 or X360.
Unless they make…for the Wii!
Aki-at
Posted August 8th, 2007 at 10:37 am.
Yu Suzuki said in 2001 that they were working on it (shenmue III), thats a fact.
Yes, all that weather data and stuff is already done, they did trips to china, and most of the cost from the super expensive Saturn game… then dropping it and making a even bigger and expensive DC games.
Updating textures for Next Gen shouldn’t be to expensive. Its not like Shenmue I and II totally failed (besides XBOX game). I think some in game ads and some 50/50 publishing/funding from M$ will get this game pushed out.
Just think Sega should be wiser about money.
Actually, I don’t care. I just want a new Yu Suzuki game.
George
Posted August 8th, 2007 at 3:55 pm.
PSI PHY never got canned it just didn’t get released outside of asia like many Sega arcade games but i’d be suprised if it didn’t. I dunno about Europe because they sometimes get japanese games from Sega that America will never get like DRAGON BALL Z and SUPERSONIC(apparently)
But George is correct at least two people back in 2001 confirmed that SHENMUE 3 was being worked on and we all know that Sega had a bad time at the 6th generation of consoles finacially,they lost on DC,flopped on Xbox and apart from SONIC and certain key titles were n’t gaining enough profit on PS2 so they had to concentrate on the japanese market which was doing well for them but none and i shall literate NONE of the big AAA titles(games that had a substantial amount of money poured in) were ever released during the sixth generation.
The reason people know that VECTOR MAN PS2 was canned because SOA made a statement that it was. The others haven’t been forthcoming so that’s why i9′m going on record here and saying that SHENMUE 3 and ONLINE hasn’t been canned but in development hell. One reasson i’m gonna give is the fact that a SAKURA TAISEN spin off game called KOUMA is going to be released or at least shown this year. So what you say? Well this game was announced way back in 2002 and may be released this year. that’s nearly six years. If Sega plans to release a game that isn’t on anyone’s highpoint then it may suggest that they indeed do plan to release games that is on everyone’s highpoint especially in reality that they haven’t stopped working on the Shenmue project.
ROJM
Posted August 9th, 2007 at 8:33 am.
I know people confirm a sequel is in the works, but that doesn’t exactly mean substantial work has been done, unless Shenmue 3 was going to revisit locations from 1 and 2 or that the majority of the work for Shenmue 3 was completed during the development of the original (which I’ve heard people say)
I also think it would be a extremely bad move from SEGA if they released Shenmue 3 this early, the PS3 (which only has two games that are million sellers) and X360 audience do not seem like they’d be too interested in Shenmue either. Heck even now, I feel the game would go under the radar from pretty much everyone, I just don’t trust the main stream gaming audience…
Aki-at
Posted August 9th, 2007 at 9:06 am.
SHENMUE 3 is definatly finished,enough for sega and Suzuku to preview four characters of the game at some pres event a few years back and technically all the elements of the entire game would have been done with SHENMUE was under the Project berkely codename all that would have needed to do after that is sort out the AI and render the graphics for each chapter and their intended system,imean come on Sega isn’t going to spend $20 million dollars of each game of SHENMUE are they.
ROJM
Posted August 10th, 2007 at 11:04 am.