Shenmue Online cancelled, Shenmue 3 not happening as Sega’s franchise dies

6 August 2007

92 Comments

Posted by:Ferry

Back in February 2006, Shenmue creator and veteran game designer Yu Suzuki, confirmed that the mysterious Shenmue MMO venture Shenmue Online (that was announced in 2004) was still in development: “The story will be finished through games.” Later that year at the China Joy 2006 game event Sega unveiled new info in an Shenmue Online trailer and gameplay videos that you can watch below.

Sadly that’s the last we’ll see of any Shenmue games, since Shenmue Online has been canceled and will more than likely never see another sequel like Shenmue 3. Seganerds reports that ever since the game didn’t show up at China Joy 2007 it’s continued development has been questioned.

It’s now been confirmed by Kikizo staff saying: “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.”

The following words must’ve been really hard for the Shenmue fans to say: “To clarify, what I meant was I wanted to get clarification on something I heard a couple of days ago, which is that yes, Shenmue Online is f*cked and Suzuki’s status is, once again, up in the air, which counts Shenmue III totally out of the picture right now. This is confirmed, it seems.”

Wow double-sad news! Now I have to go tell some friends who are fans of Shenmue and Shenmue II.

Shenmue Online 2006 video Part 1:

Shenmue Online 2006 video Part 2:

Full video of Shenmue Online originally found at Ameba.