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

6 August 2007

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.

Categories: Features, Interviews, News, Retro News, Videos

http://superforce.deviantart.com/ zach

I worked on the Shenmue online project in Shanghai at Interserv. The game had so many problems, from environment models, to 3d motion capture cleanup, to it’s mini-games. It was a real-time fighting game forced onto a online game, so you can imagine how fun it would be with lag. with the mocap it ended up with interserv using interns to help with the editing and skinning. There was just so many characters that needed skinning, and rigging, and then Sega decided to change the models, which resulted in all the characters needed to be re-skinned with max 5. hahah rofl.

Two words that described the failure of this game: ” POOR PREPRODUCTION”. You know, garbage in, garbage out, or like my art instructor said back in art college, ” if you don’t get the preproduction down right, you’re just polishing a turd.”
Chris

has anyone heard of a dynasty warriors online game that’s very much similar to the console games but with some aspects like wow i think if the game took a twist like this then it would be able to least pull it off sure its not true shenmue but this would help with the world through an online prespective check out youtube for this.

And ill just say as another option make the thing a novel least so the fans can buy the book and finsh the story, like i always say “dont start something you cant finsh!” we need closure
ShenmueLover

I cant believe Yu Suzuki is puttin the fans of Shenmue in such stress…

Please I would love to finish the beloved game of Shenmue Series… its such a shame Sega and Yu Suzuki are doing this… Please just make a deal with each other and get it over and done with Shenmue 3 must go on, its illegal to create such game with a heart touching story and not completing it.. if so Sega i would like a refund on my Shenmue 1 and 2…
alonso

dont worry guys i will create the game just give me a few years and ill bring it back.
Daniel

JUST RELEASE THE DAMN GAME! THE WAIT HAS BEEN MUCH TOO LONG, we need a rerelease of Shenmue 1, 2 and he really needs to release Shenmue 3 and have all the chapters in the last game so we dont have to wait another 26 years for Shenmue f*cking “4″ lol. I love shenmue and im just getting really annoyed by the fact 8 year’s has past and we only got our hands on 2 shenmue games. COME ON I WANT IT AND WE ALL WANT IT NOW! And tell us the system it’s going to release on at least so I dont waiste my money on a system that will never see the like’s of shenmue.
UWANGKAA

I recon if they do bring out a Shenmue 3 on next gen consoles it probably be rushed and disappointing so wouldnt keep your hopes up Sega always loses the plot when it comes to games. Look at the new sonic and other remakes on the older consoles like Altered Beast etc Lost the plot of the story lines.
Michael

I’m a huge shenmue fan, and really wouldn’t care if the final game sucked, as long as i get to finally know how it end, if suzuki doesn’t want to do the game then please for the love of god write a book, the dam halo book made it on to best seller lists, you’ve got an instant buy from all the shenmue fan, for f*cks sake just tell us what happens, i’d still buy the game or book or god knows what, need to know.
squall

i would buy any next gen system, just for shenmue. ever since i played these games, i’ve been let down by almost every other action/adventure/rpg game.

this is sad, though not unexpected. Yu, please at least give us a manga or book or something. i’d like to finish out the series in SOME fashion

oh well, i’ll just keep playing the first two on my dreamcast (uk version for II of course)
Damake

I’m heart broken, I was playing Shenmue 2 on my 360 just last week and oh I was SO happy again when I got to play a REALLY good game in a long while, the Shenmue series just has so much fun to do around the place that the action/adventure games coming out these days can’t compete, I just wish I could know what happens after the cave, but it seems that Hazuki’s gonna die in the cave since there won’t be another shenmue, and that’s lame knowing that it should continue on and maybe even get revenge against Lan Di
Dan

You son.. of… a… ****! you ****! I f*cking respected and admired you, Yu Suzuki, you f*cking ****!! I played Shenmue 1 and 2, and upon finishing each one, i kept telling myself “Yu Suzuki is a f*cking genius”. Well look at what you’re doing now you GODDAMN PIECE OF SH*T! RELEASE THE GAME ALREADY!! You’re torturing the people who respect you the most: The fans of the Shenmue saga. YOUR fans you f*cking idiot! Give us something. A book, an anime, a f*cking GAME! something! let us know how it all ends! Quit doing this to us you selfish prick. Give us Shenmue 3!