Shenmue Online cancelled, Shenmue 3 not happening as Sega’s franchise dies
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.
18 November 2007 16:01Jeremy Rogers
: I am f*cking ticked and at the same time heartborken i had the first 2 shenmue’s and have beat each of them at least 6 times each. a few days before the second one came out i was sitting at home wondering when it was coming my leg was broken a few days earlier due to a car accident i had been advised to stay at home for a few weeks and rest by my doctor but all i could think about was buying shenmue 2 so the day it came out it was pouring down rain hard in my hometown my leg was hurting bad but i thought to my self you can take the pain go buy so i hobbled out to my car drove to the local videogame store and bought my copy of it drove home took a painpill for my leg pain then put the game in my xbox and played it despite the pain in my leg i can honestly say that i have been i very hardcore dedicated fan from the very first one and it pains me and all the other shenmue fans out there that Mr. Yu Suzuki is doing this to us please Mr.Yu Suzuki release the final copy and end to the heartwarming story that redefined rpgs forever I and all the other shenmue fans need closure so please give us and end to the best game ever. for all other shenmue fans you can go to myspace.com/petitonforshenmue3 and sign a petiton to try and get the game made the list has already got 47207 signatures the Mr.Yu Suzuki has already seen but has done nothing about there is also a link there where you can send an email to sony and try and get this to work we must untie and stand strong we can’t just not be able to finish this wonderful story line.
30 November 2007 17:25sosdfdsds
ALONSO I disagree, this shenmue is to great for someone like you to handle.
[Mod edit: cursing deleted]
