6 August 2007
Ferry

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.

17 February 2008 09:38
Akira

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY8pEOWuJCk&feature=related

Look how addicted this fan is from Shenmue. Just beautiful, that shows how great the game is.

17 February 2008 13:52
NAVEED HASAN!!!

listen up guys this game failed for a large number of reasons number 1
sega sega spent way to much time and money on the diaglouge instead of concentrating on the gameplay that in the end of production of shenmue 1 they had to take out half of the map and the use of the byscle which is why players had to run everywhere
the gameplay was actually i hate to say it extremely poor
u just walk an talk an ask for directions in all differnt forms
eg: did u se a blk car where did it go, where can i find master chen, where can i find the mad angels, whats this green mirror lol
u see what i mean there was hardly any gameplay
yu suzuki concentrated more on dialouge an items rather then gameplay
thought the biggest selling point and strong point was the storyline it was very strong and myself would love to know what happens next
producing an online version was a bad idea in the first place
they should of just spent all that time and creating the 3rd story
besides once u knew the plot the gameplay was useless and pathetic
also the dreamcast wasnt selling very well there werent enough dreamcast owners to legitmally own a a copy of shenmue1/2 each to make a healthy profit infact the gamble was that shenmue was to make the dreamcast sell but it didnt work
they had spent to much money on translations voice acting american voice acting french bla bla and in the end even though the game was selling like hot cakes it didnt make a profit
they spent so much money on it they ended up having to pull out of the console war its a real shame an the latest sonic games suck as well sega always loose the plot
the best sonic game ive ever played is made by 5 poeplewho dont really know each other as a MOD for unreal tournament 2004 u guys should check it out awsome gameplay
anyways im just as heartbroken as you guys that the story will never reach completion.
HAVE A NICE LIFE EVERYONE!!!!!!

18 February 2008 15:25
gav2808

Quality games! Its a shame if they can’t make shenmue 3. They should make shenmue the movie at least that way we would find out how it all ends, i think it would be a fantastic film!

19 February 2008 23:36
Andrew

Wow idk it is such a fun game all the puzzles i think it will come through because at the end it show that there is a 3 part and there is no canciling anownsments so we dont know for sure just keep HOPE!

Andrew

21 February 2008 15:55
Heather

PLEASE!! I HAVE TO KNOW HOW THE STORY ENDS!!! If there is NO Shenmue 3 then just tell me what happens!!! SOMEBODY!!! ANYBODY!!!!

21 February 2008 15:57
Heather

YES… MAKE A FILM!!!! The person who does that will make millions!!!! (If they stay true to the games music, characters and atmosphere!)

28 February 2008 18:43
Steve

I don’t care how the series is finished, I would just like some closure, a poorly scrawled cartoon, a book, a text based RPG just let me know how it ends. (I found myself trying to prevent someone from buying the xbox version of this game recently to spare them the heartache, alas they purchased it anyway, joining the shenmue damned.)

4 March 2008 20:34
dj gizzo

shenmue was a real life time experience even going to work was a chore them fork lift trucks made you wish you had never fed the cat all the stuff from the store so you could do a couple of days less even the clairvoyant that helped you when you got stuck looking for Chinese people was great i only bought it cus i heard you could go in the arcade and play the games

the problem is now if they brought a new one out on anything except the wii people would be expecting next gen game and graphics and that would cause more headaches
how would you lot feel about a remake of the first one with maybe an extra few bits in it on the wii then the second ready for the 3rd on the next big thing after the wii?
perhaps they should of put the second one on the ps2 they put everything else on it just about

8 March 2008 20:54
katrina de los Santos

sign the shenmue 3 petition!

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?shen1986

9 March 2008 13:54
Jonathan

I don’t want to just flat-out know how it ends. I want to play through another game. It’s been so long, though, that I’m starting to forget what it felt like to care about this story.