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Shenmue Online - it's happening!, Any Shenmue fans here?

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Naoki Maeda

Posted: Aug 5 2004, 13:25

日本式

Group: Members
Posts: 799
Member No.: 12
Joined: 8-May 03

From www.upwire.com

QUOTE

Sega have announced a third Shenmue game, though it's not Shenmue 3, it's only on PC and only in China. Cheers.

If there's one thing that Sega fanboys like to whinge about (apart from the untimely demise of the Dreamcast, and the downfall of Sonic, and the... ah, the hell with it) it's the continuing mystery behind the Shenmue series. The first episode was a revolutionary action adventure on Dreamcast that placed you firmly in the centre of a complete world that went about its daily business whether you decided to or not. The second episode furthered the storyline (a classic dead father one at that) and is thought to be one of Sega's finest moments to date. The original idea was to produce seven different games to complete the series, therefore, you'd think Shenmue 3 would be a positive shoe-in, wouldn't you? However, Sega have ignored the pleas of their biggest fans and are to instead create a brand new MMPORPG set in the Shenmue universe. Oh, and it's only coming out in China.

"Sega Corporation and JC Entertainment Corporation today announced a business alliance to co-develop and co-publish Shenmue Online, a massively multi-player online game (MMOG) for PC platform," reads the Sega press release. But wait, there's more. "Also Sega has the basic agreement with T2 Technology Holdings Inc. to allow T2 Technology to license China online game operation of Shenmue Online." Which, in English, means that Shenmue Online won't be available outside of the Chinese market, at least for now anyways.

If reports are to be believed, the game has been in development since last February and according to a Korean newspaper, Sega have already splashed out the equivalent of 21 million Euros - with a budget like that and a lengthy development period already under their belt, it's amazing Shenmue Online has managed to stay under the radar for so long. The press release went on to suggest a 2005 release on PC, but early testing will take place in November this year, again, only in China. A Western release is definitely a possibility, but given the poor sales of Shenmue 2 in Europe, Sega will be treading very carefully this time round.

Understandably, Shenmue fans are not happy bunnies. You can see why fanatics of the series would be upset - the Shenmue storyline doesn't really lend itself to the MMPORPG format - but the success of an online Shenmue game could well be the financial stepping-stone Sega needs to get working on a third episode, particularly due to the genre's popularity in the Far East.

Hmmm producing this game online for the Chinese market? I can understand why seeing as the storyline of *the most expensive game ever made* (don't know if it still is now?) is like a Hong Kong/Japanese movie flick and it involves the main Japanese character going to China to get revenge. An old fashioned yet powerful plot if you ask me. I hope that if things do go well, we could see a Western release because as you can tell, I a huge Shenmue fan. I want Shenmue 3 dammit. The story needs to go on and not be left in the dust.

Anyways having a MMPORPG of this type of game does actually seem to fit very well because of the style of the game and the whole revolutionary interactivity system in it. If any of you have played the 2 Shenmue games back on the Dreamcast or Shenmue 2 on the Xbox, then you can see why. And it would be nice to go around using your martial arts skills and kicking random peoples butt.

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