UPDATE:
since the original content of this post was kind of confusing, due to inaccurate translation and questionable journalism, i'm editing it, as well as the title. originally this was about a french site claiming cedric biscay saying that getting the shenmue license from sega has been a huge problem for years, which according to an article from kotaku.com wasn't the case at all. cedric biscay wasn't saying that at all in the interview, it really only was what the author of the article was assuming/believing. here's the link to the kotaku article:
http://kotaku.com/getting-the-rights-to-shenmue-was-easier-than-you-d-thi-1712037863
"Getting The Rights To Shenmue Was Easier Than You'd Think"
The creator of the beloved open world games says all he had to do was ask. “They felt safe giving me the license to make the next one,” Yu Suzuki told me yesterday. Really, who else was Sega going to give it to?
Usually, when folks want to revive long-dormant video game franchises, they have to struggle through thorny legal and business dealings to figure out who allowed to do what. But to hear Yu Suzuki tell it, it was pretty easy to get the license to make Shenmue III from Sega. “They felt safe giving me the license to make the next one,” he told me yesterday.
original post below:
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like many of you, i'm returning to these boards after years and years of absence, so.. hey everyone! :)
we could pretty much assume that something like this had been the case for all of these years, but here we have it spelled out: in an interview with french site 20minutes.fr (which i discovered via german site gamefront.de) shenmue III co-producer cedric biscay states that sega actually was a big part of the problem for several years. the quotes below say that despite demands made by yu suzuki, sega refused to either sell the rights to shenmue or develop a sequel to the series for years, hindering the project from moving forward.
http://www.20minutes.fr/culture/1633203-20150617-e3-2015-coproducteur-francais-shenmue-3-raconte-dessous-revival
Reste à régler le problème Sega. Pendant des années, l'entreprise a refusé de produire une suite de Shenmue, qui s'était soldé par un fiasco financier sur Dreamcast. Mais l'entreprise japonaise ne voulait pas non plus céder les droits de licence, malgré les demandes de Suzuki. Biscay ne livre pas les détails mais indique que «Sega conserve les droits et a accepté le projet actuel ainsi que ses partenaires.»
http://www.gamefront.de
Sega hält weiterhin die Markenrechte an Shenmue und hat die Partner des Projektes akzeptiert, wie Shenmue III-Co-Producer Cedric Biscay gegenüber 20 Minutes bestätigt. Er sagt auch, dass sich Sega jahrlang quergestellt und geweigert hat, einen Nachfolger von Shenmue zu entwickeln. Ebenso wollte Sega die Marke nicht verkaufen.
of course, like all of you, i'm glad that they could finally come to an agreement, but damn. reading this makes me despise what sega has turned into even more. it's just sad. but oh well, WE'RE GETTING SHENMUE III, which still seems unreal to me. what a great time. :king: