Why do Shenmue III rumors only come from obscure sources?

[Kaven]

The fact that nobody like IGN or Game Informer picks up any of these rumors and they all originate from obscure places like Kikizo, the Swedish mag called GameReactor, and that one Spanish website suggests that they are all liars or idiots who take dubious sources at face value just to lure in Shenmue fans to visit their websites.

Is this good for the Shenmue community, does it keep forums active and show Sega that many people still have great interest in seeing the saga completed?

Or is this bad? Are we being taken advantage of by unsavory characters who continually shit all over our dream and make us look stupid?

[FRASIER]

brought up a good point, is Kikizo an obscure site? and NO its not healthy to give such hope to too few.

[WantaShenmue3]

Well said Just passing through everyone's pants, well said.

[geno]

Really, I think the so-called "major" sources are too scared of hurting their own credibility. Not that their credibility isn't hurt through other means, but they're smart enough to know that any rumor involving Shenmue is a flat out lie.

[WantaShenmue3]

Wow we joined on the same day Geno, that's like sooo amazing.
Isnt it weird that there havn't been many rumors in the past year,
even rumors are becoming extinct for this game.
The rumors don't even seem like rumors anymore and dont even seem believable at all.
Atleast previous ones looked posssible but now all we get is Shenmue coming to the Wii, what a load of crap.

[MiTT3NZ]

None are rumours, they are speculation. The Kikizo article seemed to be legit, but progress was halted due to the sales of Shenmue I & II not meeting SEGA's expectations. Not to mention the introduction of Satomi when Sammy came in and shat all over the company. That just made matters worse, as their goal is now soley profit.

I reckon that as much as we feel SEGA turned their backs on us, they must feel we did the same, due to our lack of support regarding the Dreamcast, Shenmue, and even the Saturn. I mean, c'mon, how many of us bought brand new Dreamcast games all the time? I did once, and that was when I first got the console, as it was bundled with Sonic Adventure, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, and UEFA Striker (oh, and I later bought Sonic Adventure 2 straight from the shelves).

The only reason the Dreamcast 'survived' amongst gamers was because there were so many second hand models at cheap prices, and even more pre-owned games. How much profit would SEGA gain from those sales? Exactly. Fuck all.

I know this has completely gone off topic, but this is the very reason, in my opinion, why not only the Dreamcast failed, but Shenmue did (although, the whole Xbox affair had a lot to do with it too). Hell, my copy of Shenmue's third hand.

I could also mention the Shenmue Online fiasco, but we all know about that. It was just a poorly-received online RPG that tried using the Shenmue franchise to sell itself. But only for China/Korea. See anything right about that? Me neither...

Anyway, I hope this helps people to better understand SEGA's reasoning behind shelving Shenmue. I think it's common sense nowadays to see SEGA as a business that doesn't want to make the same mistakes again, because business-wise, Shenmue was a huge mistake. We can sit here in front of our screens bitching about how great the games were all day (which is what a lot of us do regardless), but the fact remains that Shenmue was a failure.

I do truly believe that Shenmue will be re-booted within the next decade, as the fanbase grows a little more every year, and never loses one person. When the time is right, SEGA will announce it, and it will be released. Sadly though, we're gonna have to wait around two or three generations.

However, in the meantime FUCK SATOMI!!!!!!!

[Kaven]

I blame Sega for all those failures.
The Saturn failed because it was designed as the ultimate 2D console and were forced to run 3D aps because of Sony. It was also difficult to program for.
The Dreamcast failed for many reasons IMO, the PS2 was tough to beat. And maybe if half the games wern't either canceled (Half Life, Prop Arena) or Japan only (Rent a Hero) they would have sold better in America!

Shenmue would have done better if Sega was better prepared:
First, the title and box art arn't well suited to the US market.

Second, I think if they could have had the game ready for launch it would have sold way better. I remember being in a game store and watching people marvel at the graphics of some DC football game. If they had Shenmue up on the monitor instead, people would have been floored! This was way before GTA 3 mind you.

Third, the game could have been faster paced and Ryo could have been less uptight and wooden. Repeating everything said and asking for sailors a million times isn't appealing to everyone.

Fourth, $70 million?!?! GTA IV only took $45 million (that includes the $2 million spend for song licsensing!) Where did all that money go? I know a lot of Sega execs (including Yu Suzuki) drive Ferraris (which is why they made F355 Challenge) but damn...

Sega's hemoraging cash, they arn't going to invest more money in a project that filed to deliever. I think our best bet is petitioning for a CGI movie to wrap the project up, or a short novel.

[WantaShenmue3]

I don't want anything but a game, even if i have to wait long but i want Shenmue 3 now.
I also want to win atleast a billion dollars.

[killthesagabeforeitkillsu]

i am a dreamcast addict... i got almost every single game for it except one - seaman

[Clint]

It's not our fault. In terms of Dreamcast game sales, Shenmue did very well. You have to blame SEGA for spending 70 million on a game, where every Dreamcast owner in the world would need to buy the game twice to break even. Think about it, we're fucking lucky Shenmue ever saw the light of day.

Sometimes it's nice to think about how the story could end. When I play Shenmue, I think about where the series was heading, and what would happen to Ryo, Lan Di etc.

Look on the bright side, atleast we've been blessed with 2 of the greatest games ever created. Anything from here on is a bonus.

[killthesagabeforeitkillsu]

My question is: why?

Why is SEGA spending money on more useless "sonics" if they got a fanbase that is dieing to get shenmue III?!
Its nonsense... even casual gamers will get exited with the game if they advertise it in the right way

[FRASIER]

The fact that nobody like IGN or Game Informer picks up any of these rumors and they all originate from obscure places like Kikizo, the Swedish mag called GameReactor, and that one Spanish website suggests that they are all liars or idiots who take dubious sources at face value just to lure in Shenmue fans to visit their websites.

Is this good for the Shenmue community, does it keep forums active and show Sega that many people still have great interest in seeing the saga completed?

Or is this bad? Are we being taken advantage of by unsavory characters who continually shit all over our dream and make us look stupid?

what you are saying about the big names not picking up on Shenny 3 really does me skull in!

[TheEdge]

your all dam pesimists! <--- Did i spell this right? cause either way im not going to check. In your face!

[HappyKillmore]

Where did all that money go?

-Investing in the technology to make the game, i.e the engine it runs on. Producing such an advanced engine for the time would not have been cheap

-Constant remodeling and design changes, Suzuki wanted his game to be how he visioned it, down to every last detail, if the slightest thing seemed out of place, it was scrapped. This sort of change is evident from the beta videos

-Having a large orchestra to make the game's music

-The vast amount of staff involved, both designers and voice actors

-Perhaps the wasted Shenmue Saturn project, the game looks as though it was in further stages of development on the saturn, and the entire game was wasted

[MadeManG74]

Fourth, $70 million?!?! GTA IV only took $45 million (that includes the $2 million spend for song licsensing!) Where did all that money go? I know a lot of Sega execs (including Yu Suzuki) drive Ferraris (which is why they made F355 Challenge) but damn...

I don't know where you heard GTAIV cost only $45 Million, but last I heard it was possibly close to $100 Million.

And as for where all the money went, the Technology for Shenmue was mind-blowing at the time. It was probably hte best looking and most detailed game ever at the time. Not to mention the research that went into it, there was a LOT of work put into Shenmue, IMO I think that for its time, Shenmue is far more impressive than GTAIV.

I've mentioned it before, but Shenmue was so expensive that it was pretty much never expected to turn a profit, but it gave SEGA new technologies and was intended to sell Dreamcasts and (I'm assuming) enhance Sega's image because of how impressive it was. They were hoping to get their moneys worth from the game through those sorts of things rather than just sales figures.