Made some gifs of my favourite moments (also included them in my Shenmue history articles):

Just seen this for the first time:

I think the reason Baihu looks so out of place is that he was supposed to be in a different location initially, but when that segment of the game was cut (the original Chapter 4? There are 4 fighters on that concept art picture, but one does look like Lan Di...) they decided to keep him because they liked the design and look of the character. Realising it wouldn't make sense for him to be a street fighter (hence the discarded photo data that was found on Shenmue IIX) he was put in the basement instead. Weber's theory about him being the initial test if Ren didn't beat up the scout makes sense as well.

Tweeted Fries a few days ago, got back to me, wonder what they were discussing publishing for, PC or eventual release of Xbox?: https://twitter.com/Ed_Fries/status/664702220605132800

https://twitter.com/Ed_Fries/status/664882373402587136

http://i.imgur.com/V8JihwI.png

https://twitter.com/Ed_Fries/status/664882523067953152

http://i.imgur.com/5iH9NJq.png

Looking at the Dorimaga interview at the time of the Japanese release of Shenmue II for Dreamcast, I'm guessing Suzuki planned for a PC port for a while, if not an Xbox port, and the PC-like architecture of the Xbox made it an obvious choice of console to port to (though it still took them 8 months, and Shin Ishikawa said they had a little trouble with transparencies):

Q: Hypothetically speaking, if there was the possibility again in the future, what would be your choice of hardware? Ah, before asking that - is there any potential for a port?

Suzuki: Porting Shenmue I and II across to other hardware wouldn’t be impossible, but due to the sheer size it would materially be a tough job to take on. The easiest and most likely option would be the PC, in a year or two. That’s because the PC has, in a sense, the ability to handle anything and has few constraints.

http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48967

I think this puts the Peter Moore thing in a new light; maybe Suzuki knew the Dreamcast was going to fail even before the release of the first game, and was considering other publishers/consoles early on, including Microsoft. Then someone at Microsoft probably asked for it to be an exclusive so people would buy their console, but seeing as the Japanese release was so close they settled on North American exclusivity.

Mandarin dub for 500% Authentic Experience

Now available on Amazon.fr, with shipping it's about £22 to the UK (not available on Amazon.co.uk currently).

http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B014UDN7ES/ref= ... P2000_1000

This photo is from TGS Spring 2001, so along with the news from Fries I think we can say that Suzuki was already considering moving Shenmue over to Microsoft before Moore made the final deal:

http://images.eurogamer.net/2012/articles/1/5/3/5/8/7/0/135541208424.png/EG11/resize/600x-1/quality/80/format/jpg

One of the most interesting events to watch during March 2000 was the under-the-table offer by Microsoft to buy out Sega of America. The reason was pretty obvious. Microsoft wanted Sega's expertise and technical ability to buck up its own XBox project. Speculators were even surmising that such a move would, in effect, turn XBox into "Dreamcast 2," since Sega probably didn't have enough money left to release a successor console. According to several independent reports reports, promising initial talks between Sega and Microsoft quickly broke down over two key issues: Dreamcast back-compatability and the Windows operating system. Sega wanted XBox to be back-compatible with Dreamcast if it was to have any say in XBox hardware development. This Microsoft refused to permit, and Sega reportedly balked at the high cost of making new Dreamcast titles compatible with the evolving XBox standard. Also, Sega did not want to have to be constrained to Microsoft's requirement that all videogame console development be done under the bloatware environment of Windows. Even WindowsCE was rather hefty for its claimed compactness, and that was the prime reason why Sega preferred to stick to its own proprietary APIs insofar as Dreamcast development was concerned. The whole affair began and ended in a matter of days, but it market an interesting juncture in the unusual relationship between the world's best known arcade videogame manufacturer and the world's largest software company. The move reportedly brought a temporary halt to Microsoft's XBox plans, but at the same time it left Sega free and clear on the 128-bit market for a little while longer. Sega was quite willing to work with Microsoft and would do so again, but in this case the asking price was just too high. In retrospect, the failure of the deal may have had something to do with the pulling of the planned ports of several popular PC entertainment titles by Microsoft on the Dreamcast, but Sega didn't mind the loss. It now had more than enough Dreamcast titles released or in the development pipeline to make up for their absence, anyway.

On 10 March 2000, Microsoft's Bill Gates officially unveiled the XBox. "Building on our strengths as a software company," Gates said during the official press briefing, "Microsoft has developed XBox which will offer game developers a powerful platform and game enthusiasts an incredible experience. We want XBox to be the platform of choice for the best and most creative game developers in the world." XBox was a DirectX/PC based videogame console running on an Intel Pentium III 733 MHz CPU, based on an nVidia G-Force derived graphics chipset. It had three times the horsepower of Sony's PlayStation 2; in fact, it was far and away the most powerful entry into the 128/256-bit nexgen wave, outclassing all other consoles in every category. XBox was slated to hit the videogame market in the fall of 2001 and had the support of practically every major Western third-party software vendor and a fair number of prominent Japanese ones. Microsoft announced a US$250 million ad campaign designed to promte its impending X-Box videogame console - a figure that made every other console vendor blanch in shock. SegaWeb's Craig Hansen was quick to quip, " Bill Gates is cursing both heaven and hell that he has no one like Yu Suzuki in XBox's corner ," due to the fact that it did not appear that all that many quality software titles would be available for the new console's launch; however, a few days later, however, MCV reported that merger talks between Sega and Microsoft have not broken off as previously reported, but were quietly continuing "along different lines." As the weeks and months rolled on and XBox news continued to build steam, rumors begin to surface that Sega and Microsoft were close to a mutual agreement regarding their respective consoles. Sega was rumored to have begun software development for XBox, and in exchange Microsoft was going to include some form of Dreamcast back-compatability with its new überconsole.

Two months later, on 25 May 2000, Sega's Isao Okawa set the record straight. Microsoft was not playing a major role in Sega's Dreamcast plans, including online gameplay, and never would. In response to questions, he also confirmed that Sega was asked to help Microsoft develop XBox. The deal fell through due to "mutual disagreements." Concerning the future of Sega and Microsoft's relationship regarding the Dreamcast, Okawa stated that "... Sega will not enlist the help of Microsoft. We're done with them." Many industry insiders promptly comment that Microsoft more or less used Sega and the Dreamcast as a proving ground for certain early XBox ideas and that Sega did not like this fact once the intrigue was discovered; however, Sega seemed to have realized the potential profits of software development for Microsoft's new console and decided to swallow its pride. In the light of what was to come for Dreamcast, it seems to have been a prudent move.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DbFxAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA335&lpg=PA335&dq=bill+gates+yu+suzuki&source=bl&ots=fkuZMjsmuL&sig=EE2aQVB0U-v-ldy0UHzHxoKUWQM&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=bill%20gates%20yu%20suzuki&f=false

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=19310624

I've added in English captions onto the video .

For the Chinese parts I've used the translation provided by Hyo Razuki.

Thanks for the translation. Hah, I just noticed Ine-san in the door-frame at the end! :P Wonder if that was a model made by Kid Nocon during his Shenmue HD remake time? Will be nostalgic calling the Hazuki Residence and being able to talk to her and Fuku-san.

Really hoping he scores some Chinese investment in this game, the more money the better! Thanks to everyone for their translations. Can't wait to go climbing mountains in Bailu and exploring the riverside city of Choubu.

Is Shenmue 3 confirmed for PSE? I know Gio and Boyes hung out with Yu & co. a few weeks ago, but I didn't think they were planning anything for PSE.

Not confirmed, just speculating. It's not on the list of games but Shenmue fans can still dream (2015 after all is the Year All The Dreams Came True ;) ).
I think we're more likely to see Shenmue HD really, though PSE has panels, correct? Yu could be doing a Shenmue 3 panel/presentation. Probably just an English version of the one this thread is about.

Hopefully he'll run the presentation on a faster PC before the Western clickbait press starts taking clips out of context with headlines of "SHENMUE III CAN'T MAINTAIN STEADY FRAMERATE KICKSTARTER WAS A MASSIVE SCAM LOSE WEIGHT WITH THIS ONE WEIRD TRICK"

gakucho wrote: Yu Suzuki Reveals Shenmue 3 Prototype(Completed version ) created by Chinese shenmue fans club
https://twitter.com/mantisjojo/status/666925117096660992

Video embed for the lazy:

Screengrabs of gifts for Yu Suzuki along with fan art (not sure how much of art was given as gifts or is simply fan art from Chinese Shenmue community):

http://i.imgur.com/2ugTHuo.png

http://i.imgur.com/tdI0Qmz.png

http://i.imgur.com/ocvbP8M.png

http://i.imgur.com/aFQRlUv.png

http://i.imgur.com/WaekWEv.png

http://i.imgur.com/GxM2Tbm.png

http://i.imgur.com/FI04Tfi.png

More here: http://imgur.com/a/LPDAA

Interesting how Suzuki says that Shenmue 3 will roughly cover chapters 5 and 6 of the saga. I thought Shenmue II covered chapters 3, 4 and 5?

I always thought it was like this:

Shenmue 1 = Chapter 1 (Yokosuka)
Shenmue 2 = Chapter 2, 3, and 4. (Wan Chai, Kowloon, and Guilin)

Now Suzuki says Shenmue 3 will cover 5 and 6.


I'm guessing the boat chapter is completely excluded from this count, as well as the discarded Li River chapter, so this new timeline takes into account only what we have seen so far.

Big thanks to Switch and sshen1127 for their invaluable translation work.

Yu tweeted a few more photos from his China trip:

Old well:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CUPUkDUUAAAOpWt.jpg

Old chairs:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CUPVES8UcAABr3y.jpg

Corn (hopefully not old):

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CUPU_q8UkAAVr6L.jpg

Hopefully this gives some idea of the level of detail we'll see in Shenmue III.

Book arrived this morning, wasn't expecting it to arrive until Wednesday. Looks to be in good condition, think Hyo Razuki got unlucky with the binding on his copy, will write a review once I've finished reading it.

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/t31.0-8/12238082_10100613430432662_869591870587577375_o.jpg

Yu has always been an innovator, he's not going to ride franchises for an easy retirement unless he's doing something new with them. Remember the first Virtua Fighter was one of the pioneers in 3D polygon graphics, and by the time of 3 well...its, how do I put it....trite? For an innovator?

Yup:

The difference between Miyamoto-san and I is that he takes the same game and takes it deeper and deeper, like with the Mario series, while I like to work on different games and concepts. I don't like doing the same thing.

Pretty certain he's not referring to Shenmue I & II HD it comes to Magic Monaco, it's in the context of updates such as screenshots, trailers, etc., so I'm guessing this means we'll see some new Shenmue III footage at Magic Monaco, which will be awesome. Regarding the PayPal, seems he's adhering to the maxim of "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" :P

Weird how there's all this Chinese promo and they still haven't confirmed Chinese subtitles for the game. I'm hoping some Chinese investor is gonna throw money at the game on the condition that they add a Mandarin dub to help with sales of the game in the region, I'd quite like to play it with Mandarin dub/English subs as well since it's set in Guilin.

Is this Bailu? Can't wait to explore...

First time ever I visited the Moon Child Orphanage in Shenmue II. I beat this game possibly more than 7 times in my life but I always missed this story path

I came across it on my latest playthrough a few weeks ago, and I thought "I don't think I've been before, but is that possible?" I'd played Shenmue II at least four times before but somehow had never come across the orphanage before, it's so surreal when you do first see it.

Long Zha meet-up tonight in London was a lot of fun. Big surprise was Skype Q&A with Corey Marshall (I ended the Q&A by asking him if he knew any bars where sailors like to hang out, childhood dream fulfilled), lots of photos and videos here, big thanks to Robert Lewis for organising it and the great prizes: https://www.facebook.com/events/865242423551538/902967109779069/

Thanks for this, just to add that after the 5 minute mark he says the goal is to have a teaser trailer ready for Monaco in February, but at the very least there will be some new images and info.

Meh, I'd be fine with even once every 3 months, that's still more often than you'd hear from a lot of games.

Interesting that here at E3 2001 Suzuki says that Shenmue II went up to Chapter 6, just like Ishikawa said at TheNextLevel interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv5u3KUzNP8

I would think this was in the context of the total being 16 as opposed to 11 but then in the Twitter Q&A he talked about there being more than 11 because of branching. Maybe 16 was the total when chapters like the boat journey were considering being added and they thought the series would be a greater success?

I don't think I've ever done the not "orphanage" path.

Where do you get info on the bird shop without it ?

I can't remember, I think you ask someone about birds instead of bells and you go looking straight for bird shops instead.

Asked Corey Marshall a question at the Long Zha that didn't end up being recorded, was about differences between working on Shenmue I and II, wanted to know if team sizes were different, different directors, etc. He said it was the exact same team working on the dubbing in the exact same location, so it doesn't sound to me like Microsoft was involved in the dubbing, might have been put in place by Sega before the US version got canned, I don't know.

Snakiest wrote: Then the tshirt reward doesn't include the ost,is that right?

In Yu we trust.

Correct, they're 2 separate rewards.

I tweeted Mizuguchi a month ago asking about Rez VR and he liked it, didn't realise that was a hint....

https://twitter.com/resnate/status/662256028428443649

Looked up how much the Broken Age Slacker Backer campaign managed to raise: http://www.doublefine.com/dfapay/

$170,175 from 8,413 backers, plus an additional $13,708 from tips and selling prints for a total of $183,883.

So far the Shenmue III PayPal has raised $120,355 from 1402 backers. So it seems there's less Shenmue fans, but they're willing to part with far more cash. Hopefully we'll surpass the Broken Age Slacker Backer with Kickstarter Backer upgrades.

Interesting also to compare Broken Age Kickstarter with the Fig crowdfunding campaign for Psychonauts 2. Seems the disappointment regarding the final game has soured many as there are currently only 12,339 backers for Psychonauts 2 compared to the 30,000+ that Broken Age managed to get within its first 2 days alone. But again, it seems the Psychonauts 2 backers are willing to part with far more cash than for the Broken Age Kickstarter.

1. Shenmue III
2. Rez Infinite
3. Mass Effect: Andromeda
4. The Last Guardian
5. No Man's Sky
6. Yakuza Kiwami (not played any of the games, hoping this gets an English release)
7. Star Citizen
8. Vane
9. The Modern Zombie Taxi Co.
10. 100ft Robot Golf

Games I'm hoping for:
New Space Channel 5 with Kinect and/or PlayStation Camera
New Crazy Taxi
New Virtua Tennis

Found this image of some Dreamcast controller concept art and the motion controller prototype, was wondering if there was any cool info on there? Thanks

Amazing work as always Switch, much appreciated. I'm sure I'd seen that vertical controller design referred to as a motion controller prototype before but maybe that was after the Wii was released and people just assumed as much.

Some scans via the Sega forums of Suzuki talking about the Tower of Babel tech demo back in the day:

http://web.archive.org/web/20150728031612im_/http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1272/66172420.jpg

Does anyone know anything about the boat demo mentioned in the image above?

http://web.archive.org/web/20150728031611im_/http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2554/41771333.jpg

http://web.archive.org/web/20150726030635im_/http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/8164/80223411.jpg

http://web.archive.org/web/20150726030635im_/http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9079/65354330.jpg

Pretty funny reading some of the quotes from the developer's interview in this 2000 Official Dreamcast Magazine: http://retrocdn.net/images/b/bb/ODCM_US_04.pdf

Yu Suzuki: "I can drink Mizuguchi under the table any day!"

Yuji Naka: "I can drink Suzuki under the table any day!"

Inspired by the recent Rez VR announcement and the positive reaction to my earlier Shenmue articles, I decided to write a profile of Tetsuya Mizuguchi. While I loved Rez and played a bit of Space Channel 5 I wasn't really that familiar with the rest of his work so I was only imagining a single article.

The sheer amount of fascinating stories I found in my research though led to what I imagine will be a six-part series. Here are the first three parts:

Part I: The Birth of an Interactive Artist
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/in-the-realm-of-the-senses-tetsuya-mizuguchi-s-synthesis-of-synaesthesia-video-gaming-part-i-a3c07e4c0ea4

This covers his early life, his work on Sega's AS-1 simulator rides and then the making of Sega Rally Championship 1995.


Part II: The Long and Winding Road
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/in-the-realm-of-the-senses-tetsuya-mizuguchi-s-synthesis-of-synaesthesia-video-gaming-part-ii-1a020a24b9cc

Carrying on with the racing theme, this looks at Manx TT Superbike, Sega Touring Car Championship, and Sega Rally 2.


Part III: "Hey there, space cats..."
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/in-the-realm-of-the-senses-fccdbf3a39ae

Space Channel 5 ;)

Big thanks to Switch for his translations of Yumiko Miyabe's tweets for Part III!

Really looking forward to Part IV, which will cover Mizuguchi's masterpiece Rez along with Space Channel 5: Part 2.

Thanks for the interview! Man, I want that High Ground Battle System so bad...

I was fortunate enough to get everything I wanted from the Kickstarter, but I think it's incredibly petty of people to deny that for people who couldn't. I feel ashamed that there were 4000 Shenmue fans who'd rather the PayPal raised less money just so they can act like spoilt playground children and thumb their noses at the less fortunate.

If you don't like the look of Shenmue III, you're free not to play it, but there was no other way this game was getting made.

I am not happy with how Shenmue 3 is being handled. I know there's no other way it'd be getting made, but judging from how gloomy things are currently looking, there's also no way we'll live long enough to see another one getting made.

Check out indie projects like Armikrog and Mighty No.9 and see what I mean.

I feel the same about those projects as well; for years there was so sign of a sequel to The Neverhood, so it was either Armikrog or nothing. Capcom didn't seem to have faith in the Megaman franchise, so Inafune went to Kickstarter to create Mighty No. 9. It was either these games or seemingly nothing.

I am starting to think that Sega's decision in wrapping up Shenmue after the second game might not be totally wrong after all.... I blame YS.net for all of this btw.

You honestly think Suzuki would have wanted to leave Sega and his coworkers at AM2 if Sega had let them make Shenmue III? Hell, Suzuki lasted longer than some of his peers; Tetsuya Mizuguchi left Sega in October 2003 not long after the merger with Sammy and set up his own company Q? Entertainment, working on N3: Ninety-Nine Nights and eventually working on the "spiritual successor" to Rez, Child of Eden (it couldn't even be called Eden as was originally planned as Sega owned that trademark for a Rez sequel).

If you don't like the look of Shenmue III, you're free not to play it, but there was no other way this game was getting made.

Awesome Japan sure are doing an awesome job at making PR disasters for Shenmue 3. Fucking hell , they sure know how to get the journalists typing away about this. It's easy pickings for them thanks to AJ, really.

Tbf, I can imagine the same clickbait rags going with "Shenmue III Kickstarter "Exclusives" No Longer Exclusive" in the other scenario.