Shenmue Update (Email from Adam Doree)

(Chapter 7 and beyond)

Shenmue Update (Email from Adam Doree)

Postby Ziming » Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:54 am

I emailed Adam some time ago to give us an update on Shenmue Online, Yu Suzuki and anything else in regards to Shenmue. This includes personal afterthoughts from his Next-gen article.

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Hey,

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 fucked 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. I am not running any story on it.

(Next Gen Article)
Yeah Neil did do stuff for us in the earlier days of Kikizo, and though I don't specifically remember saying it to him, yeah I have said those words to plenty of people; I regret publishing that story to an extent because as stone-solid true and genuine as our source was - someone who was and still is on the production side at AM2 - quite well known but not publicly enough (in the west) for anyone on your forum to have ever guessed correctly - things changed rapidly during and afterwards of publishing the story, and most short-sighted people following the story blame us for inaccurate reporting. Our reporting was fair and the facts were true; Sega's consistency, communication to RHQs, and perhaps decisions, were not. SoA's flat out denial was hilarious to me. It's a big company and the fact that then-PR people in America had no idea of the status of something we had been following more intimately than they had, for ages, I have to say, came as no surprise.

Reporting on something that is such a distant (2-3 year) possibility from provable fruition, in the light that it MIGHT get an announcement more imminently than that, when we cannot name a source and offer no evidence, and offer just our word for it, was a bad idea. It harmed my/our reputation, Kikizo's name and the rest of it. We're only publishing exclusive news ever since then when a) it can be revealed as obviously true soon afterwards (many times this has happened for us - including Sega scoops); or b, we can quote and name our source, and then if it's bullshit it's their fault for lying, not ours (Case in point, Ogawa denying Nights about a week before it was announced - Rest. Case.). It was a valuable lesson. I know plenty of things that falls into neither a) nor b) to be true right now about all kinds of game stories that would be big, and would simply not publish them for this reason. Companies change minds, companies lie, companies will say media is lying to make them look better, and so on.

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. "

Sorry about this.
Adam

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Here is another follow up email from him after I asked if it was really ok to post his comments in entirety.
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"If it's the whole quote, I don't see what further harm it can do, I mean it should go without saying I still stand by the article, but right now it certainly does not look like any of it is headed the way I certainly hoped it would, and could have gone, at the stage it was published (and I believe the facts reported were made clearly distinct from my own 'hopes' at the time). AM2 was not lying to us and we were not lying to the fans. Anyone who knows anything about Sega knows there have been a lot of changes with the company and this latest news, which I just learned on Monday, is all I have to go by at this time... I never set out to say what people want to hear, but to report what we can verify as fact, and this includes the bad news to you guys, in this case. I am still of the view, never say never; there are a million examples of dead IP resurrected. As it stands today though, Shenmue appears to be a dead, or shelved, IP as far as Sega Sammy is concerned. And this development only came to be obvious within SOJ in the last month or so from what I understand.

It's a good job I never ran a story claiming that Propeller Arena would definitely hit shelves when it was 100% complete. Imagine.

We guaranteed the date Sonic next-gen would be revealed, where, and how. We guaranteed VF5 would come to 360. We have the best track record of Sega interviews of anyone in the world. And when we can't report something I try my best to sneak in hints into stories, just for Sega fans.

As for the Shenmue fans' view of Kikizo, all I can say is we have done our best to keep them updated the whole way along - on the site and behind the scenes - Suzuki has not spoken to any western media apart from Kikizo in like 5 years - people would not believe how difficult that is to pull off with the way Sega is nowadays - so please respect what we have tried to do, but at the end of the day, I do not run Sega.

Frankly Sega has been akin to religion for me since I was 8 and also changed my life, and I simply would not play with people's feelings on this stuff.

There's one last thing which I have known for a while but still can't spell out; but, in the right circumstances, it wouldn't surprise me if Sega sold off the rights for this IP and somebody went with those rights. Just look at Prope. One benefit of Sega Sammy is greater flexibility in how to pursue IP both old and new. In other words, we're back to square one because it is still as likely to see light of day as not, if you adjust your perspective. That is why the last time we spoke I alluded there is hope even if it might not be reached in the way people might assume was the only way. But for now, Shenmue fans should chill for a year or two and assume the worst while hoping for the best."
Last edited by Ziming on Tue May 04, 2010 6:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby Captain Lars Kegstealer » Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:06 pm

Damn, I bet you guys all feel like dicks.
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Postby Henry Spencer » Wed Aug 01, 2007 1:07 pm

We have been chilling for a year or two and still nothing has arrived...

I thought Shenmue Online would be canned anyway, seemed like something the new "SEGA" (which is now run by Sammy's head, might I mention) would definitely do. Shenmue isn't a profitable franchise to them, so they don't need it anymore, fair enough.

I can only hope they do sell Shenmue onto another developer instead now.

And yeah, Suzuki just got fucked up the ass. Again. Expect him to walk.
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Postby Martin » Wed Aug 01, 2007 1:27 pm

Yep, Shenmue is dead. I've been saying it for ages. Can we rename the site 'ShenmueGrave.com' ..?
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Postby ToL » Wed Aug 01, 2007 1:30 pm

Henry Spencer wrote:We have been chilling for a year or two and still nothing has arrived...

I thought Shenmue Online would be canned anyway, seemed like something the new "SEGA" (which is now run by Sammy's head, might I mention) would definitely do. Shenmue isn't a profitable franchise to them, so they don't need it anymore, fair enough.

I can only hope they do sell Shenmue onto another developer instead now.

And yeah, Suzuki just got fucked up the ass. Again. Expect him to walk.


^ Took the words right out of my mouth HS.

We've been chilling far too long now. This really isn't fair.

It was inevitable S.O would be cancelled, it was just a matter of 'when'.

If Sega aren't gonna do jackshit with the franchise, for God's sake just sell it on to another developer. I was at one point completely against anyone else but AM2 developing S3, but I just don't care anymore as long as we GET IT.

I hope Suzuki does walk. He should walk. I can't even believe he's still with Sega. Sammy have truly fucked us over royally, bunch of fucking retards. I say we just go burn down their fucking HQ. It will make us all feel better, I'm sure.

Now I'm gonna go cry out loud in a corner somewhere.

Adios.
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Postby Kiyuu » Wed Aug 01, 2007 1:49 pm

I see... :|

Thank you for the update, Hellraiser!
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Postby ys » Wed Aug 01, 2007 2:00 pm

Bad Cab wrote:Damn, I bet you guys all feel like dicks.

Damn, I bet you feel all cool now after saying that.


I posted this at Kikizo earlier :

Bad news of course but not unexpected at all. I mean, it's quite obvious from the way Sega talk (or rather not talk )about Shenmue of course. And the way they seem to treat Suzuki tells a lot too.

I'm a bit disappointed that Shenmue Online is in this situation too though. I just wanted to see how it turned out actually. And what about the big amount of money that they spended on the game? And all the so called extra man power they hired to complete it. Plus the fact that they reassured us that it was well on its way. It didn't show up at a Chinese game show recently which told a lot of course.

And it all became obvious within the last month or so? Isn't this around the same time Sammy took over totally?

And yeah, Suzuki should leave Sega really. Someone with his status shouldn't be at a place like that wasting his time. He could join some other great team and try to work on the game there.
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Postby Hazuki Legend » Wed Aug 01, 2007 2:03 pm

Well at least now i minds can be put to rest. I think we all know that Adam Doree knows he made a mistake by posting up that article so lets stop moaning at him and get on with our lives.

I hope this doesn't affect the Shenmue fanbase although i fear it, especially since Shenmue Online seems to have been cancelled aswell. I am pissed at Sega for not sticking with Shenmue Online but to be honest it seemed like a bad idea from the start.

At least now we can stop speculating about Shenmue III at this years Tokyo Game Show or whatever major event comes up. At least we got some info on the status of Shenmue which to be honest is all i ever wanted even if it was bad news.
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Postby Rukawa » Wed Aug 01, 2007 2:21 pm

It was about time, it was obvious this game will be canceled, the shenmue franchise is already dead, and this game never raise up any expectation.
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Postby St. Elmo's Fire » Wed Aug 01, 2007 2:38 pm

Ah, now's the time for you lot to jump off a roof. ;) Always knew his original article was wrong after some stuff came out last time as well.
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Postby Miles Prower » Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:15 pm

Goddamnit. -_-
Is this really it, then?
At least Adam was gracious enough to admit he made a mistake, I guess.
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Postby HappyKillmore » Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:21 pm

What a tragedy, now i really am starting to think shenmue is dead. Lets just all remember it as it was
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Postby Ro Shen » Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:40 pm

I guess this is FINALLY it, no more news about shenmue related to anything in a LONGGG time. FUCK sega up the ass and FUCK yu suzuki up the mouth, useless FUCKERS !!!!!!!
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Postby St. Elmo's Fire » Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:48 pm

Yeah Gamespy are gonna close this site down now 'cos of this! :shock:
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Postby KiD » Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:05 pm

we never get any breaks as shenmue fans do we...
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