Shenmue III

[Barry the Nomad]

Can't ban semmie, but a message to semmie: You have got to start typing coherently and stop with the bizarre large images and strange posts.

[semmie]

Can someone please ban semmie, he's obviously dropped a hot dose of LSD.

lol speaking in an enigmatic way doesnt make me crazy.
it makes me different then the usual sega peeps.

[semmie]

Can't ban semmie, but a message to semmie: You have got to start typing coherently and stop with the bizarre large images and strange posts.

coherently i cant promise
the large image could v been smaller. ah well next time better.

btw there is homebrew for shenmue 3 i remember. it was kinda crappy but you could continue the story from part 0 well basically it was shenmue 0 ill give the link when i find it

her it is
http://www.segaroleplaying.com/fga/shenzero.php

it aint unreal engine. but its funny to try

[Centrale]

I was going t say it would be interesting to see a Kickstarter made for Shenners 3. Even so, it wouldn't meet the requirements for anything but a really tiny game, how much did Double Fine's game end up earning? It was something like 4 mil I think, but that's not much at all for Shenmue. It would still be enough to do SOMETHING though, which is better than we've got right now.

And fuck yeah, if it had an awesome backer's exclusive collectible and something like my name in the credits, I would even cough up $1k to fund the game. I'm not even joking, Shenmue is legendary amongst games now, I would certainly put up some serious dosh to be a part of it and see it come to fruition.

The thing about the $70mil budget gets brought up a lot with Shenmue, maybe deservedly so because it was the most expensive game for a while.  But I don't think that would necessarily be the case moving forward.  Yu Suzuki stated last year that a lot of the expense was due to the fact that they were an arcade team trying to figure out how to transition to making this unprecedented type of adventure game.  Surely his experience at this point would enable him to produce the project without the kind of experimentation that they must have spent a considerable amount of time on when initiating the project.  And also, I think I've mentioned this before half in jest, but I seriously think that some amount of that big budget back in the day must have gone towards Suzuki's personal Ferrari collection.  I don't mean anytning unethical, I just mean that he doesn't need to draw that kind of salary anymore.  Moving forward Shenmue will have to be made on a budget that's a fraction of the original.  Of course, the original made back a significant amount of that $70mil considering it sold over a million copes. 

[MadeManG74]

I agree that it could be made on a fraction of the cost, but even so Kickstarter isn't going to raise enough for a decent retail quality release game.

[Kori-Maru]

With rereleases coming out, wouldn't they release the first 2 games in HD to get some money in for a III game or something? I would assume that a lot of fans would buy them if they "really" support the franchise.

[Centrale]

MadeMan: agreed.

KoriMaru:  Well, I think they would want to have III underway already, so that it would release within a year or so after they do the digital re-release.  If they could time it like that, it would build up some hype that could drive sales of III beyond just the following it already has.  But to time it like that, III would already have to have a budget in place and be in development.  Otherwise the digital rereleases would come out and then we'd be waiting three or four more years.  Also, I don't necessarily think Sega is going to be handing over the profits from the digital rereleases to Yu Suzuki's development team.

[semmie]

MadeMan: agreed.

KoriMaru:  Well, I think they would want to have III underway already, so that it would release within a year or so after they do the digital re-release.  If they could time it like that, it would build up some hype that could drive sales of III beyond just the following it already has.  But to time it like that, III would already have to have a budget in place and be in development.  Otherwise the digital rereleases would come out and then we'd be waiting three or four more years.  Also, I don't necessarily think Sega is going to be handing over the profits from the digital rereleases to Yu Suzuki's development team.

my current opinion is based on several games made in the past that never saw light anymore. if it takes too long people will forget it. and those that dont are us. if u ask me leaving shenmue in the case is just wrong sega needs to bring it out. it will make them profit. im absolutely convinced about that. especially if they bring out shen1 and 2 hd on bd.(not on psn) people want a blue ray in their shelves. and after if shen 3 would come that would be like

1. the sega fans that allready kneww shenmue will buy it. lets pick a crazy number of sails. 2 million copies
2. real gamers that know shenmue 1 and 2 played it on dc as a backup. they probably would buy it the rpg ffre die hards. lets pick another rough estimate of another 400.000 copies
3. people who never played shenmue but always were curious. thats shen 1 and 2 300.000 copies
250.000 on shen 3
4. pirated peeps who basically dont buy it but start to fall in love and buy the original copy 100.000 copies shen 1 2 and 3
5.people who never knew about shenmue what so ever but get dragged in the hype finding out trough shen hd. 50.000
6.tne the last but no least. gamers who just buy it out of nowhere tying something new 25.000 copies(these are the easy consumers

look this just came up my thumb and none of this is truth., however its not far from a lie or truth. in a logical sense with the proper tools this goal could be achieved. and maybe even if it would be a little less then the goal. still it would be a big accomplishment.

many of u might say eey wtf this guy talks nonsense. its fine by me. but if u wouls pay attention you would find some core of possible truth

[Centrale]

One thing that a successful Kickstarter campaign might do is to get private big money investors (Sega or otherwise) to feel confident enough to put in an additional level of funding.

[Kevin-N]

If Sega brings first 1 & 2 out on XBLA, PSN and Nintendo E shop. It doesn't cost lots of money because the game already exists. then with the money they can starty on a 3the one with the Dreamcast graphics engine to make it cheaper.

[crackdude]

If Sega brings first 1 & 2 out on XBLA, PSN and Nintendo E shop. It doesn't cost lots of money because the game already exists. then with the money they can starty on a 3the one with the Dreamcast graphics engine to make it cheaper.

If it only were that simple...


Though a rerelease of the first two is a matter of time at this point.. I mean, they have to be working on something right guys?

[semmie]

If Sega brings first 1 & 2 out on XBLA, PSN and Nintendo E shop. It doesn't cost lots of money because the game already exists. then with the money they can starty on a 3the one with the Dreamcast graphics engine to make it cheaper.

exactly!

[thearcticsea]

Making Shenmue 3 with Dreamcast era graphics would be a gigantic misstep.

Sure, we would accept it, but the general gamer would not. If Shenmue is going to have any kind of future it will be as a digital release of Shenmue and Shenmue 2.

After that anything can happen. In the current climate I would suspect that the games would sell reasonably well as digital releases. Shenmue 3 would probably be pretty irrelevant, unless the gameplay and presentation are both changed drastically to suit today's standards.

Yu Suzuki is virtually retired. Nagoshi is the only person I know of who could be in charge of Shenmue 3. Unless there's some new, as of yet unknown personality at Sega.

Anyway, we're all just talking out of our asses, as no one knows anything about the internal bullshit that happens in any company, much less a company on the other side of the planet, who speak some gobbly gook language and write sentences with little squiggles.

[Barry the Nomad]

It would simply be very unlike SEGA to take a step back when it comes to the graphics of Shenmue. No way would SEGA, or AM2, or Suzuki, allow a third game to be made with blocky Dreamcast graphics. At best, they'd adapt existing current gen graphics. Perhaps what we'd see is a Shenmue III with VF5 or Yakuza 5 graphics. Maybe they wouldn't be groundbreaking, but they'd surely be on par with current gen SEGA titles.

[Centrale]

I would certainly expect the character models to be updated to current standards.  But a related aspect that I've thought about is the issue of the textures.  Shenmue 1 and 2 have a very distinctive look because every texture is hand-drawn/painted.  With a reduced budget, Suzuki will have to seriously consider shifting over to photographic textures to save time and money.  Ultimately this will probably give the game more mass appeal, as the masses seem to prize realism above all other aesthetics.  But it will be a big change for the series.

Since it will likely be Yu Suzuki's company developing the game, and not Sega, I don't think there will be any involvement from Nagoshi.  But I think the game would probably benefit from Nagoshi's expertise that he's developed through... is it 10 now?... Yakuza titles.  But I don't know if Suzuki could swallow his pride to bring in Nagoshi as a consultant, much less a co-director.