Now that Sega is splashing the cash around...

[Nathan]

I disagree that little of Shenmue III exists. You can see in the Saturn preview that Guilin was playable in the Saturn build, with Shenhua being introduced. I think that there was a considerable amount of work done past the story and script. Maybe not half of the next game or anything, but I'm confident there was stuff in the works. Not to mention the fact that Shenmue III was announced in late 2001 on SEGA Europe's site. Even if it was a mistake, I don't think someone would make that mistake based off of a game that didn't exist past the story.

Also, through hacking the game's files and what we see on the Shenmue Premiere video, there are unused characters, like the old guy in the Muecas screenshots, and parts of Niao Sun's model.

Regarding Am2/Yu Suzuki's involvement, don't forget that in 2004, Digitalrex was formed with Suzuki at the helm, and they had the trademark of Shenmue under their name. This was a quote from Suzuki at the time:

I wouldn't feel complete if Shenmue ended with the second game. The voices of our fans are constantly being sent to us, as well. I'm currently scheming to start up some kind of action with the series.

http://shenmuedojo.net/new/games/s3preview.html

[ROJM]

You get a kudos from me. Also i recall that Sega relased plenty of promo shots of characters that was meant to appear in SHENMUE 3 but dissapeared. As i said before Yu has mentioned att he time that SHENMUE ONLINE was using assets from SHENMUE 1 2 as well as elements from 3 that wasn't going to be used. All indicatatiions that 3 exists in some form or anthoer. The rendering of locales and character models as well as other things were effectivly done when the original development was made between the Saturn and the DC. All that Sega needed to do is create a game and rerender it for whatever latest graphics the game would end up using.

[Team Andromeda]

I disagree that little of Shenmue III exists. You can see in the Saturn preview that Guilin was playable in the Saturn build, with Shenhua being introduced.

All that is was in Shenmue 2 and its just goes to show you what a huge task it was to take the Saturn game and get it up to where the Saturn production was for the DC version. 2 games and years in development - but that whats happens where you have re worked all the graphics and model it up to next   gen standards (for the DC era )

All that Sega needed to do is create a game and rerender it for whatever latest graphics the game would end up using.

That took years . Dremcast Shenmue was put back all the time and despite most of the ground work done in the Saturn game . Shenmue didn't see the light of day until late in 1999 and the sequel which takes no further than the Saturn game took another 2 years to see the light of day.

All that Sega needed to do is create a game and rerender it for whatever latest graphics the game would end up using.

Its far more than that . All the models are made with what ever machine limits are at the time , to go in to another generation needs them to be totally redone or they'll look like crap and you'll be totally found out .

 

[Nathan]

I know it is all from Shenmue II, but what is the possibility that Am2 stopped developing the series right at the point where Shenmue II ends? Considering we saw the end of the game being played on the Saturn.

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[Team Andromeda]

but what is the possibility that Am2 stopped developing the series right at the point where Shenmue II ends? Considering we saw the end of the game being played on the Saturn.

More work would have been done , but SEGA posted a massive loss the game not really selling great would have all meant that work would have been put on the back burner until work on the XBox version was done and SEGA could see if there was really demand for a reworked XBox Shenmue 3 . The simple fact is long before Shenmue made it out , you so lots of pics showing what would go on to become Shenmue 2 , we saw little of what would you could say would go to be Shenmue 3 hardly anything at all

Worst now is the longer it goes on its the more work with have to be done . None of the DC assets would be any use on the XBox 1 or PS 4 they wouldn't be good for the 360 or PS3, almost everything would need to be re-done and re-modeled to bring it up to High Def and next gen standards that alone would be a lot of work given Shenmue epic scale

[ROJM]

I know it is all from Shenmue II, but what is the possibility that Am2 stopped developing the series right at the point where Shenmue II ends? Considering we saw the end of the game being played on the Saturn.

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.playfrance.com%2Fnews-ps3-ps4-shenmue-3-le-teasing-au-bout-des-doigts.html&act=url

They didn't. The whole scenario was worked on. The storyline and characters design and direction were already worked on and complete. Creating the engine, Getting the location shots and rendering them would have been also done. All the needed to do is go back and create a game out of it. That's why when you see YAKUZA coming out with a annual release its because the engine being used has everything they need to build the game from. That's what was supposed to happen with SHENMUE. Any extra cost the game would have had is the title being made on a different platform. That's where the costs of the original SHENMUE went high when its development moved from Saturn to DC. The only costs the game would incur is obviously the platform it might use. But SHENMUE or at least 3 would have had development worked on as an actual game before it was finally canned.

[Team Andromeda]

The storyline and characters design and direction were already worked on and complete

That is not a game . Most games will have characters and the storyline  planned at the pre production stage more so for a RPG's

That's why when you see YAKUZA coming out with a annual release its because the engine being used has everything they need to build the game from.

Nope Its not the same at all. Yakuza can re use a lot of the assets because it just re-uses the same characters and most of the same locations all the same . Shenmue has you going from one country to the next where China is totally different from Japan for staters

That's where the costs of the original SHENMUE went high when its development moved from Saturn to DC.

The DC version alone cost $45 million to make , that's with out the sequel or Saturn costs which then bring the total cost up to $70 million. Shenmue costs were so high because the man power and the sheer scale of the game (very muck like GTA) . Shenmue game engine was up and running and very much complete before the Dreamcast came out in Japan , Shenmue engine is only part of the issue   

[ROJM]

That is not a game . Most games will have characters and the storyline  planned at the pre production stage more so for a RPG's

Never said it was a game TA. Read the post again.

Nope Its not the same at all. Yakuza can re use a lot of the assets because it just re-uses the same characters and most of the same locations all the same . Shenmue has you going from one country to the next where China is totally different from Japan for staters

And all the assets needed for that had been made. All they had to do was put it in place for the game. Again read the post AGAIN.

The DC version alone cost $45 million to make , that's with out the sequel or Saturn costs which then bring the total cost up to $70 million. Shenmue costs were so high because the man power and the sheer scale of the game (very muck like GTA) . Shenmue game engine was up and running and very much complete before the Dreamcast came out in Japan , Shenmue engine is only part of the issue   

Actually it was more up to 20 million not 45 million. The point is the engine was complete, the games itself would have taken at least a year and a half to complete considering the skill of Sega's development teams. So any working game from the engine for 3 could have easily been done which it was since Sega only really announces anything when they've started work on making an actual game. Now if were going to add the cost of SHENMUE's development as a whole it would have gone up to nearly 100 million because of the added cost of SHENMUE ONLINE which of course became embroiled in its own troubles. Like someone said and what i first stated on my initial post SHENMUE isn't a flop as much as a game that's been thru unfortunate circumstances and never given the oppurtunity to really get to market itself. A game released on a failing systemSaturn and mainly DC. A game released on the wrong system(Xbox was a failure for all Sega games). internal politics and cultural clashes that hampered SHENMUE ONLINE. You take this things out of the way and do it properly then we can se whether this game is truly a failure or not.

[Team Andromeda]

And all the assets needed for that had been made. All they had to do was put it in place for the game

I don't they were done for Shenmue 3 since we saw next to nothing of what would be Shenmue 3 (we saw plenty of Shenmue 2 even before Shenmue 1 made it out ) and even if they were done - They're DC assets and wouldn't be no use on the 360,PS3 never mind PS 4 or XBox One .

Look at car games even if they use the same cars and tracks  from the XBox or PS2 , the assets need to be redone to bring them up to next gen levels on the 360 and PS4.

Actually it was more up to 20 million not 45 million.

Yu Suzuki-san corrected that in one of  his interviews and said the actual cost of Shenmue 1 was $45 million

A game released on the wrong system(Xbox was a failure for all Sega games). internal politics and cultural clashes that hampered SHENMUE ONLINE.

XBox wasn't wrong for all SEGA games - the PS2 had its fair share of SEGA flops too you know its not like DC ports of F355, REZ sold great and the likes of Blood Will Tell, SEGA Rally 2006  and the like didn't sell great on the PS2 . Shenmue 2 sold poor on the XBox because of the delay and well it looked like a DC game running on the XBox and that for many wasn't good enough.

Shenmue 3 is just almost too much of a risk and you've got to ask yourself with total sales of say a million and half copies , would a sequel be worth making ? That's what the money men will look at really 

[ROJM]

I don't they were done for Shenmue 3 since we saw next to nothing of what would be Shenmue 3 (we saw plenty of Shenmue 2 even before Shenmue 1 made it out ) and even if they were done - They're DC assets and wouldn't be no use on the 360,PS3 never mind PS 4 or XBox One .

Like the Saturn assets would have been any use for the DC? Don't be ridiculous. You can say the same thing with SHENMUE ONLINE for the PC which had upgraded in significant power at the time they were making it beyond the DC was in 1999. And SO was using all S2 assets.

Look at car games even if they use the same cars and tracks  from the XBox or PS2 , the assets need to be redone to bring them up to next gen levels on the 360 and PS4.

Yes its going to cost money but dont act that it couldn't be done.

Yu Suzuki-san corrected that in one of  his interviews and said the actual cost of Shenmue 1 was $45 million

Yu san keeps changing his story, first its 70 then it was 20 now its 30 and 45...

XBox wasn't wrong for all SEGA games - the PS2 had its fair share of SEGA flops too you know its not like DC ports of F355, REZ sold great and the likes of Blood Will Tell, SEGA Rally 2006  and the like didn't sell great on the PS2 . Shenmue 2 sold poor on the XBox because of the delay and well it looked like a DC game running on the XBox and that for many wasn't good enough.

Yes and so did the GC but they also had the most hits, Xbox didn't and you know it.  DORORO sold over 200 000 in Japan but it wasn't a hit here. Point is that Sega's efforts on the PS2 and GC  acumilated more profit and substantial profit than any of the xbox releases which were all flops.

Shenmue 3 is just almost too much of a risk and you've got to ask yourself with total sales of say a million and half copies , would a sequel be worth making ? That's what the money men will look at really 

Tell that to Sega or they wouldn't have been shopping the IP around during this curent generation of game systems.

[Nathan]

Who knows how much it really costed? There was the $70,000,000 price tag given in the Project Berkely video, the $20,000,000 price tag in the Guiness World Records, and many others. Yu has also gone back and said the game doesn't have 16 chapters anymore, so a lot of it might just be communication issues.

[Team Andromeda]

Like the Saturn assets would have been any use for the DC?

Yes that's why even with most of the ground work done on the Saturn the DC game still took years took make millions and millions and even then took untill 2001(for Shenmue 2)  to ship what was already done on the Saturn in terms of content.

Yes its going to cost money but dont act that it couldn't be don

Not just money, but time . Now its car from a matter of weeks to model a car to a a matter of months to model a car- even if that car is the same one that was used in GT 3/4 or what ever . So its not just a case of re using DC assets .

Yu san keeps changing his story, first its 70 then it was 20 now its 30 and 45.

No $70 Million on the Shenmue project as a whole . $45 for the DC version of part 1

DORORO sold over 200 000 in Japan but it wasn't a hit here

And Orta sold more than 200,000 copies, so did HOTD 3 on the XBox. Like I said there were plenty of poor sellers on the PS2 as well from SEGA , but the likes of Lets make A, VF 4 and Yakuza sold great on the format.

Tell that to Sega or they wouldn't have been shopping the IP around during this curent generation of game systems

I think you making stuff there . SEGA hasn't beeing showing must interesting at all in making a Shenmue 3 now,







 

[ROJM]

Yes that's why even with most of the ground work done on the Saturn the DC game still took years took make millions and millions and even then took untill 2001(for Shenmue 2)  to ship what was already done on the Saturn in terms of content.

Cant you be consistant? Your effectivly just said what i just said ten posts back, that it can be done. No one is saying it wont cost anything of course it does which is why Sega more than likely wants this as an exclusive rather then funding the game themselves.

Not just money, but time . Now its car from a matter of weeks to model a car to a a matter of months to model a car- even if that car is the same one that was used in GT 3/4 or what ever . So its not just a case of re using DC assets .

It is when you render them.

No $70 Million on the Shenmue project as a whole . $45 for the DC version of part 1

Actually its 100 million now thanks to SHENMUE ONLINE. 20 million for the first game  and 25 for the second. Which is where the 45 million figure would have come from. This is probably what he meant.

And Orta sold more than 200,000 copies, so did HOTD 3 on the XBox. Like I said there were plenty of poor sellers on the PS2 as well from SEGA , but the likes of Lets make A, VF 4 and Yakuza sold great on the format.

ORTA did that worldwide not in the USA. Same with HOTD3. So lets stop pretending that Sega ignored the american fanbase, the american gamer ignored Sega and sega wasn't in any shape to keep whipping out titles for a system that basically had nothing but failed sales targets for them, they had to stick to what was succesful and that was PS2/GC ,SONIC and Japan.

I think you making stuff there . SEGA hasn't beeing showing must interesting at all in making a Shenmue 3 now,

No TA i'm not making stuff up, its a fact that Sega wanted to continue with SHENMUE but only as a partnership and an exclusive deal. They've been doing that with several titles now new or even estabilshed. They did it with Microsoft, didn't work shopped it around, made a deal with china failed shopped it around etc etc.Like i said they were doing that last and current gen.




 

[ROJM]

Who knows how much it really costed? There was the $70,000,000 price tag given in the Project Berkely video, the $20,000,000 price tag in the Guiness World Records, and many others. Yu has also gone back and said the game doesn't have 16 chapters anymore, so a lot of it might just be communication issues.

Your right a lot of it is communication issues. Yu did say the game doesn't need the whole 16 chapters to finish the story but he also said it wouldn't be proper if it hasn't got all the chapters. So go figure.

[Team Andromeda]

Your effectivly just said what i just said ten posts back, that it can be done. No one is saying it wont cost anything of course it does which is why Sega more than likely wants this as an exclusive rather then funding the game themselves.

I am  . Every with the groundwork done it still too SEGA and AM#2 years to make the DC games and cost SEGA millions and that's just bringing the game up from Saturn in DC 3D . The Jump between the 360 and PS3 to that of the DC is massive , never mind the XBox 1 or PS4 .

So it would need everything to be totally redone and that would take massive amounts of manpower and money .

It is when you render them

So why does each GT game takes years to come out , why does the time to it takes to render each car and track go up with each instalment on each new machine, when it a lot of cases the cars and tracks are the same.

Shenmue DC assets in terms of graphics and sound are just useless  on the 360 and PS3, never mind the PS4 or XBox 1

ORTA did that worldwide not in the USA. Same with HOTD3

And Blood Will Tell, Astro boy sold like shit in the USA and each Yakuza game was a flop from your American freinds on the PS2. In fact I think JSRF sold better than Yakuza in the USA

They did it with Microsoft, didn't work shopped it around, made a deal with china failed shopped it around etc etc.Like i said they were doing that last and current gen.

MS deal was done in 2001 when Peter Moore was still CEO of SEGA America , Shenmue Online years ago too.  Nothing that comes from SEGA shows they have any real interest in making Shenmue 3 for this or next gen .