While speaking to games™, Yu Suzuki revealed that he is currently planning to release the Shenmue social networking/mobile game ‘Shenmue City’ aka ‘Shenmue Gai’ in English.
When asked if Shenmue City might be converted to more commonly used western platforms such as iPhone or Facebook he replies,
“There are plans but I cannot discuss them now.”
When explaining the premise of Shenmue City, Yu Suzuki said,
“We’re building Shenmue City as a social game, and each individual player is the main character. The story progresses as each player take on the role of a student who works with Ryo at his dojo, called the Hazuki Bukan.”
When talking about the future of Shenmue City, Yu Suzuki said,
“Two more stories will follow in the future’, he adds, “and if management likes our performance, more stories will be a possibility.”
Shenmue City is due to be released on Yahoo Japan’s Mobagetown service this winter and will presumably come to the west in 2011. For the full interview with Yu Suzuki, see games™ issue 104, on sale 23 December.
I’ll be playing Shenmue City no matter what… If only just to show there is support for the Shenmue series in the west. Hell if it comes to Facebook I’ll just have it running in the background as I do my daily rounds looking at photos of people I went to school with and seeing which ones are now fat, ugly, balding or pregnant.
For impressions/questions on the Cell Phone/Mobile Phone version of the game I suggest going to THIS THREAD on our forums.
Ad:
Bus aaab to ho gai baat, mother choad game on hain.
Okay I was so excited I posted in Urdu, without realising it.
Translation
Oh it is set then, mother fuckers GAME IS ON!
Seriously though I am looking forward to this, I always thought continuing Shenmue would be a daunting task as there would be a huge back lash if the game doesn't take the FREE genre to the next level.
So how do you manage hype by changing the genre of the game, from a modern action adventure game it has turned into a text adventure with graphical illustrations.
It will work for the enthusiasts, the most dedicated and attract a whole new demographic of casual players.
I love and hate this. I hate it because I can't stand Facebook/useless social network crap. I love it because it could give confidence in SEGA to finally making Shenmue III.
Facebook and iPhone/iPod Touch would be the ideal platforms. Android too if they can swing it.
I wouldn't call it "changing the genre of the game" so much as it being a spin-off just as Sonic Shuffle, Sonic R or Sonic Chronicles are to the Sonic series. Here's hoping the main series makes a return! I know I'd gladly make in-app purchases with this game.
Same here! Gladly will support this game.
@Barry: Why bother making it native? Just make it Flash/HTML5 and it works everywhere!