SEGA’s legendary former designer Yu Suzuki recently discussed his widely loved Shenmue franchise and the future of the series. In an interview lasting just over 12 minutes, Suzuki talked about the content of Shenmue 3 and what would become of Ryo’s thurst for revenge against Lan Di, but perhaps the most interesting part is how Suzuki said that if he could, he would try to obtain the license from SEGA to further develop the series. A must watch for any Shenmue fan.
[Thanks for the tip Madara!]
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Awesome post. I get the sense that Suzuki really feels he’ll make a Shenmue 3…hopefully sometime soon. I wonder what the real hang up is for him not making it, money?
I hope he’s still got it in him to manage a great team to make the best possible shenmue 3.
Worth watching for the music alone…..amazing. The interviewer looks like a Shenmue character, lol. He did a great job of asking questions that, for some reason, no other journalists have been able to ask, so props to him.
As far as Suzuki’s answer, I worry that if he buys the IP from Sega he’d do something with it, like continue the series on….smart phones, which I’d hate. We need another physical console release for Shenmue III. He certainly seems hopeful, but whether there’s any reason for that or not remains to be seen, lol.
The problem isn’t the IP, but the money. Besides that, I don’t want a Shenmue III outside of SEGA, both have to make it together to be a great Shenmue.
Yes, Yu Suzuki said he could get it from Sega. But without Sega’s support (read: moolah) the game would probably end up on smartphones or something.
Maybe Sammy doesn’t let Sega invest in a high-budget Shenmue game? I don’t understand company economics that much.
I’m sure there’s a Shenmue script aomewhere, worst case scenario we get a book.
Its more to do with the fact that SEGA does not want to support another risky game that has failed twice. They still have big budget games (Sonic, Yakuza, Binary Domain) except two do not have a history of failing and the other is a new IP.
The way SEGA goes about treating its most loyal community does bug me sometimes.For example the announcement of House of The Dead 3 and 4 HD remasters on PSN completely goes against the overwhelming demand out there for a Shenmue 1 and 2 HD port. I mean what are SEGA thinking?! Often it seems like SEGA only make compromise and concession for the Sonic fans and no one else.
The Shenmue fanbase is SEGA’s most loyal? What?
Unless you are talking about the general SEGA fanbase, the Shenmue fanbase is hardly SEGA’s most loyal. And is hardly fair to say SEGA makes any sort of concession for the Sonic fanbase, since Sonic games actually sell, no real need to go out of their way. They have gone out of their way in support of Virtua Fighter, Yakuza and Valkyria Chronicles however.