YS NET’s website is now live, check it out here. Most of the site is centered around Yu Suzuki, who is obviously the main draw and person behind the new studio. They even have a history page.
The best part? There is a message from Yu himself. Its refreshing hearing from him, after he has been silent for so many years.
The official site for Shenmue City has opened up, more info is trickling down. Shenmue City was thought to be a sequel to Shenmue 2, it has been revealed that is not the case. The game will take place in a parallel universe and you will start off where Shenmue 1 started.
Seems that characters exclusive to Shenmue Online (cancelled game) will be used in this title, as well as CGI from the past titles. As far as pricing, the game will be free to play, but you will have to pay for some items.
As for who is making the game, it is not SEGA, they are not developing or publishing the game. The game is being developed by YS NET, an independent studio started in November 2008. The director of this project is Yu Suzuki. Sunsoft is helping with the project.
[Thanks: STORM!]
Osamu Murata worked as a composer for Shenmue series and he has talked about the new Shenmue game announcement on his twitter account.
“I have complicated feelings about Shenmue appearing on Yahoo! Mobage. I actually worked on Shenmue, working quite a bit with Yu (Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki). However, Yahoo! Mobage is being started up by a friend of mine.
Yes, the title says it all: a new Shenmue game. However, it’s not for consoles, nor is it even being released on a disc: it’s going to be a premier title for Yahoo’s new “Mobage Service”, a Japanese PC Social Game Service. The new game, Shenmue City, will be debuting this winter on the service.
The new service, which has been in beta since September 21st, just launched today, and it currently has over 100 titles lined up for release, including games from Tecmo Koei and EA. You can visit the site here.
Source: andriasang