Shenmue IV Will Happen - Here's Why!

Yeah the official Sega Saturn UK magazine is awesome. I read throw every issue on Retro CDN. I will check out every issue of the official DC magazine as well to compare it with the German version.

I have just read the first issue of it and so far it is better than the German version.

I find it always interesting to read contemporary sources about Dreamcast and the Saturn to compare the opinions of the English-speaking Gaming world to the German gaming press.
 
9dragons said:
Yeah the official Sega Saturn UK magazine is awesome. I read throw every issue on Retro CDN. I will check out every issue of the official DC magazine as well to compare it with the German version.

I have just read the first issue of it and so far it is better than the German version.

I find it always interesting to read contemporary sources about Dreamcast and the Saturn to compare the opinions of the English-speaking Gaming world to the German gaming press.
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I find it fascinating reading old magazines and articles from the period these games and consoles existed. It's like capturing a moment in time. People can write however many retrospective articles they like about old consoles and games, but it's never going to be quite the same as reading old pieces from long ago. You can't really emulate the raw excitement and passion you get reading the articles from 1997 and 1998 about the "upcoming" Dreamcast or any of the old previews of the games that were in development.

If you only read some of the UK official Dreamcast magazine, definitely check out the issue with their Shenmue review. It was a fantastic review!
 
Game Developers UK edition anyone? Its sad that Sega didn't pulled for Game Basic for Saturn in the west. It was a bit more affordable than Sony Net Yaroze and also a bit more accesible to programming newbies. In the Yaroze scene, the podium were: Japan, UK and North America. The rest of Europe was behind. Japan and UK shared schools and colleges with Yaroze kits for scholars unlike the others afaik (Spain didn't, for sure). In my opinion, that similar programming culture was thanks to Sir Clive Sinclair. May rest in peace, the gentleman who brought kids the chance for making their own games.

@Reprise
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Official DC Mag here in NA was awesome, REALLY well-made (both stylistically and physically), superb content and not as much cringe as one would expect from the late 90s.
 
Sailor-San said:
What in the world are ys net doing right now? I mean... air twister cant be the only project... so many years and the two floors of developers.... what is happening?
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This is the biggest indication for me that something is happening. You don't expand your company to 2 floors to work on 1 mobile game.

Yu confirmed at TGS that YS Net have now begun work on a new game, most likely their next arcade title. But it sounds like development only recently started on that.

That would mean from 2020 to 2023, they've only been working on Air Twister...which we know can't be true. For instance, they were pitching an early build of Shenmue 4 to publishers in 2020. Then there's 110 Industries, "The sequel to...", Yu taking photos in Shanghai for work purposes, etc.

Shenmue 3 took just over 4 years to make. If we assume that Shenmue 4 needs the same amount of time but development started sometime in 2020 based on the publisher pitches, that would pinpoint 2024 as the release year. We can only hope!
 
SMDzero said:
Phil Spencer didn’t want to fund an IP that Microsoft didn’t own. If Microsoft owns Shenmue they will make the games. Could you seriously imagine Phil Spencer saying no to more Shenmue games if they owned the IP?
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Yes, quite easily. Or he'd hand it off to a team with no history of the franchise.
 
Sailor-San said:
What in the world are ys net doing right now? I mean... air twister cant be the only project... so many years and the two floors of developers.... what is happening?
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Yu already said he's working on multiple projects. I imagine they are in various stages of development and as such cannot be announced right now. He's wise to keep his cards close to his chest after the idiotic comments he got during the S3 Kickstarter updates where he had no choice but to share updates.
 
Sonoshee said:
Yu already said he's working on multiple projects. I imagine they are in various stages of development and as such cannot be announced right now. He's wise to keep his cards close to his chest after the idiotic comments he got during the S3 Kickstarter updates where he had no choice but to share updates.
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If they’re working on “multiple projects” why don’t they just focus all their resources on Shenmue 4?
 
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I hope their next title is a console/PC game first and foremost and not another Apple Arcade thing. A new racing game or fighting game from Yu Suzuki would be great in my opinion.

I wouldn't mind a sequel to Air Twister at some point, either. I feel like they could do more with that gameplay.

It's still interesting to think about what the guys at Ys Net might be working on, even if Shenmue 4 isn't happening just yet. I don't think they are secretly working on Shenmue 4 or that a publisher is on board, but I suppose you never know.
 
Common sense would tell most people that Shenmue 4 isn't happening. It's been FOUR years. CM Punk has returned to wrestling, joined AEW, shat on the company, been suspended, returned again, shat on the company again, gotten ceremoniously fired and returned to WWE in that timeframe.

Every other successful revival, especially ones that happened through Kickstarter, strike whilst the iron is hot and use that initial project to springboard immediately into producing a bigger and better sequel.

They approached publishers and pitched Shenmue 4 and they all said "nah, we're good thanks. Your last game bombed"

The more time that passed, the more difficult it became to sell Shenmue 4 to publishers and consumers. That's just the sad reality.

Unless... Yu Suzuki knows something I don't. Which he may well do 😎
 
Reprise said:
Common sense would tell most people that Shenmue 4 isn't happening. It's been FOUR years. CM Punk has returned to wrestling, joined AEW, shat on the company, been suspended, returned again, shat on the company again, gotten ceremoniously fired and returned to WWE in that timeframe.

Every other successful revival, especially ones that happened through Kickstarter, strike whilst the iron is hot and use that initial project to springboard immediately into producing a bigger and better sequel.

They approached publishers and pitched Shenmue 4 and they all said "nah, we're good thanks. Your last game bombed"

The more time that passed, the more difficult it became to sell Shenmue 4 to publishers and consumers. That's just the sad reality.

Unless... Yu Suzuki knows something I don't. Which he may well do 😎
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If only Shenmue 3 had been granted 1 more year of development time to add Baisha and more story cinematics. The game could have scored a good 8/10 and gotten a sequel.
Shenmue 3 as released just wasn’t finished and it wasn’t Suzuki’s fault.
 
Hindsight is 20/20. They got a lot right, but mistakes were also made. I think Yu Suzuki would acknowledge he/they made mistakes and he couldn't get everything he would have liked into the game.

I think the biggest issue, besides the poor marketing, was the amount of time it took them to get the game into people's hands. It was a Kickstarter project, so they had to announce it before development had began and they also had to adapt to the budget they had (and also the changes that would have happened once Deep Silver came on board).

The initial excitement had waned. Those more casual gamers who bought into the initial hype and excitement had moved on. The shit trailers and marketing didn't help. I rewatched the old Shenmue trailer from back in 2000. It's night and day in terms of professionalism, excitement and cinematics compared to the Shenmue 3 trailers.

It couldn't be helped. Games take time, especially crowdfunded ones and they were a new team. It is what it is I guess.
 
Reprise said:
Hindsight is 20/20. They got a lot right, but mistakes were also made. I think Yu Suzuki would acknowledge he/they made mistakes and he couldn't get everything he would have liked into the game.

I think the biggest issue, besides the poor marketing, was the amount of time it took them to get the game into people's hands. It was a Kickstarter project, so they had to announce it before development had began and they also had to adapt to the budget they had (and also the changes that would have happened once Deep Silver came on board).

The initial excitement had waned. Those more casual gamers who bought into the initial hype and excitement had moved on. The shit trailers and marketing didn't help. I rewatched the old Shenmue trailer from back in 2000. It's night and day in terms of professionalism, excitement and cinematics compared to the Shenmue 3 trailers.

It couldn't be helped. Games take time, especially crowdfunded ones and they were a new team. It is what it is I guess.
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I agree. The fact that S3 had to be kickstarted really created a whole bunch of disadvantages that the game couldn’t recover from.

I was excited to see the 2017 trailer and loved it (aside from how Shenhua looked) simply because it was Shenmue 3 but to the average gamer it looked like shit. The original Shenmue trailer from 2000 and the S2 trailer for Dreamcast were light years better.

A nearly 1/2 decade wait between the Kickstarter and release people lost interest and an incomplete Shenmue 3 limped out the door to no fanfare and scathing reviews from even inside it’s own fan base. <sigh>

So given that S4 is unlikely to happen at this point (hope I’m wrong), what’s the next step?

Is Yu Suzuki going to tell us the rest of the story?
 
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Not so much scathing reviews. Some were good, but the overall response was mixed. That was almost just as bad though. It needed to do better to ensure the series was properly saved.

Most of the complaints could be ironed out with Shenmue 4. They need to hire a good writer though and someone needs to teach them how to direct cutscenes and make the game appear more cinematic, polished and exciting.
 
Reprise said:
Not so much scathing reviews. Some were good, but the overall response was mixed. That was almost just as bad though. It needed to do better to ensure the series was properly saved.

Most of the complaints could be ironed out with Shenmue 4. They need to hire a good writer though and someone needs to teach them how to direct cutscenes and make the game appear more cinematic, polished and exciting.
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No doubt Shenmue 4 would be substantially better than 3. Problem is we are unlikely to get a Shenmue 4. Maybe our best hope is the anime I’m sure a season 2 will be made eventually.
 
SMDzero said:
No doubt Shenmue 4 would be substantially better than 3. Problem is we are unlikely to get a Shenmue 4. Maybe our best hope is the anime I’m sure a season 2 will be made eventually.
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YSNET has to keep the doors open. Assuming 4 isn't in development how do you expect them to keep the lights on if they don't make other projects?

You've also more chance of a 4th game than Anime season 2 currently.
 
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