I have read the article and watched the video numerous times, and I fall under the indifferent category. It would have been awesome to have a Shenmue re-master, in the footage we have seen in the video uncovered by John and Digital Foundry (thanks
@dark1x!), but it still doesn't change the fact that whatever version of Shenmue we now have on Xbox, PS4 and PC, that was not the end game. It was an extra bonus. A stepping stone. A means to an end. Nothing more than to preserve the almost 20 year old games, and encourage anyone who hasn't played them to give them a try, and perhaps draw more interest to Shenmue 3.
I have always took offence to the negative branding of d3t throughout this process, which I don't need to go into again. Sega also. We could be sitting here with nothing at all, with Sega deciding that their fingers were burned far too much from the original games, and any sort of re-release would not have been worth the financial risk. Whatever way you want to look at it, the history of Shenmue from a business standpoint, is that it is a financial liability. Numbers don't lie. The Kickstarter for Shenmue 3 has proven that there could be a mixture of an old and new audience to possibly make a profit look a bit more promising, and that's exactly what has happened with the current re-releases which we received. Sega are very happy with the sales numbers, we have Shenmue 1 and 2 on modern consoles, any issues have been worked on since the release, and we achieved all we could have asked for when looking back just a few short years ago. For that I am, and always will be thankful.
Whilst any sort of re-master would have been great, we already have a sense of how that would have played out from this topic alone. From just a few short scenes, we already have differences of opinion. Personally, I love the scenes we have seen. They are mouth-watering to me, but I understand the point of view of purists who just feel that its going in a wrong direction to what the original games stand for. Whilst the project fell through, its nice to get a glimpse into what could have been, and who knows what can come of this in the future. I would also guess that this article isn't a cut and dry job either. There's a chance there will be more comments or articles from possibly d3t or even indeed Sega themselves on the matter. I would agree with John that its just a collection of issues that made this project less appealing in the long run, over the versions we did get, from timescale, budget and development issues to name a few. If those issues were to cause major delays or clashes with Shenmue 3 then I am personally glad they scaled back and went down the route they have chosen.
Whatever way you look at it, we have the re-releases across all modern platforms and Shenmue 3 is fast approaching. With good sales numbers for the re-releases, and a kickstarted Shenmue 3, things possibly look good for the future of the franchise, which may not be everyone's concern, but it sure is mine. There's a bigger picture always at play with Shenmue, and that's where I try and look to.
