Should DeepSilver move to Acquire Yu Suzuki if S3 successful?

I personally would love to see Shenmue made in the Dragon Engine. Only because I feel like whatever tools they used to construct character models in Shenmue carried over into their character designs today. The reason why Shenmue and Yakuza get so much comparisons has a lot to do with them sharing the same graphical DNA as each other.

But I don't know if that would be the right move in the long term. I can't say for certain if they should keep UE4 until I see footage of the final build. Ryo and Shenhua look great, but Lan Di looked busted and we still have not seen Ren or Niao Sun. We may even get a Xiuying appearance who knows. Those are the characters I want to see before passing further judgement. But basing off the most recent screenshots we're seeing, I think we're headed in the right direction.

With that being said, it would be cheaper for Sega to contract YSNET for Shenmue IV and V and more profitable as they would receive more back end profit by cutting the middleman (Deep Silver) out of the equation.
 
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Spaghetti said:
Yeah. There's zero point throwing away the years of experience and lessons learned creating Shenmue in UE4, for another engine that's likely not any better, and isn't guaranteed to have a toolset more suited for Shenmue.
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I'd agree with you had I not played Yakuza 6. It took them up to the PlayStation 4 to finally get to this point, but having an open world game like Yakuza that's fully voice acted would transfer I'd assume seamlessly to a Shenmue development cycle. It's crazy to think that it took up until the PS4 to get a fully voice acted RGG game when Shenmue did this in the 90's.
 
darksniper said:
I'd agree with you had I not played Yakuza 6. It took them up to the PlayStation 4 to finally get to this point, but having an open world game like Yakuza that's fully voice acted would transfer I'd assume seamlessly to a Shenmue development cycle. It's crazy to think that it took up until the PS4 to get a fully voice acted RGG game when Shenmue did this in the 90's.
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But UE4 can do that too. That's kind of the point, there's likely nothing about the Dragon Engine that would be more beneficial from a tools perspective for making a Shenmue game, so there's no point throwing away 3+ years of experience on UE4.

EDIT: To your other point about graphical DNA, there's nothing really about an engine that determines how characters are modeled. They're all done outside of the engine in separate modeling software like Maya, Zbrush, etc. Both engines use physically based rendering, and probably adhere largely to the same graphics pipeline.

Switching engines won't fix any current gripes you have with the models.
 
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I was literally going to make this exact thread. Well, not 100%, as it would be THQ Nordic that would buy YSNet.

But I don't know. Maybe if Shenmue 3 sells 2+ million copies they would want to but it's more complicated than that, since I would think THQ Nordic would want to own the Shenmue IP, and YSNet does not own it, they are only licensing it from SEGA. There is nothing to say that if Shenmue 3 is successful that SEGA would not want to produce it in house, as it would be proof that the IP were profitable. I think it's extremely unlikely that THQ Nordic acquire YSNet without having the rights to the Shenmue IP.
 
I think what's more likely is a co-financing arrangement to finish the series, if III is sufficiently successful. Shenmue III being a smash hit is a fairly remote possibility IMO, but a modestly successful game might convince parties like SEGA and THQ Nordic/Deep Silver to share the burden of risk.

One of the great things about Shenmue III's financing arrangement right now is that it is diversified. There's crowdfunding, Deep Silver, and whatever amount of skin Shibuya Productions has in the game. The combined budget is likely more than any single party could contribute to this game on their own, either for practicality or risk reasons.
 
The greatest possibility is Yu Suzuki buying the Shenmue IP but that has a 0.00000000001% chance of ever happening.
 
Since Sega owns the rights to the Shenmue IP, I believe Sega will publish the Shenmue sequels (presumably 4 and 5). YsNet will still remain an independent developer and develop the sequels using the assets they created for Shenmue 3.

This is all assuming Shenmue 3 will sell well enough, which I think it will.
 
I’d rather he remained independent, personally; I imagine YS to be happy with his current status, and the freedoms that come with it.

While he does need to conquer the unique Shenmue 3 ‘conundrum’ that’s currently testing his mettle, I do believe that the finished game will eventually vindicate his efforts and allow him to continue treading the path he’s chosen.

If Shenmue 3’s good enough, Shenmue 4 will undoubtedly happen… one way or another.
 
Well, a couple of things came to my attention thinking on this--

One--THQ Nordic is a monster of a company now. They have bought numerous studios recently to bolster their portfolio. The CEO could buy whatever he wants, honestly with the money he has available(billions I've heard).

Two--Darksiders III was recently revealed by them to hit sales expectations, despite being AA and very little advertisement preasnt.

They could buy YsNet; hell, they could probably buy the license from SEGA outright, but I still feel SEGA will want in on the next entry, if it happens.
 
I dunno if THQ Nordic could buy the IP y'know.

Companies rarely let that stuff go unless a.) you're offering crazy money, or b.) are getting the IP as part of a total business acquisition/liquidation of assets in the case of closure. There are exceptions; what I'm noticing are a lot of other instances where THQ Nordic bought IP that reverted back to original creators looking to cash out, from small studios, or those who need the money.

SEGA, and by extension Shenmue, might just be too big for them. Not that I think they'd have the incentive to buy the IP unless Shenmue III is a mega smash hit, and if that happens SEGA will just make it themselves.
 
No way anzbody will buy up YS Net. Their greatest asset is Yu and he is almost 61 years old. Retirement age in Japan is 65 if I'm not mistaken. He's got three or four years of professional career life left.

If S3 turns out to be reasonably successful, I can see Deep Silver funding S4 and Sega probably will not mind free money, coming from licensing Shenmue out to YS Net again. If S3 will be a great success, I think Sega will pick up the IP again in some way. They'll probably either fund S4 themselves while licensing it out to YS Net, cutting Deep Silver out of the equasion or they will make S4 inhouse, with or without Yu.

S1 and S2 were made in the same engine and they were two years apart. Personally, I hope Yu will be able to release S4, made in UE4, two or three years from now and make it a worthy swan song to his great career.
 
hyo_razuki said:
No way anzbody will buy up YS Net. Their greatest asset is Yu and he is almost 61 years old. Retirement age in Japan is 65 if I'm not mistaken. He's got three or four years of professional career life left.
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He could have retired at age 30 if he'd wanted to. He's in full control of his own career path at this point. Akira Kurosawa kept making films into his early 80s.
 
hyo_razuki said:
they will make S4 inhouse, with or without Yu.
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Isn't shenmue a highly personalized custom creative work? I know Yu has signed off his other creative works/ideas to various SEGA colleagues but didn't he explicitly stated in an interview that no-one else but him can finish this franchise? Do Sega have a creative genius that can accomplish Yu's amibtions without him from just the outlines stored in the assets vault?:unsure:o_O
 
If Yu wants to make Shenmue IV (which he does), and the conditions are right, he'll make it. He may even make Shenmue V if given the opportunity and resources.

Creative people rarely just stop when they reach a certain age. Many don't really retire, and they don't follow arbitrary retirement ages.
 
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Yeah, I think its silly to think YU is too old to be an asset. There are maybe a dozen people on earth that could claim to have a similar status and experience. Yu is not the issue, frankly, Shenmue is.
 
I would like a better scenario where one of the first party publishers would get behind Yu Suzuki and his team and fund not only Shenmue games going forward but also to believe in his creative ability and finance and support new ideas that he might want to accomplish.
Suzuki deserves a better treatment for once!
 
Spaghetti said:
If Yu wants to make Shenmue IV (which he does), and the conditions are right, he'll make it. He may even make Shenmue V if given the opportunity and resources.

Creative people rarely just stop when they reach a certain age. Many don't really retire, and they don't follow arbitrary retirement ages.
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It's not an arbitrary age, but the age set by the Japanese government for people born in the late 50s and it's binding for employees. Since Yu is self-employed it probably doesn't apply to him though. I'm personally not aware of any high profile video game director in Japan who is still active at an age of above 65 but if you can point out someone, I'd be very interested.

Personally, I hope he'll wrap up the Shenmue saga with S4.
 
高野和泉 said:
Isn't shenmue a highly personalized custom creative work? I know Yu has signed off his other creative works/ideas to various SEGA colleagues but didn't he explicitly stated in an interview that no-one else but him can finish this franchise? Do Sega have a creative genius that can accomplish Yu's amibtions without him from just the outlines stored in the assets vault?:unsure:o_O
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Sega owns the Shenmue IP. Wasn't at one point (I think around 2004) some other guy within Sega even named director for S3 which was supossed to come out on the OG Xbox back in the day? Ishikawa or what was his name? Can't remember.

Anyway, I'd be surprised if there is a contract somewhere between Sega and Yu which prevents anyone else but Yu from directing future Shenmue games.

I wouldn't like the idea of anyone else directing a Shenmue game but technically I think it's very well possible. And Sega has at least one person with the talent and the track record to pull off a game like S4. Toshihiro Nagoshi was even brought into S1 by Isao Okawa himself because Yu, the chaotic genius, had Okawa worried. According to Nagoshi, Yu didn't know where to stop and was going over the top with ideas he wanted to implement, so Nagoshi was brought in to push S1 over the finishing line.

https://www.gamesradar.com/from-she...ustrious-career-of-japanese-game-development/
 
hyo_razuki said:
It's not an arbitrary age, but the age set by the Japanese government for people born in the late 50s and it's binding for employees. Since Yu is self-employed it probably doesn't apply to him though. I'm personally not aware of any high profile video game director in Japan who is still active at an age of above 65 but if you can point out someone, I'd be very interested.

Personally, I hope he'll wrap up the Shenmue saga with S4.
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It's an arbitrary age because it's not something that can be enforced on him in his current situation (and I'd assume there is a discretionary angle to the actual legislation on this), but this is just arguing semantics. We both agree it doesn't really apply with Yu.

There aren't any high profile directors around Yu's age, largely because of Japanese management structures being based on seniority. If you're good enough to become high profile and stick around long enough, then it's likely a promotion higher up the business away from the creative end will eventually happen.

Take Shigeru Miyamoto for example; he's been in the industry long enough for both him and his protege on the Zelda series, Eiji Aonuma, to age out of the director role and into producer/supervisor. That still doesn't stop him getting involved in passion projects; Pikmin came from his personal concept even though he was only a producer on the game itself.

This kind of ascension to management happened to Yu too, but he still directed games because he enjoys the process. There's very little you can do to stop a creative person doing what they love, and I think unless Yu is physically unable to make another game, he probably will just keep doing them.
 
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