“Finished for Well Over a Year”
Yesterday, an interesting new development in the ongoing Shenmue saga was unearthed. A recent report by Gamerzines states that Sega has secretly developed and completed a high-definition port of the original Shenmue. The website’s anonymous source stated that this port has been sitting in a finished state for over a year. If this is true, then why has Sega chosen to keep this port off the market for so long? Gamerzines offers an explanation:
According to our insider, SEGA chose to sit on their release until it had a clearer picture of the future for the Shenmue franchise, namely, whether or not Shenmue III would ever see the light of day.
If their source is to be believed, then it may take some time for this port to arrive onto gamers’ hard drives, especially if it depends on Shenmue III’s limbo-like state getting resolved. We’re filing this under rumor for now, and we’ll continue to pass on new developments as they emerge.
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I can see the Shenmue fan outrage right about now….
What thel hell are they waiting for!!!!
Sigh, SEGA needs better security for these things. Everything keeps getting leaked.
I’ve played a LOT of the second game, but I’ve never touched the first one. Shenmue 2 was stupidly fun to play, and I wasn’t really into RPG/Adventure games. I damn well hope this is real.
Whether it’s true or not I think it would make sense to hold off a reboot of a commercially failed franchise until you knew what to do with it. If you re-release the games people would want a sequel, what if it doesn’t sell well like the other 2? Then you’d just be wasting your time and money on a risky business decision.
Didn’t mean to sound like a douche, but that’s just my thoughts.
@ Chris Same goes from Rodea:the Sky Soldier
Like Jaleel white would say I’m waaaaaaitiiiiing.
*for
Lol wait, sega isnt rereleasing shenmue because sega doesnt know if sega’s going to make shenmue 3?
Sonic Warrior,
The idea here is that Sega is still contemplating the possibility of a new Shenmue game. In other words, they are CONSIDERING it, but don’t want to do it if it won’t make enough money. Making Shenmue into HD probably didn’t cost as much, and after completing it they held off on releasing it until they knew if they wanted to continue.
Of course, that’s all in theory, if this rumor is true.
Well, maybe now that we all know, Sega will release it in response to the inevitable fanrage.
Wait, there’s a Shenmue 3 being released?
Maybe they’re waiting on how well Jet Set Radio’s re-release will do. If it gets much praise from not only the JSR fans but other gamers, that’ll convince Sega to re-release Shenmue.
Just a thought.
Seems like my hunch was right
Personally it´s a stupid decission unless they want to:
A) Give away Shenmue and Shenmue II for those who buy Shenmue III (maybe in collectors edition or something like that). Anyway, it would be better for them not to include them.
B) Maintain the saved games from those Shenmue to Shenmue III (which I don´t care).
C) Promote Shenmue III by releasing the other two, which can be done right now.
So personally it´s not a smart decission. As more time passes away, the HD version will get less impressive as other games keep getting better, so they will feel more outdated over time. And I´m sure the games would sell like cakes for 800 points and some little promotion. And then, you can use the money and the sales numbers to predict if Shenmue III is profitable or should be avoided.
IMO, they are being stupid, like always. Sega always have awesome franchises, awesome developers and awesome ideas, but they like to throw them in the toilet by getting bad decissions. That´s why they aren´t on the console market right now, and the reason they still can´t get most of the old franchises back without ruining them
@KMetalMind
Sad but true.
@KMetalMind It’s a double edge sword. They can release Shenmue HD 1 & 2 right now if they felt like it. Problem is, there really is no way to tell how much profit they’d make from this and if it’d even be enough to cover the budget of the 3rd title. You can’t say it will when the first 2 were marketing failures, and SEGA did indeed banked on all they could to make sure Shenmue was the definite Dreamcast killer app, or however it is you say that.
If they DO release the HD versions and it doesn’t do well enough to continue with part 3, it’s going to dissapoint many fans and they’ll probably think SEGA is being nothing more then a cocktease. I mean rereleasing the first 2 and never going ahead with the 3rd one. Fans would get the wrong idea. Yes SEGA tends to be dumb most of the time, but consider how fragile the state of Shenmue really is and how much work went into it and you’d realize why SEGA is being very careful about it.
They have a point actually. Its abit rude to release a game which has no real ending.