Shenmue Online - cancelled?

[StardogChampion]

http://shenmue.planets.gamespy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34660

Hey,

To clarify, what I meant was I wanted to get clarification on something I heard a couple of days ago, which is that yes, Shenmue Online is ****ed and Suzuki's status is, once again, up in the air, which counts Shenmue III totally out of the picture right now. This is confirmed, it seems. I am not running any story on it.

(Next Gen Article)
Yeah Neil did do stuff for us in the earlier days of Kikizo, and though I don't specifically remember saying it to him, yeah I have said those words to plenty of people; I regret publishing that story to an extent because as stone-solid true and genuine as our source was - someone who was and still is on the production side at AM2 - quite well known but not publicly enough (in the west) for anyone on your forum to have ever guessed correctly - things changed rapidly during and afterwards of publishing the story, and most short-sighted people following the story blame us for inaccurate reporting. Our reporting was fair and the facts were true; Sega's consistency, communication to RHQs, and perhaps decisions, were not. SoA's flat out denial was hilarious to me. It's a big company and the fact that then-PR people in America had no idea of the status of something we had been following more intimately than they had, for ages, I have to say, came as no surprise.

Reporting on something that is such a distant (2-3 year) possibility from provable fruition, in the light that it MIGHT get an announcement more imminently than that, when we cannot name a source and offer no evidence, and offer just our word for it, was a bad idea. It harmed my/our reputation, Kikizo's name and the rest of it. We're only publishing exclusive news ever since then when a) it can be revealed as obviously true soon afterwards (many times this has happened for us - including Sega scoops); or b, we can quote and name our source, and then if it's bullshit it's their fault for lying, not ours (Case in point, Ogawa denying Nights about a week before it was announced - Rest. Case.). It was a valuable lesson. I know plenty of things that falls into neither a) nor b) to be true right now about all kinds of game stories that would be big, and would simply not publish them for this reason. Companies change minds, companies lie, companies will say media is lying to make them look better, and so on.

As for Shenmue, I would have to say at this stage, it is worth forgetting about. If all the fans get any rich relatives together and channel it though Dojo perhaps we could buy rights, hire Suzuki (he'd likely say yes) and independently make the game under license from Sega at no risk to them. That is the only way it will get made at this stage I think. "

Sorry about this.
Adam

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Here is another follow up email from him after I asked if it was really ok to post his comments in entirety.
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"If it's the whole quote, I don't see what further harm it can do, I mean it should go without saying I still stand by the article, but right now it certainly does not look like any of it is headed the way I certainly hoped it would, and could have gone, at the stage it was published (and I believe the facts reported were made clearly distinct from my own 'hopes' at the time). AM2 was not lying to us and we were not lying to the fans. Anyone who knows anything about Sega knows there have been a lot of changes with the company and this latest news, which I just learned on Monday, is all I have to go by at this time... I never set out to say what people want to hear, but to report what we can verify as fact, and this includes the bad news to you guys, in this case. I am still of the view, never say never; there are a million examples of dead IP resurrected. As it stands today though, Shenmue appears to be a dead, or shelved, IP as far as Sega Sammy is concerned. And this development only came to be obvious within SOJ in the last month or so from what I understand.

It's a good job I never ran a story claiming that Propeller Arena would definitely hit shelves when it was 100% complete. Imagine.

We guaranteed the date Sonic next-gen would be revealed, where, and how. We guaranteed VF5 would come to 360. We have the best track record of Sega interviews of anyone in the world. And when we can't report something I try my best to sneak in hints into stories, just for Sega fans.

As for the Shenmue fans' view of Kikizo, all I can say is we have done our best to keep them updated the whole way along - on the site and behind the scenes - Suzuki has not spoken to any western media apart from Kikizo in like 5 years - people would not believe how difficult that is to pull off with the way Sega is nowadays - so please respect what we have tried to do, but at the end of the day, I do not run Sega.

Frankly Sega has been akin to religion for me since I was 8 and also changed my life, and I simply would not play with people's feelings on this stuff.

There's one last thing which I have known for a while but still can't spell out; but, in the right circumstances, it wouldn't surprise me if Sega sold off the rights for this IP and somebody went with those rights. Just look at Prope. One benefit of Sega Sammy is greater flexibility in how to pursue IP both old and new. In other words, we're back to square one because it is still as likely to see light of day as not, if you adjust your perspective. That is why the last time we spoke I alluded there is hope even if it might not be reached in the way people might assume was the only way. But for now, Shenmue fans should chill for a year or two and assume the worst while hoping for the best."

It looked pretty shit anyway. Nothing like Shenmue. Hopefully someone buys the rights and makes a proper Shenmue game.

 

[Lt. Drebin]

Yet they have no problem churning out Sonic after Sonic game....most of which are a joke. Good game Sega.

 

[Ren.182]

Really really sucks to hear this. Shenmue is one of my fave games of all time.
I would really love for there to be a third game, I wanna know what happens after they leave the cave

 

[Shift]

For crying out loud, this is one story that just screams to be finished!

 

[Warbie]

It's a damn shame. If I won the lottery i'd fund another Shenmue.

 

[VirusType2]

I want to play Shenmue. One of my most anticipated games - Shenmue III. I am really sick of this kind of shit.