Yet another Shenmue 3 rumour, though Kikizo claims their source for this news is accurate:
“Under conditions of strict anonymity, sources close to the development of Shenmue 3 revealed to Kikizo that the project has essentially been close to finished and ‘ready’ for some time - but in hibernation, pending a deal for the entire series on at least one next-gen console. Kikizo’s source is authentic and reliable.”
Here’s a link to the article:
Well it sounds too suspicious to me…
All those ifs and maybes sound quite big (if not huge) things and yet they are presented like they might as well become last minute changes.
Not to mention that if it’s finished for “quite some time” then I don’t think it can have the next gen look that the companies will be looking for.
And who the heck picks kikizo of all places to reveal such information?
It could be true I suppose but, meh… Are you responsible for this Abadd 
Sounds too good to be true.
What I hate about this if it turns out to be bogus SEGA name will be mud again (when they haven?t done anything).
I know AM#2 kept the Saturn version of Shenmue quite, but in these Internet days find it hard to believe that SEGA would have been able to keep Shenmue III quite (if it really was nearly finished).
I really like the guys at Kikzo, but now the internet if rife with people going ape and all set to play Shenmue III.
Going to be a massive letdown when this new turns out to be false ;).
Next I’ll be reading stories of SAGA II, Rally III, SOA II and VF 5 on LIVE ect
I haven’t looked into this enough to have a really good opinion on it yet, but I agree with Alex and TA, from first impressions it seems very improbable, especially with some of the details that article gives. Two random things that struck me were:
If Yu Suzuki hasn’t really been involved with Shenmue since Shenmue 2 - as the report implies - what motivation or incentive would Sega of Japan have to continue the series on their own? Considering all the money they lost on the first two instalments, a third game has never seemed massively likely, let alone a compilation / mega-game that incorporates Shenmue 1 and Shenmue 2 for next-gen systems as well…
If the game is now finished, it must have been in development for quite some time - a couple of years at the least - so why has Sega made no announcements of any kind regarding it? Shenmue at least classes as a “big name” title for Sega, and if this is all true, I’d find it strange that they haven’t mentioned it at either of the past two E3s or Tokyo Game Shows or any other games expos over the last two years, where Sega doesn’t seem to have had a strong enough lineup that they could put off announcements of this kind. It’d seem strange that they haven’t released any tantalising teaser-trailers or even screenshots to start building the hype for this “essentially finished” game, which, given the sales figures of the previous games, is going to need all the hype it can get…
EDIT: As opposed to Shenmue Online, which Sega released trailers and screenshots for when it was still some way away from completion, and which was recently canned anyhow…
EDIT: And I apologise for the term “tantalising teaser-trailers”. That sounded far too journalistic. 
It would be nice if it’s true but I won’t hold my breath.
I’ll cross my fingers for a release, and cross my arms for a release on a Nintendo system. XD
Well I’d just like to add that after the unveiling of ‘Like a Dragon’ it doesn’t seem so improbable that a big title like Shenmue 3 has been in development for a few years and yet Sega hasn’t talked about it at all… ‘Like a Dragon’ I think is told to have been in development for three years and yet it was only shown to the public very recently so… I still won’t hold my breath for Shenmue 3 but there’s a chance some of this may be true I suppose…
Heh, that was actually one of my first thoughts when I read the Ryu Ga Gotoku coverage - Sega definitely did keep that under wraps, and it seems to be a similarly big title. Still, I’d say that building up hype for a sequel to a known franchise is a different matter to building up hype for a completely new IP like Ryu; in the case of the new game, I can understand Sega wanting to keep it under wraps until they had something substantial and genuinely impressive to show off, so that they could give it an explosive unveiling and really get people’s attention; after all, there’s no existing interest for a new IP to draw upon, so it has to be impressing people with some kind of real, presentable content from day one.
On the other hand, all Sega would have had to do to start building some hype for Shenmue 3 is to have mentioned that it was in development at some point over the last few years. Because it’ll be a straight sequel, and the existing fanbase knows what it’ll entail, Sega wouldn’t need a barrage of impressive trailers and screenshots (that is, actual content) in order to start creating interest - the knowledge that “more of the same” is on the way would likely be exciting enough to begin with, even if the game’s development was barely off the ground when the news was broken.
One other thing that’s struck me, too… how likely is it that Sega will have funded the development of a huge risky title like Ryu and a huge risky title like Shenmue 3 at the exact same time…? Considering how conservative Sega seems to have become, this would be one heck of a change of direction.
But as you say, Sega’s been slighty surprising recently, so they may continue to be more surprising still…
Um… Why is it that nobody has made the connection between “Ryu Ga Gotoku” and “Ryo Ga Gotoku”???
I’ll give you a hint: The second one is a typo.
If you mean what I think you mean Abadd, it’s because the report that Kikizo posted on Shenmue 3’s “existence” specifically claims that it has nothing to do with Ryu Ga Gotoku; most of the supposed details they give about Shenmue 3 wouldn’t sync up with this being a case of mistaken identity either, unless, of course, it was a case of very mistaken identity with many incorrect details… in which case their report would be more or less completely wrong anyway, just in a different way to what people are expecting. 
I think they’re grasping at straws. If it was under such tight wraps, how did Kikizo hear about it? And it just so happened to coincide with the announcement of Ryu ga Gotoku?
By the way…
I thought it was just taken back to internal development rather than cancelled alltogether though there are various issues with its original developer still… Atleast that’s all I read about it, perhaps it also got cancelled after that kind of reports and I simply missed the news.
Sorry, it looks like I was a bit mistaken about that one: the company who was making Shenmue Online (JC Entertainment) definitely did stop developing it, which I’d heard, but apparently Sega Shanghai Software (who are responsible for the project) have handed it to a Taiwanese development team, which I hadn’t heard. 
That’s the story I just found on GameSpot, at least:
Kikizo isn’t the kind of website that would post random rumours though, and they also had a lot of exclusive interviews with developers from Sega in the past. They must have been certain about their source seeing how they spent a three page article on it. Most likely though, I think their source (if the information is more or less accurate) simply exaggerated. For all we know, the texturing and modelling may have already been done back when they were developing Shenmue 1 and 2. In that case it’s easy to say “It’s a matter of ‘porting’ to whatever console”, but in reality that wouldn’t be nearly as easy as it sounds.
Kikizo tends to post a lot of rumors (and truths, as well, but a lot of rumors)
I found it extremely suspect that they had to mention this ‘secret source’ like 15 times throughout the article, reminding the reader about how it was essential they keep the source secret.
The game is “almost finished,” and yet there’s no producer? Um… who do you think controls the prototyping, design, budgeting, etc?
And “all that’s left is the porting”?? Whoever wrote the article has no idea how a game is made. Considering that the only hardware even near completion is likely the X360, it’s pretty interesting that all the team needs to do is “port” the game. 
So… How come you haven’t directly shot us down by saying “Shenmue 3 is not currently in development or in a finished or near finished state” hmmm…?
Why would I have such knowledge? 
Because you are Abadd the psychotic malfunctioning drone who knows the secrets of the ancients!
I suppose trying to reveal such information would cause him to malfunction again 
As usual, he does have some good points there. One question though Abadd: what would you conclude from this? Do you think that were intentionally misinformed by their source, or did they just tell the Shenmue fans what they wanted to hear?
Maybe their source is Japanese (since they say he’s close to the development or whatever it was they wrote) and they messed up the translation - or he messed up his english!
