Don’t get me wrong, Shenmue is one of my favorite games of all-time, but Shenmue Online – no thanks. I’m glad that this game is dieing or is finally dead. Shenmue Dojo reports overall the game is too much of a liability for Sega to pursue further development. When you think that the original two Shenmue games cost $70 million and the first Shenmue game barely sold over 1 million copies, creating a MMO is even more of a financial burden.
Overall the whole purpose of Shenmue is to tell an amazing story about revenge for the death of ones father, which leads onto some mystical journey with magical mirrors and karate ass-kicking. The MMO on the other hand would take place during the events of Shenmue 2 and would basically be about secondary characters rather than truly pushing the story forward.
So I thank Sega for not wasting their time on this pointless attempt at appealing to a gameplay genre that’s sizzling right now with games like World of Warcraft. Seriously did anyone think Shenmue Online could gain 9 million subscribers? I highly doubt it.
But what does this mean for Shenmue 3? Last I heard from an insider, was that Shenmue 3 was being developed for the Xbox 360 along with Shenmue 1 and 2 being remade for the system as well. Did Sega shut down Shenmue Online to focus in on developing this trilogy or has Shenmue truly been laid to rest? I hope I’ll be able to play Shenmue 3 one day…
If you don’t know what the hell Shenmue is, you’re probably not alone. You most likely didn’t own a Dreamcast. So I’ve mixed together a bunch of videos to show you why you need to buy Shenmue 1 and 2, as well as a Dreamcast or Shenmue 2 for the Xbox and play it on your Xbox 360. The Xbox version contains an extra DVD with a recap movie of Shenmue 1. So pick your poison.
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