Shenmue III

Shenmue III
Shenmue III logo
Developer(s) Neilo
Ys Net
Publisher(s) Deep Silver
Director(s) Yu Suzuki
Keiji Okayasu
Producer(s) Yu Suzuki
Cedric Biscay
Artist(s) Kenji Miyawaki
Manabu Takimoto
Writer(s) Yu Suzuki
Masahiro Yoshimoto
Composer(s) Ryuji Iuchi
Series Shenmue
Engine Unreal Engine 4
Platform(s) Windows
PlayStation 4
Release August 27, 2019
Genre(s) Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Shenmue III[lower-alpha 1] is an upcoming action-adventure game developed by Neilo and Ys Net. It is scheduled to be published by Deep Silver in August 2019 for PlayStation 4 and Windows. The story continues teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki's quest to find his father's killer in 1980s China.

Director Yu Suzuki conceived Shenmue as a saga spanning multiple games. The first two games were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for the Dreamcast in 1999 and 2001 respectively. The original Shenmue was the most expensive video game ever developed at the time, with an estimated production and marketing cost of over US$47 million, though this also covered some of Shenmue II and groundwork for future Shenmue games. Despite attracting a cult following and appearances in several "greatest video games of all time" lists, the games were commercial failures and Shenmue III spent over a decade in development hell.

At the June 2015 E3 conference, following years of speculation, Suzuki launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund Shenmue III, with Sega having licensed Shenmue to Suzuki's company Ys Net. The campaign met its initial target of $2 million in under eight hours, making it the fastest Kickstarter campaign to reach that amount. It ended in July 2015 having raised over $6 million, making it the highest-funded video game and the sixth highest-funded campaign in Kickstarter history.

Premise

In 1987, following the events of Shenmue II, teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki has journeyed from Yokosuka, Japan, to the mountains of Guilin, China, in search of his father's killer, Lan Di. There he met Ling Shenhua, a mysterious girl who previously appeared in his dreams. After learning the legend of her village, which foretells a united path between them, Ryo and Shenhua embark on a new journey which reveals their shared destiny. Lan Di returns, with a new antagonist, Niao Sun.[1]

Shenmue III begins in Bailu Village in Guilin. According to the game's Kickstarter page, the second area, Choubu, is "a riverside village with lots of shops, souvenir stores, hotels and temples", and the third area, Baisha, will feature a "siege game reminiscent of the Warring Kingdoms".[2] Ryo will be able to make phone calls to Japan to catch up with characters from previous installments.[3] The game will not conclude the Shenmue story, as Suzuki hopes to create further games in the series.[4]

Background

Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki speaking at the 2011 Game Developers Conference

The first two Shenmue games were directed, written and produced by Yu Suzuki, developed by Sega AM2, and published by Sega for the Dreamcast in 1999 and 2001 respectively. Described by IGN as a "revenge epic in the tradition of Chinese cinema",[5] Suzuki plans the series to cover at least four games.[6] With a level of detail considered unprecedented,[7] the original Shenmue was the most expensive video game ever developed at the time, reported to have cost between US$47 and 70 million, including marketing. The development also covered some of Shenmue II, which was completed for a "much more reasonable sum", and groundwork for future Shenmue games.[8]

Despite attracting a cult following and appearances in several "greatest video games of all time" lists,[9][10][11][12] the Shenmue games were commercial failures and Shenmue III entered a period of development hell lasting over a decade.[13] Suzuki remained at Sega working on various projects which failed to see release,[14] including Shenmue Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for the Chinese and Korean PC markets.[15]

Fans petitioned for Shenmue III,[16] and in 2005 the BBC series VideoGaiden ran a campaign asking Sega to develop it.[17] In 2008, Sega of America president Simon Jeffery stated that it was one of the studio's most requested titles.[18][19] That year, Suzuki established his own development company, Ys Net, while remaining at Sega.[14] In 2010, he said that "the concept for Shenmue III already exists"[20] and that the game would expand "not outward, but inward", focusing on the relationship between Ryo and Shenhua.[20] In January that year, Sega said that though sales were a concern, they would "love" to develop Shenmue III given the opportunity.[21] That month, Sega announced Shenmue City, a social game for the Japanese Mobagetown (for cell phones) and Mobage (PC) services. Suzuki hoped that if Shenmue City were a success it would allow him to make Shenmue III;[22] however, it was shut down in December 2011.[23]

In November 2010, Sega West president Mike Hayes said: "While at present we have no plans for the franchise ... the Shenmue legacy ignites a lot of passion among fans. Never say never."[24] In March 2011, Suzuki spoke at the Game Developers Conference and said that Sega would be open to the project if the budget were feasible.[25] In September 2011, he left Sega to focus on Ys Net,[14] and in January 2012 suggested that Sega could license Shenmue to Ys Net to develop Shenmue III independently.[26] News arose in March 2013 that Suzuki was considering crowdfunding or console exclusivity to fund Shenmue III.[27] During a presentation on the franchise at the 2014 Game Developers Conference, he said he was researching the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.[28] During the conference, Sony Computer Entertainment approached Suzuki about Shenmue III as it was one of the most requested titles in their Twitter campaign asking fans what games they want to see on PlayStation.[29][30][31] In March 2014, Xbox head Phil Spencer said Shenmue III was the most requested sequel from Xbox owners.[32] In May, Sega renewed the Shenmue trademark.[33]

Announcement

Shenmue III was announced at E3 in June 2015.

On June 14, 2015, the day before the Los Angeles Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Suzuki tweeted "E3" with a photo of a forklift, a reference to a minigame in the original Shenmue, sparking speculation that an announcement was imminent.[34] During Sony's E3 press conference the next day, Suzuki announced a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to develop Shenmue III for Windows and PlayStation 4 with a tentative release date of December 2017.[35] The surprise announcement drew considerable publicity,[16] winning the "Best Debut" award from GameTrailers[36] and generating a surge in sales of pre-owned Dreamcast consoles.[37]

The initial Kickstarter funding goal, the amount necessary for the campaign to succeed and development to begin, was $2 million. "Stretch goals", additional goals to encourage further donations, included a "rapport system" that changes interactions with characters depending on player choices, and a "skill tree system" allowing for greater customization of Ryo's fighting abilities.[38] Suzuki said that for Shenmue III to be a "true" open-world game, the campaign would need to raise at least $10 million; nonetheless, he said he would not be disappointed by a smaller figure and would "make what [he] can within the budget".[39]

The campaign raised $1 million in an hour and 44 minutes, making Shenmue III the fastest game to raise that amount through crowdfunding, and met its initial goal of $2 million in eight hours and 43 minutes, making it the fastest Kickstarter campaign to reach that amount.[40] It ended on July 17 having raised $6.3 million from over 69,000 backers, becoming the most funded Kickstarter video game campaign and the sixth most funded Kickstarter campaign of all time.[39] On September 17, 2015, crowdfunding resumed using the online payment system PayPal, and on March 15 the project began accepting pledges through the Chinese crowdfunding platform Alipay.[41] By November 2016, Shenmue III had raised a total of over $6.6 million from over 73,000 backers across multiple crowdfunding platforms.[42] In January 2017, Time,[43] The Guardian[44] and Den of Geek[45] included Shenmue III in their lists of the most anticipated games.

Development

Ys Net is developing Shenmue III with Neilo, a Japanese development firm whose chief executive, Takeshi Hirai, was a lead programmer on the first Shenmue.[16] Alongside Hirai and Suzuki, several other key members of the original team are involved, including sub-director Keiji Okayasu,[46] writer Masahiro Yoshimoto, character designer Kenji Miyawaki, and composer Ryuji Iuchi.[47][48] Masaya Matsukaze and Corey Marshall reprise their roles as the Japanese and English voices of Ryo respectively.[1][49] Sony and Shibuya Productions are providing production, marketing, and publishing support.[42][50] The game uses Unreal Engine 4, which Suzuki said allows the team to build prototypes quickly.[51]

Ys Net delivers monthly development updates on its Kickstarter campaign page.[52] In November 2015, Suzuki visited China to promote the project and research the locations, traditional clothes and martial arts of Guilin. In a presentation at China's Chuapp conference that month, he stated that Shenmue III's story and "composition" were complete and that "baseline research" with Unreal Engine 4 had begun.[53] In late 2015, the team began using Shenmue II characters to run simple battle and conversation tests.[54] In February 2016, Suzuki demonstrated the weather effects, lighting, and music at the Monaco Anime Game International Conference.[55] By December, the game had left preproduction and motion capture and voice tests were under way.[56]

In June 2017, Suzuki announced that Shenmue III had been delayed to the second half of 2018, stating: "By utilizing new technologies, we have been able to discover new possibilities and expressions. In many ways, the game has become bigger and more beautiful than I initially expected."[57] That August, Suzuki announced that Ys Net had partnered with the German publisher Deep Silver to publish Shenmue III globally. He told Eurogamer the partnership allowed Ys Net to "scale up" their plan and "make the game with a larger scale featuring open-world elements", and that Sony and Sega were still supporting development.[51]

Ys Net released a Shenmue III teaser trailer on August 22, 2017, featuring Ryo and Shenhua in open vistas, martial arts action, an orchestral soundtrack, and the dragon and phoenix mirrors, plot elements from the previous games.[58] Some fans and journalists criticized the trailer's "stiff" character models and animation.[59] Heather Alexandra of Kotaku defended the trailer, writing: "The series has always had a rigid quality. But that rigidity comes with confidence and romantic aspirations ... With its magnificent vistas and tightly edited martial arts sequences, the Shenmue III trailer is a perfect distillation of what the series has always wanted to be."[60] In December 2017, Ys Net announced that the Indian studio Lakshya Digital would provide additional character models.[61]

In May 2018, Ys Net and Deep Silver announced that Shenmue III had been delayed until 2019.[62] At the Gamescom trade fair in August, Deep Silver displayed a new trailer and announced a release date of August 27, 2019.[63]

Notes

  1. ↑ Shenmue III (Japanese: シェンムー3 Hepburn: Shenmū 3)

References

  1. 1 2 "Shenmue III Kickstarter". Kickstarter. Kickstarter. Archived from the original on June 17, 2015. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Shenmue 3". Kickstarter. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  3. ↑ Hester, Blake (June 9, 2016). "Yu Suzuki, Tim Schafer and others discuss hype in game development". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  4. ↑ Arif, Shabana (March 1, 2018). "Shenmue 3 Will Have an Open Ending to Allow for a Sequel". IGN. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  5. ↑ "IGN Presents the History of SEGA - IGN - Page 8". IGN. Archived from the original on November 6, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  6. ↑ Good, Owen S. (June 20, 2015). "Shenmue creator: Story has 11 chapters, ideally '4 or 5 games' in the series". Polygon. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  7. ↑ "'90s Making of Shenmue documentary gives glimpse into legendary game". www.gameskinny.com. Archived from the original on September 22, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
  8. ↑ Diver, Mike. "Shenmue – discovering the Sega classic 14 years too late". the Guardian. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  9. ↑ Readers' Picks Top 100 Games: 81–90 Archived November 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine., IGN, 2006
  10. ↑ "7. Shenmue - The 100 Greatest Video Games Of All Time - Empire Online". empireonline.com. Archived from the original on August 19, 2014.
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  13. ↑ Gillett, Nick. "E3 2015 round-up". the Guardian. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2015.
  14. 1 2 3 "Yu Suzuki At A Time Of Transition". June 24, 2011. Archived from the original on November 4, 2016. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Shenmue Online canceled: Who will move all of these online crates now?". Destructoid. August 4, 2007. Archived from the original on January 2, 2016.
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  18. ↑ 7/16/08 2:40pm 7/16/08 2:40pm. "Sega: No Plans For Shenmue III, Seaman 2". Kotaku.com. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
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  23. ↑ North, Dale (January 3, 2012). "Shenmue City shut down". destructoid. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
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  32. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (March 31, 2014). "It's games first for Xbox One under new management". Polygon. Archived from the original on April 28, 2016. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
  33. ↑ GameCentral. "Sega renews Shenmue trademark as Nintendo registers Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. | Metro News". Metro.co.uk. Archived from the original on May 23, 2014. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
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  42. 1 2 "Slacker Backer Campaign!". Shenmue3 Official Website. Archived from the original on December 1, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  43. ↑ Peckham, Matt. "These Are TIME's 50 Most Anticipated Video Games of 2017". TIME.com. Archived from the original on January 10, 2017. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
  44. ↑ Stuart, Keith (January 4, 2017). "The 42 most anticipated video games of 2017". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
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  51. 1 2 Linneman, John (September 8, 2017). "Sitting down with Shenmue 3 and Yu Suzuki". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on September 8, 2017. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
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  55. ↑ "Shenmue III environment screenshots". Gematsu. Archived from the original on February 28, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  56. ↑ "Shenmue 3 Has Moved into Full Production, Still Looks a Bit Like a Fan Game". Kotaku UK. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  57. ↑ Skrebels, Joe (June 8, 2017). "Shenmue 3 Delayed". IGN. Archived from the original on June 8, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  58. ↑ "The first 'Shenmue III' teaser is comfortably familiar". Engadget. Archived from the original on August 22, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
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  60. ↑ Alexandra, Heather. "Actually, The Shenmue III Trailer Is Fine". Kotaku. Archived from the original on August 22, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
  61. ↑ "Shenmue III reveals new character, Lakshya Digital collaboration - Gematsu". Gematsu. December 13, 2017. Archived from the original on May 6, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  62. ↑ "Shenmue 3 delayed another year". Polygon. Archived from the original on May 16, 2018. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  63. ↑ Goldfarb, Andrew (August 21, 2018). "Shenmue 3 Release Date Announced - Gamescom 2018". IGN. Archived from the original on August 21, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
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