Why doesn't Sega just make Shenmue 3 under the Yakuza engine?

C

chaobreaker

Member
They pump out those Yakuza games all the time yet act like making another Shenmue game is an insurmountable task. Why not just build a Shemue game under the engine they have for the Yakuza games?

To be fair, I haven't ever played a Yakuza game but I watched a playthrough of 4 and thought that it's just a modern Shenmue game with comparable cinematics, QTEs, and combat.
 
chaobreaker said:
They pump out those Yakuza games all the time yet act like making another Shenmue game is an insurmountable task. Why not just build a Shemue game under the engine they have for the Yakuza games?
Click to expand...

My gut tells me we haven't gotten another Shenmue game because Sega has done some research and estimates the audience that would want it is very, very small.
 
Is there anything preventing Shenmue from being in the Yakuza universe?
Have never played either but i'm just curious.
 
chaobreaker said:
They pump out those Yakuza games all the time yet act like making another Shenmue game is an insurmountable task. Why not just build a Shemue game under the engine they have for the Yakuza games?

To be fair, I haven't ever played a Yakuza game but I watched a playthrough of 4 and thought that it's just a modern Shenmue game with comparable cinematics, QTEs, and combat.
Click to expand...

Yakuza is deliberately limited in scope. The area's you get to explore tend to stay pretty small. If you were to do a Shenmue on modern hardware, fans wouldn't be sated if it didn't take advantage of that power (something Yakuza still hasn't done.)
 
Yakuza is not like Shenmue. Wouldn't work.

To be quite honest I'd happily play a Shenmue 3 using the original engine.

I mean it :c
 
daegan said:
Yakuza is deliberately limited in scope. The area's you get to explore tend to stay pretty small. If you were to do a Shenmue on modern hardware, fans wouldn't be sated if it didn't take advantage of that power (something Yakuza still hasn't done.)
Click to expand...

Would they? I mean it's not like the Shenmue games were that vast in comparison. If I was a fan, I would just be glad that the series is coming back, even if it's scope is somewhat limited by budget or engine reasons.
 
Idk because sega is stupid. My dreams are crushed. And I will a die old man knowing that I will never kill Lan Di and avenge Ryu's father :(
 
Shenmue was meant to be grand in scope. For Shenmue to exist in today's world it would need to be a sandbox title like a grand theft auto... but on a smaller scale.

With Sega basically saying they're not going to invest in Console titles much..a new Shenmue looks impossible.... but if they were to reboot the series and release those titles as Episodes similar to the walking dead... they could circumvent a lot of technical hurdles and focus on telling the story.... giving fans the closure they seek.
 
Shenmue 3 will never ever happen, there is a higher chance that we would get a remake of Shenmue 1 than a Shenmue 3. The reason is Shenmue is now old and forgotten, the people who played Shenmue 1 and 2 on the dreamcast are very few and at this point old. If shenmue 3 was released it wouldn't sell because no one wants the third game in a series for which the story is absolutely critical, it would appeal primarily to those who played the original 2 for which the crowd, despite being loud, are only a handful. If you want Shenmue 3 I would be very curious to know your age and how many other people you know who would actually buy Shenmue 3. It's the equivalent of old folks from the 50's begging for a sequel to a sequel to an old black and white movie that only they have seen.
 
1) Because only you and about 50,000 other people want it
2) Because if it were to be made like a Yakuza game, it wouldn't be like a Shenmue game, so those 50,000 people might not buy it
3) Because no one who works at Sega now wants to make that game
4) Sega is dying out of the AAA game space
5) Opportunity cost for something that might actually sell well
6) Sega is dying in general
7) Other games have perceptually taken the place of Shenmue (even if they haven't specifically)
8) Would you want it without Yu Suzuki?

Take your pick.
 
Probably because it'll take more time to make a Shenmue game than 1 Yakuza game. Why make one new Shenmue when they can make 2 Yakuza games that are guaranteed to sell well in Japan?
 
Jawmuncher said:
Is there anything preventing Shenmue from being in the Yakuza universe?
Have never played either but i'm just curious.
Click to expand...

Well Jet Set Radio is in the Yakuza universe so I guess anything is possible.

KingJ2002 said:
Shenmue was meant to be grand in scope. For Shenmue to exist in today's world it would need to be a sandbox title like a grand theft auto... but on a smaller scale.
Click to expand...

Not really. Even back then the Shenmue games didn't have that big of a playable area, they were just packed with tons of detail. The Yakuza games are kinda like that too, although you can't interact with every little object like you could in the first Shenmue (which I don't think anyone would miss).
 
BluePigGanon said:
My gut tells me we haven't gotten another Shenmue game because Sega has done some research and estimates the audience that would want it is very, very small.
Click to expand...

There's no way it's all that much larger than the people who actually want Yakuza, unless I'm seriously underestimating that series' popularity in Japan.
 
BluePigGanon said:
My gut tells me we haven't gotten another Shenmue game because Sega has done some research and estimates the audience that would want it is very, very small.
Click to expand...


So much this. It seems like we have a Shenmue thread at least once a month. It is time to accept the fact that Shenmue is a dead franchise.
 
Yakuza games sell well and make a lot of money.

Shenmue didn't sell well and lost a lot of money.

I am not sure where the logic breakdown is here.

It's like saying "Why don't they just a new Ristar in the Sonic engine?" Because they could just make a Sonic game.
 
Shenmue didn't sell well because it was on Dreamcast. I'm convinced Shenmue III would sell a ****load on PS4.

People are tired of the same old FPSs.
 
Best hope for another Shenmue would be through kickstarter and some kind of licence agreement with Sega and contact with Yu Suzuki, given that he's still quite passionate about completing the story. The only other hope is if Microsoft or Sony see it as a fitting exclusive they wish to make happen.

There's always hope.. I mean I never imagined I'd be playing Killer Instinct again.
 
Before I actually got into Yakuza, I used to be pretty critical of it. I thought it was Shenmue without the soul. Although I've changed my opinion of Yakuza a lot(thanks in part to the great stories and characters), I still feel Shenmue has something it lacks, and I'm not sure the engine can handle how fully realized the Shenmue world is. There's a level of interactivity that Yakuza hasn't quite reached yet. Yakuza focuses heavily on the story and world, Shenmue focuses on Ryo and everything at his fingertips.

That said, if it was going to happen, Suzuki could do a lot worse than to work with Nagoshi and the Yakuza engine. It'd make it a realistic idea.
 
These days most big budget games seem barely able to turn a decent profit, remaking one of the most expensive if those hardly seems a smart proposition even with a framework to start with. Not to mention that the series is old and remembered mostly with rose tinted lenses.

The only way I could imagine it happening is if yakuza 5 does really, really well and the shenmue HD project turns out to be true. However given the amount of bitching about a lack of physical release for y5 I don't have high hopes of it even meeting Sega's targets.
 
Do the Shenmue and the Yakuza games take place in the same universe?

I keep thinking that an older Ryo will turn up in one of these Yakuza games these days in an attempt by Sega to close down his character arc.
 
As of now, there's no evidence the Yakuza universe is connected to any other Sega franchise, many of them show up as games in the Yakuza series, like Virtua Fighter and Sonic.

So we don't know if Shenmue is connected or not or would show up as a game in the series.
 
So I've got an idea.
Why don't they make the third episode with the original engine ported over current generation and PC maybe just with higher polygons count and improved drawing distance,modern dual sticks controls and almost non existing loading times ?
Keep things simple, I mean if they were to make the original Shenmue 1 or 2 nowadays it would require a ridiculous small amount of people to work on ( by today's standards ) ,so as long as they come up with a good story, keep the costs to a minimum, they will manage to appeal to us 50,000 fans that would buy it for nostalgia and curiosity alone to see how to story ends.
I'm sure most of us old farts wouldn't mind dealing with the limitation of the old engine as long as we are provided with a smooth experience and a great story.
They would even make a profit on it and set things up for a proper next generation Shenmue maybe ?
A remake/remaster of the original duology available as free downloadable title with the purchase of Shenmue 3 ( a la Bayonetta 2 ) and I'm in !
What do you think GAF ?
 
Continuing Shenmue is a pretty bad proposition for SEGA.
  • One of the main draws of Shenmue was how ambitious, and detailed it was. It was an bona fide expensive AAA game. I'm not sure if SEGA has the means to make a modern equivalent of those old games. Scaling it down from that contemporary equivalent would destroy one of its main selling points.
  • A lower budget, downscaled Shenmue would probably feel a lot like a Ryu ga Gotoku anyway, and these games have their audience. There's no sense in sacrificing the Yakuza sales for an uncertainty that has burned the company before.
  • Its gameplay is centred around cutscenes and QTEs. I'm not sure that's the most popular path to thread at the moment. Market saturation in these areas have dampened how this would be received.
  • Not sure how you would structurally continue this to begin with either. Shenmue is one big linear story that supposedly. New players would not be up to speed with the events of the old games. You'd either have to write a codex for people to read (which they wouldn't) or recap the events in the middle of the story, which could add a lot of expository bloat. Another possibility is re-releasing a port of remaster of the old games, which would again mean that the audience is expected to have played two games before this hypothetical third one. None of these sound very desirable or effective to expand Shenmue's audience, especially when you consider...
  • The big elephant in the room-- It didn't sell back then when it was innovative and stood out. I'm not sure why it would sell now. A bomb like Shenmue is able to sink most developers, and that's probably not what SEGA wants or needs right now.
You're probably looking at an expensive game that SEGA doesn't want to make, doesn't have a big enough target audience and wouldn't really stand out any more. SEGA is better off releasing a novel of some kind that wraps the whole thing up. Then its fans can finally have some closure and move on.
 
Budget is everything. I think GTA5 use the same engine as GTA4. Yet two times higher budget.
Its not because both Shenmue and Yakuza are open world titles, with beat em up combat set in Asia means they require the same needs.
 
Why I don't get is why not have Yu Suzuki kickstart Shenmue 3? It makes an absurd amount of sense. Maybe Sega won't fund it right away, but we sure will, and if it's a good enough turnout, Shenmue 3 will get extra funding from interested parties.

At least give it a shot. Gauge the interest. If it doesn't meet its goal, we can know for sure that there isn't a place in the world for Shenmue 3.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Why the hell doesn't Namco just buy Ms. Pac-Man and all associated rights?
14
272
diffusionx replied
Yakuza Kiwami 3 leaked on the RGG website
2
67
219
LiquidMetal14 replied
Shenmue 3 Enhanced - Interview With ININ Games (Shenmue Dojo Interviews)
Opinion Trailer Game Dev 
18
428
enjoyed bell woods replied
Yakuza Kiwami 3 Trailer | RGG Summit 2025
Trailer  2
94
173
Tiamat2san replied
Sega Model 3 emulation gets a big upgrade
31
228
nkarafo replied
Top Bottom