Shenmue Online
This article is about an unreleased Shenmue video game. For information on released products in the series, see Shenmue.
| |
| Shenmue Online | |
| Developer | Sega |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Sega |
| Platforms | Windows |
| Released | Never released |
| Added to Museum |
Never |
Shenmue Online was a planned massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was never released.
Background
Sega released an action-adventure video game titled Shenmue in 1999. It was an expensive project that was one of the first three-dimensional video games that offered open world gameplay.
The development and marketing cost of Shenmue was over forty-seven million dollars, which was the most expensive video game ever developed at the time. The cost of development also covered some of Shenmue II and groundwork for future titles.
Originally, the plan was to develop eleven chapters of the Shenmue series. Each of the eleven chapters would have been released as separate games for the Dreamcast.
When the first game didn't sell enough to pay for its development and marketing budget, it became clear that Sega could not afford to make eleven Shenmue games. Thus, while the first Shenmue contained only one chapter, the sequel contained two chapters, in Hong Kong and a setting called Kowloon based on the Kowloon Walled City. It also included the beginning of the third chapter in Guilin which ended in a cliffhanger that would have continued into the planned third game.
Sega later released an Xbox port of Shenmue II in North America in 2002 and in Europe in 2003. When this also didn't help to alleviate the costs involved, the series was put on indefinite hold.
Announcement and cancellation of Shenmue Online
The creator of Shenmue, Yu Suzuki, wanted to try another avenue to raise funds for Shenmue III.
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in the locations of the first two games, Shenmue Online, was announced in 2004 for a planned release in China. The plan was to tap into that market to raise funds for the development of Shenmue III because a large market for MMORPGs existed in China at the time of the announcement.
Legacy
Although Shenmue Online never materialized, Yu Suzuki tried another, smaller-scale attempt to raise money for the development of the Shenmue II sequel. After forming his own company, Ys Net, in 2008, while still remaining employed at Sega, Yu Suzuki began a new attempt at a Shenmue MMORPG in hopes that it would be popular enough to provide income to fund the series.
Shenmue City was released in 2010 for mobile phones in Japan. However, it was discontinued in 2011 after only a year of service.
After crowdfunding became a popular avenue for well-known developers to raise funds to develop video games, Yu Suzuki announced a crowdfunding campaign for Shenmue III through Kickstarter in 2015. This avenue proved to be successful, as it became the fastest-funded video game Kickstarter campaign up to that point.
After the success of the Kickstarter campaign, Shenmue III went into full development by Ys Net and Nello, a studio whose chief executive was Takeshi Hirai. Harai was the lead programmer on the first Shenmue game.
Shenmue III was partially funded through the Kickstarter campaign and was published by Deep Silver. In addition, Epic Games funded some of the development in exchange for digital exclusivity on the Epic Games store for a year on the Windows platform. Sony also helped with the marketing of the game.
