Shenmue City taken offline
Social game spin-off dead after 12 months.
Bad news for all those clinging to hope that Shenmue 3 might one day see a green light. A social mobile game spun off from the beloved Sega franchise Shenmue has shut up shop after only 12 months online.
As detailed by Andriasang, Shenmue City developer YsNet announced the game's closure on 26th December, thanking players for their support.
The game, directed by franchise creator Yu Suzuki, was originally launched on the Japan-only Mobage mobile service in December 2010. A PC-friendly version was promised but never materialised.
The last proper entry in the acclaimed-but-underperforming series was Shenmue 2 on the Dreamcast back in 2001. There has been talk of a third game ever since but nothing has materialised.
Most recently, Suzuki told an audience at GDC in March 2011 that, "Probably Sega will let me make it. I think. It's simply a problem of budget."
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Related games
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Shenmue
Dreamcast
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Shenmue 2
Dreamcast
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Shenmue City
Mobile
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Shenmue II
Xbox
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About Fred Dutton
Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.
Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.
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Comments (15) Latest comment 5 months ago
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Which is a shame really, as there's so much potential for rebuilding their brands right now.
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If they think this (and the MMO) was more worthwhile than spending a year knocking up a proper conclusion to the series using the Yakuza engine, then they deserve everything they got.
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Really? I thought that Sonic Generations was one of the best Sonic games since the glory of the Mega Drive days.
Xbox Live/PSN has also been treated to great versions of gems such as Daytona and Guardian Heroes.
A new Virtua Fighter is on its way, too! \o/
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Try working on what gamers want, using the best people for the job.
I celebrate their positive achievements, but have absolutely NO sympathy for Sega's many cockups. Poor decision making.
Use the Yakuza engine, and get started on Shenmue 3 - even if it's done in small, episodic, downloadable chunks.
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@SpaceMidget75: Yakuza's engine feels so outdated it doesn't even do proper justice to its own series... Hopefully the technology used in Binary Domain will change this for iteration number five.
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