Shenmue 3 is most likely coming out.  It is not 100% for certain that it 
will see the light of day, but it is apparently going forward -- for at 
leastone next generation console ( Xbox 360, Playstation3, Revolution) and 
mighteven be multi-platform.without further delay, here's the article (which 
has already been posted in other 
NGs)http://games.kikizo.com/news/200508/141_p1.asp
Exclusive: Shenmue 3 Ready for Next-Gen

Amazing revelations as Sega's mythical sequel prepares for reality on
next-gen platforms. It's nothing to do with the newly announced Ryu ga Goto
Ku from Toshihiro Nagoshi. It's AM2 - and it's back, with Shenmue 3.



For years, fans of one of Sega's most celebrated series, Shenmue, have
waited and prayed for news of a sequel - a third instalment that would
supposedly conclude the epic story, avenging the death of Ryo's father with
the demise of arch villain Lan Di. Today, Kikizo has good news for them -
Shenmue 3 DOES exist, and IS planned for release.




Under conditions of strict anonymity, sources close to the development of
Shenmue 3 revealed to Kikizo that the project has essentially been close to
finished and 'ready' for some time - but in hibernation, pending a deal for
the entire series on at least one next-gen console. Kikizo's source is
authentic and reliable.

And it may come as a surprise that Yu Suzuki, father of Shenmue and perhaps
Sega's most famed game creator, has had very little involvement with the
project, bar the original story, which remains in tact. Those are the
facts - now let's take a look at everything in more detail.

Most devoted followers of the Shenmue series will remember that the first
Shenmue, released on Sega's Dreamcast console in Japan at the turn of the
millennium, contained the first "chapter" of Yu Suzuki's opus, while sequel
Shenmue 2, first released on Dreamcast and later ported to Xbox, contained
chapters 3-6. The second chapter supposedly consisted of Ryo's boat journey
to Hong Kong, and was unceremoniously skipped.

P L E A S E   V I S I T   O U R   S P O N S O R :


AM2 had previously gone on record in 2003 to say that the remaining chapters
7-16 chapters would be included in a current-generation Shenmue 3 - but we
can reveal that last year, that ceased to be the plan. Our source confirmed
that there was very nearly an announcement for an Xbox Shenmue 3 at last
year's E3 show in May - which makes sense considering AM2's Shin Ishikawa
(who was in charge of Xbox Shenmue 2) had promised at the start of 2003 more
Shenmue for Xbox, back when it seemed the system's popularity could still
come back in Japan. But, because of poor sales of Xbox Shenmue 2, the deal
behind that announcement with Microsoft fell through, and for a while,
Shenmue 3 was indefinitely shelved.

Since then, the new plan for Shenmue has been to include the whole series -
chapters 1-16 - on at least one next-generation console, although whether or
not that would be in one standalone game is not yet clear, and therefore
neither is the title "Shenmue 3", ultimately. However, what is certain is
that the game, or games, are theoretically complete and ready to be ported
to Xbox 360, PS3 or Revolution, depending on a deal with one of the hardware
manufacturers - although it could just as easily end up as a multiformat
next-gen release. Our source explained, "it will depend on a hardware
manufacturer deal - if they get a profitable deal it will be exclusive to
one format, but, if it makes more sense, it might be worthwhile [to release]
on multi platform. The options are still open."




But why "all chapters"? Why go over what we already know from Shenmue 1 and
2? Says the source, "it is considered that many players will not have played
the first two games, so this would be a complete product." We'll admit to
being a little confused about how that's going to work. But nonetheless,
that appears to be the current plan.



 Page 2

Yu Suzuki has very little involvement in the Shenmue 3 project, and that's
something that may come as a surprise to many Sega followers. What we
learned in relation to Suzuki-san is pretty interesting, but all that could
be confirmed was that, "since Suzuki left AM2, he is off the core Shenmue
series, which remained at AM2" - and despite the fact that Shenmue.com is
still linked from the website of Suzuki's would-be Sega studio, Digital Rex,
it seems all that is now irrelevant and, presumably, simply out of date. Our
source clarified, "the series is under the AM2 portfolio. Shenmue remains at
AM2 while [Suzuki] pursues other things."




Interestingly, more insight into the "Suzuki era" of the Shenmue series
became apparent in a Kikizo interview conducted with Yuzo Koshiro last week.
Yuzo Koshiro is a god-like videogame music producer, with as much respect
for his work at Sega as any other development executive at the company,
having worked on the legendary beats in titles such as the Streets of Rage
series, Revenge of Shinobi and of course, Shenmue. In the exclusive
interview to be published very soon, Koshiro-san told us, "we had a meeting
once a week, just about the music, and [Suzuki] said, 'this scene needs this
kind of music and that scene needs that kind of music' - it was difficult;
he was very strict, he judged everything and ruled on everything." We should
point out that Koshiro-san is most certainly not the source of the rest of
this report however!

So who exactly is working on Shenmue 3? Frustratingly, we have learned
answers in that regard, but can't name names. We know that Hiroshi Kataoka,
the highly respected development talent and president of AM2 since
Suzuki-san left, is not involved in any hands-on way with Shenmue 3, and is
currently concentrating on the arcade side of output on titles like Virtua
Fighter 5. There are however some key, familiar AM2 faces looking after
Shenmue 3, including some relatively new talent from within the studio - but
unfortunately we can't be more specific, to protect the sources of this
report. Knowing a bit about the backgrounds of some of the key staff
however, we'll say we're both relieved and, well, intrigued. Meanwhile, a
final producer has yet to be internally named, but AM2 Development Director
Makoto Osaki seems a likely candidate...




"Likely candidate" for producer? Didn't we already say that Shenmue 3 is
near-complete? What precisely is the status of development completion? First
our source confirms what most fans already knew, "the story is entirely
done", (we're pretty sure the story had been finished since before the
release of Shenmue 2) before elaborating, "the texture and modelling work is
ready, they know what their characters look like and there's hundreds of
gigabytes of [uncompressed] textures. Game designs are done. There is no
more research to be done. It's a matter of 'porting' to whatever [console]."

As we touched on earlier, a final platform, or platforms, for Shenmue 3 are
yet to be finalised. Indeed, we weren't able to clarify whether the
exclusivity discussions with the firstparties have actually started yet. But
from a purely speculative point of view, it seems most likely to us that
Xbox 360 will be the initial host for the future of Shenmue; Microsoft has
been absolutely determined to sign up exclusive Japanese-developed content
for its new console, yet Sega signings are largely conspicuous by absence.





 Page 3

If Microsoft recognises and accepts that an all-new, sequel-based Shenmue
consisting of original content could, quite inevitably, perform better than
a rehashed Shenmue 2, then combined with the imminency of the platform, and
the global appeal of the franchise (as opposed to certain other Japanese
signings which focus on the local market), it's surely a question of when,
not if, Shenmue 3 turns up exclusively on Xbox 360. Of course, console
exclusivity these days can mean for a period as brief as six months, so when
PS3 is released next year maybe it will also see its share of Shenmue; it
certainly makes sense for the title to reach as broad an audience as
possible.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. All that has yet to be determined. But
what is "extremely unlikely", according to the source, is that the project
could surface on current-gen consoles: "it would be too much work", cites
the source. Interestingly, the source explained that it is cheaper to
finalise production for next-gen machines than for current-gen, because of
the nature of development work that is already complete. "It would be a
struggle to get everything in [on current-gen]." It seems to make sense. Our
source offered, "360 looks most likely, but we shall see what the future
brings."




It's probably worth re-clarifying that Shenmue 3 has nothing to do with Ryu
ga Goto Ku, announced earlier today by much-loved Sega development guru
Toshihiro Nagoshi. The game looks and feels similar to Shenmue in many
respects, and looks absolutely incredible for a PS2 title (for the record,
you can learn loads more about it in our upcoming first-hand impressions).
And just to be sure, it should also be made clear that the Shenmue 3 project
is, and always has been, absolutely separate from the recently canned PC
project, Shenmue Online.

While the bloated, initial costs of Shenmue were offset by former Sega
President Isao Okawa and parent company CSK, the project now seems to exist
as a more manageable, practical and affordable entity, for which most of the
background work has always been complete since the original games. And while
the future of many previously unprofitable Sega franchises remains
uncertain, Shenmue - the title most frequently associated with big Sega
losses - is getting another chance.

Unfortunately, we can't elaborate on the sources of this information, to
protect certain people close to the project. And let's face it, if their
jobs were risked, we could end up back at square one in the seemingly
endless drama that is Shenmue 3. Nobody can say for sure that Shenmue 3 will
100% definitely see the light of day, but Kikizo can guarantee the integrity
of the source; this is the current status of Shenmue 3, plain and simple.
Which means it's likely you'll be seeing off Lan Di once and for all
sometime soon. Now, we just have to hope it doesn't turn out to be
disappointing. After all, the rest of the RPG genre has done quite a lot of
innovating in the last five years.

Of course, the official Sega line on Shenmue 3 is "no comment". But when
this story is dissected all over the web and quite possibly ruled "bogus"
from certain quarters, all that means is that the official Sega line is "no
comment". If you push Sega a little harder, it will possibly even make
official noises about how it all seems "unlikely" - but nonetheless, this is
factual information.

With titles like Virtua Fighter 5, Afterburner III and now Shenmue 3 to look
forward to, it seems difficult to remember why we were all so worried after
last year's Sammy takeover. And from what we hear, there's more to look
forward to just on the horizon.

Adam Doree
Editorial Director, Kikizo.com