110 Industries & Yu Suzuki

I've always felt that if there is no concrete news about shenmue 4 in 2022, then we should begin to worry in 2023 and onwards.
 
I don't think 110 Industries teased us just for a simple video interview.
And Air Twister isn't their game so there are at least 2 projects from Yu that could be revealed this year.

110 is now focused on Wanted Dead, so probably we must wait for TGS.

For Shenmue 4 things has to move faster, the game must be released near 2024 so Shenmue 5 could have a chance to be released in this generation.
 
This post is based on the assumption that 110 aren't actually involved in funding Shenmue 4.

Every so often I wonder how it's been such a big struggle to get this series completed. I see high quality games on a lower budget made all of the time, but Shenmue, even with all of it's fans and people that are curious to see what the fuss is about, struggles to find the funding. I know that Sega were the biggest obstacle for so many years, but now that they are open to allowing other studios to come in and make something out of the series, it's still struggling to find a company to back it.
 
What are your estimates for when we'll see the Shenmue announcement? (Please don't say couple of weeks. Thanks.)
Cast your eyes to TGS and beyond, IMO.

Two factors influencing my thinking;

. A theoretical 110 deal may only have been struck within the last 12 months or less
. Now we know Air Twister exists, it's unlikely Shenmue IV has been in full production all this time*

*when we have a list of credits for Air Twister it might be easier to guesstimate what amount of YsNet's resources were taken up by it

No need to sweat it if TGS comes and goes without an announcement, but it would be the right time to fan the flames of a YsNet/110 Industries collaboration again even if they're still skirting around a confirmation.
 
This post is based on the assumption that 110 aren't actually involved in funding Shenmue 4.

Every so often I wonder how it's been such a big struggle to get this series completed. I see high quality games on a lower budget made all of the time, but Shenmue, even with all of it's fans and people that are curious to see what the fuss is about, struggles to find the funding. I know that Sega were the biggest obstacle for so many years, but now that they are open to allowing other studios to come in and make something out of the series, it's still struggling to find a company to back it.

I guess its simply a very unique problem.
First problem: the IP already belongs to someone, which means
no one else will be able to do with it whatever they want.
Whoever is interested in making a new game within this series
is gonna have to deal with kind of downgrading some of the elements
because they wont be able to use all of Segas original content.
I dont think a lot of studios / publishers are interested in something like that
because they have to fully fund this project with their own money
but they still wont be able to work freely. Thats not really a good starting point.
Why would any big studios be interested in continuing some 'oldschool' project
when the IP doesnt even belong to them? Thats not going to be a big milestone in any companies portfolio.

Second problem: We are talking about a series that started 22 years ago.
Japanese games developed for a small group of people (in comparison with how many gamers there are today)
A series that has a clear story focus on the story of one character, a story that by todays standards is not very 'hype'.
All of the games are clearly connected, so a Shenmue 3 or 4 is mainly made for people who played Shenmue 1 & 2.
So how are you going to promote a 20 year old series about a japanese martial artist
who travels to mainland china because he wants to know why his father died?
Keep in mind that all of these games have a lot of walking and talking,
so you cant really do hype fast paced trailers. (or if you do that, then its pretty much false advertisement
and you are going to spoil all of the story bits)
So how you are going to reach completely new players who never played Shenmue 1 & 2,
how do you advertise a typical Shenmue experience to todays game audience,
how do you make new players excited about part 4 of a story game when the series started 20 years ago?
I really think thats not a easy task.
In comparison i think its way more easy to sell some crazy Yakuza game that takes place in Tokyo
or some AAA samurai game. But part 3 or 4 of a story series about martial arts
that takes place in the countryside of China? Not that easy.
Just think about how easy it is to put some cool God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, Yakuza 7 etc scenes together
that are easy to understand and very good looking. Now try that with Shenmue content.
Its not gonna be that easy. And i dont mean that in a mocking way,
just in comparison how to easily reach a big crowd.

Third problem: If you want to keep the full Shenmue experience,
if you want to deliver the same Shenmue detail level
and then even push the graphics up to modern standards,
it is never going to be cheap. Open world style games with fully voiced NPCs,
side missions, main missions, skills, shops, cutscenes, story progression and so on
is literally the most expensive game style to develop.
If you want all of this, even a AA quality level is going to easily push the costs up to
20-30 Mil USD (promotion campaign not included).
AAA quality level easily 60+ Mil USD.
Sure, you can scale everything down and make it more simple
but then you will again run into the problem how to get new players on board.
A downgraded smaller Shenmue experience is not going to impress a lot of people nowadays.
So the developing studio really has to think about what audience they want to reach
and how to make all of this work. And all of this work for some oldschool series
that is never going to reach the big Elden Ring, God of War, GTA game audience.
(again, not mocking Shenmue, just in comparison what a gamer is used to by todays standards)

Those are some of the unique Shenmue problems if you ask me. And it is not easy to solve.
 
What happened to that interview with 110i? If and when that happens Shenmue 4 will be brought up 100%.
I can't remember who mentioned it on Twitter but there is one coming. It's from a random gaming site.
 
Either way I expect some sort of clarification then. Just a confirmation of a delay is all I ask
I'd shocked if they mentioned it. I'll find the tweet if I can.
 
This is kind of hopeful. They outright denied the Devil's Third thing. And this. BUT NOT SHENMUE

The difference is that was reported as if it were fact, whereas Shenmue IV was always just a rumour. Edit: Apologies for double post again. I forget to use the edit button, will try to remember next time.
 
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