In a Kickstarter update today, Ys Net announced the delay via Deep Silver:

“Deep Silver today announce that their upcoming release Shenmue III has been moved and will now release in 2019.

The extra time will be used to polish the quality of the game even further, to the high standards it deserves and release the product in the best possible timeframe. ”

Series creator Yu Suzuki also had a message for the backers apologizing for another delay and thanking them for their support.

“To all of our backers, we are very sorry for the delay. After much discussion with our partners, Deep Silver, we have concluded that extending the release will allow us to deliver Shenmue III at its best. We promise to use this time to improve the quality of Shenmue III.

We cannot thank you enough for your enduring support.”

Originally slated to be released at the end of 2017, Suzuki announced in June of that year that Shenmue III would be delayed into the second half of 2018.

Some consolation in the delay is that SEGA recently announced that it would finally release the long-requested Shenmue I and II HD on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in 2018. A firm release date has not yet been announced.

In this week’s show we discuss:

• What We’ve Been Playing:
  • Chris: Silver Valley (Master System), The TakeOver (PC)
  • Graham: Agartha (Dreamcast)
  • Marcin: Secret of Mana
• News Stand
  • Shining Resonance Refrain is coming to the West this summer
  • The ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ movie is coming November 2019
  • Fist of the North Star demo drops on Japanese PS Store
  • SEGA raises over £2,100 in GameBlast18 charity drive
• Featured Discussion: What were your thoughts on the new Shenmue 3 screens?
• Mail Bag

Listen now: [powerpress] Duration – 1 hr, 18 min. @ 37.8 MB

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We hope you enjoy the show!

In this week’s show we discuss:

• What We’ve Been Playing:
  • Chris: Shenmue II, Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast)
  • Graham: Speed Devils (Dreamcast)
  • Marcin: Dungeons & Dragons (Dork!)
• News Stand
  • New Releases: Mutant Football League (PS4, Xbox One)
  • Yuji Naka announces he’s joined Square Enix
  • JoshProd teases new titles for 2018
  • Limited Run Games is making replacement SEGA CD, Saturn jewel cases
  • SEGA announces Two Point Hospital
  • Shenmue HD remasters pushed back because of Shenmue III delay
  • New The House of the Dead is coming to arcades

Listen now: [powerpress] Duration – 1 hr, 27 min. @ 41.7 MB

Review us on iTunes | Subscribe to our RSS | Follow us on Twitter @seganerds | Like us on Facebook | Subscribe to us on YouTube

We hope you enjoy the show!

The News Stand

• Sonic Forces: Speed Battle soft launches in the Phillipines
• SEGA Dreamcast Collected Workes launches on Kickstarter
• Yu Suzuki inserted an Easter Egg in Shenmue III’s latest teaser
• Shenmue HD is a lie!

The video opens with Ryo and Shenhua inside the cave before they emerge during sunset to overlook a small village. The pace quickly picks up to show Ryo training martial arts with an elderly man, who I don’t believe we’ve seen before. We also see the big chap in suspenders make a return, and it appears as if Ryo has to fight him, possibly to protect Shenhua?

There are some absolutely beautiful locales featured in the video, and the new character models look pretty good.

Surely, there are some Easter eggs hidden within this video, so let’s get to cracking this egg, Shenmue fans!

Shenmue III is scheduled for release in the second half of 2018 for the PlayStation 4 and PC, with Deep Silver publishing the game worldwide.

Today, we’ve via an Ys Net Kickstarter update that learned that Deep Silver has obtained global publishing rights to Yu Suzuki’s upcoming Shenmue III.

“We are proud to have gained a wonderfully reliable partner to make sure Shenmue III reaches all its fans all over the planet,” the update read.

While it doesn’t mean the game’s budget will now balloon to the likes of the original two games, this news is really good as it signals that Ys Net has been able to obtain some funds that will go towards the game’s development. Who knows if that will equate to a bigger, better Shenmue III, but it is one huge worry that is taken off the team’s shoulders now, so they can continue to focus on the game’s development.

Shenmue III is set for release in the second half of 2018 on the PlayStation 4 and PC.

See the full press release from Deep Silver below:

Deep Silver and Ys Net are excited to announce their collaboration to publish YsNet’s forthcoming, long awaited game Shenmue III.

The global publishing deal will cover the release exclusively on PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and PC: both physical and digital versions.

The current release date is scheduled for the second half of 2018.

“Shenmue is one of a few game franchises that have historical value whilst continuing to ignite passion across gamers. We are delighted to have signed this publishing partnership and look forward to utilizing our global publishing network to maximize the potential of this highly anticipated game,” said Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Koch Media/Deep Silver.

Yu Suzuki, the director of Shenmue III and CEO of Ys Net added, “I am very pleased to secure this global partnership with Deep Silver, which is comprised of incredible men and women who have a deep passion for bringing Japanese titles to the rest of the world. Throughout this process, Deep Silver has expressed a deep passion for Japanese games, the Shenmue franchise and its fans—this gives me further confidence in Shenmue III and that we have found the best partner possible.”

“We are very excited for the continuation of Ryo Hazuki’s journey in Shenmue III, and are confident the game will deliver the story and gameplay PlayStation fans have been waiting for,” said Florian Hunziker, Vice President of PlayStation’s Third Party Relations & Developer Technology Group. “The global partnership between Ys Net and Deep Silver will help realize Yu Suzuki’s vision for Shenmue III—we are thrilled to see his spirit of innovation materialize on PS4.”

Crimson Skies will be the first game coming to Xbox One later this year, and Spencer promised that all original Xbox games will see improvements on Xbox One.

Naturally, this brings up a logical question: What SEGA games could we realistically see on the service? Before we try to answer that, let’s take a look at all the SEGA games on the original Xbox.

• Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller
• Gunvalkyrie
• Headhunter Redemption
• Jet Set Radio Future
• Otogi: Myth of Demons
• Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors
• Panzer Dragoon Orta
• Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
• Puyo Pop Fever
• Sega GT 2002
• Sega GT Online
• Sega Soccer Slam
• Shadow the Hedgehog
• Shenmue II
• Sonic Heroes
• Sonic Mega Collection Plus
• Sonic Riders
• Spikeout: Battle Street
• The House of the Dead III
• ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth
• OutRun 2
• OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast
• World Series Baseball
• World Series Baseball 2K3

Before we get to the games that we think could have a shot at coming, let’s look at the ones that probably won’t, for whatever reason.

Games we won’t see

Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II

Look, I don’t know if you’ve heard but SEGA of America hates Phantasy Star Online and hates people who play PSO even more. Wanna know how much they hate them? How about the fact that SEGA hasn’t officially declared that PSO 2 is cancelled in the West and will never see the light of day. This has been going on for nearly five years, and every E3, its fans are filled with hope that this just might be the year SEGA announces it’ll come.

Yeah, PSO 2 will never come, and that also means PSO Episode I & II will never come either. 

OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast

Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast was one of my favorite Xbox games, and it’s a damn shame that this game won’t be added to the Xbox One’s backwards compatibility list due to licensing issues. You see, SEGA lost the Ferrari license back in 2010 and was forced to remove OutRun 2006: C2C and Outline Online Arcade from all digital stores. 

Now, it’s true SEGA released the original OutRun in the 3DS Classics series, but that didn’t use the Ferrari license, as the car model was just made to look similar to a Ferrari. Because SEGA isn’t a current Ferrari licensee, they unfortunately can’t legally bring Coast 2 Coast to the Xbox One. But weirder things have happened (*ahem Shenmue 3), so who knows what the future might hold, right?  

World Series Baseball 2K3

When SEGA published World Series Baseball and World Series Baseball 2K3, they still owned Visual Concepts and had the rights to develop officially licensed Major League Baseball games. But in early 2005, SEGA sold Visual Concepts and its subsidiary Kush for the paltry sum of $24 million to Take-Two Interactive.

Visual Concepts was soon after reformed to become 2K Games, where they continue to make badass sports games … unlike SEGA, unless you count Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games or any of their sequels.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is SEGA’s long gone from the baseball scene, and it doesn’t look like they have any desire to get back, which is why we won’t be seeing its last baseball game on the Xbox One. 

Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller

Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller probably isn’t the game everyone thinks about when someone asks if they’ve every played a Crazy Taxi game. While we certainly enjoyed it, most critics of the day thought it was more average than anything else. But one thing it did have that made many Crazy Taxi fans smile was it featured licensed music from the likes of The Offspring, Bad Religion, Methods of Mayhem and Silverbullit.

Because SEGA’s original deals didn’t allow it to release these games on future platforms that didn’t exist at the time, it was forced to strip all the licensed music when it released the original Crazy Taxi on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2010. Many fans were bummed out for sure, including us. Those songs are so apart of the experience that it just didn’t feel the same without screaming “yah, yah, yah” while The Offspring’s “All I want” blared through your TV’s speaker.

Nevertheless, because Crazy Taxi 3 has so much licensed music, it would take some work on SEGA’s part to go back and replace the music, which is unlikely to happen. 

SEGA GT 2002/SEGA GT Online

SEGA GT 2002 is infamous as being one of the two pack-in games, along with Jet Set Radio Future, that came packaged with the original Xbox when it was released. Because so many copies were printed, they eventually found their way into bargain bins across the world, and game stores were practically begging people to take them off their hands.

The game also featured three different models of Ford’s GT on its cover, along with many other licensed cars players could control, like an Acura NSX, Honda Civic, Mazda RX-7, Mitsubishi Lancer and Toyota Supra, to name a few. 

A year after SEGA released GT 2002, they released SEGA GT Online, which included 40 more cars and online functionality. The only problem is some of those cars were licensed from Bugatti, Auto Union and De Tomaso. 

I’m sorry to say, but it’s the same old song and dance, and because it’s very, very unlikely SEGA holds the rights from all these car manufacturers to release these games on a new platform, it would take way too much time and money than it’s worth to bring SEGA GT 2002 or SEGA GT Online to the Xbox One.  

Games we could see

Shenmue 2

If there’s one game on this list that’s worth the time, effort and legal wrangling to bring it to the Xbox One, it’s definitely Shenmue 2. Sure, SEGA would have work through some potential roadblocks, it’s hard to imagine that Shenmue 2 wouldn’t be one of the most popular original Xbox games that could make its way to the Xbox One.

But because of that reason, it’s hard for me to see SEGA releasing it simply as a backwards compatible Xbox game for $15-$20. At least, not when it could repackage it as an HD remaster and sell it for upwards of $40-$50. C’mon, tell me you wouldn’t buy it.

In the end, it just doesn’t make much sense for SEGA to go through the trouble to get Shenmue 2 ready for release and not reap the huge upside a premium Shenmue 2 HD would have. But then again, Microsoft once paid SEGA a hefty sum to release Shenmue 2 on the Xbox in North America; would it be so crazy that they did it again, even just to counter Sony with its console exclusive Shenmue 3?

Panzer Dragoon Orta

While Shenmue 3 makes sense from a popularity standpoint, Panzer Dragoon Orta makes sense from a practicality standpoint. That’s because the game was already made backwards compatible on the Xbox 360 in April 2007, so it would make for a great way to celebrate it 10 years later on the Xbox One. 

It would also bring a smile to my heart to see two classic game series that Yukio Futatsugi created make their way to the Xbox One this year. The other, of course, being the magnificent Phantom Dust, which is easily in my top 10 games of all time. 

Headhunter Redemption

OK, I’m not even going to try to reason why Headhunter Redemption should be on this list. I know it wasn’t that great of a game, but I’ll always associate the Headhunter series with the Dreamcast, and for that reason, I think it would make for a really fun addition to the original Xbox library on Xbox One. 

C’mon, who doesn’t want some more Jack Wade in their lives, right?

Jet Set Radio Future

For whatever reason, I never played Jet Set Radio Future as much as I always wanted to, and I’m sure there’s a legion of Xbox One owners who’ve never played it at all. I don’t think there’s a game on the above list that would make the jump from Xbox to Xbox One better than JSRF, and that’s why I think SEGA has got to make it happen.

I guess it would make it a bit awkward for those who own the JSRF/SEGA GT 2002 combo disc, with only one game on the disc that would work. 

So there you have it, my fellow Nerds. Will SEGA jump through the legal and license hurdles to bring some of these classic Xbox games to the Xbox One? Do you think it’d make sense for them to release Shenmue 2 as a backwards compatible game? Let us know in the comments below!

According to a new Kickstarter update video, developer Yu Suzuki has confirmed what we long believed that Shenmue 3 would be delayed beyond its December 2017 release date. The game is now scheduled to be released in the second half of 2018. 

“I know you are all eagerly anticipating the release of Shenmue 3, however, we must unfortunately delay its release. Shenmue 3 started with you, the project backers,” Suzuki said. “It’s been almost two years since we started this incredible endeavor together. By utilizing new technologies, we have been able to discover new possibilities and expressions.”

“In many ways, the game has become bigger and more beautiful than I initially expected. We do, however, need more time to deliver the game to you,” Suzuki continued. “In order to achieve the game concept you supported and my personal 16 year-long personal dream, we have revised the development schedule. We are moving ahead with a plan to release the game in the second half of 2018. Details will be revealed in the Backer Report later this month. Thank you very much for your understanding and continued support.”

So there you have it, folks. It’s a bummer for sure, but we’re certainly not surprised given the fact that it’s only been in development for about two years. We hope that this added development time will do the game justice, and it will be a worthy follow-up so many people are hoping it will be.  

The video gives us an inside look at the development team working on the QTE mechanics, a dialogue meeting, a quest test play that includes several shots of Ryo interacting with objects and a meeting with Suzuki himself.

There’s also a shot of an unmarked arcade cabinet, and Suzuki did mention in his Reddit AMA that he was thinking about adding arcade games in Shenmue 3, so it’s great that it looks like that will become a reality. 

You can give it a watch here.

“Development is entering the final stage headed towards full-scale production. Early in the new year, I think we’ll be able to show you things such as new videos.

“We will continue progressing with development so that our backers and those who experience the world of Shenmue for the first time can do so with pleasure.

“Also, at noon on December 15, we will start pre-order sales for the PC version of Shenmue III, which received a lot of requests.

Those interested in Shenmue III, please check the official website.”