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Sega Loses Shenmue Trademark Because they Didn’t Bother Using it

StylusX

Member
There were some damn heavy rumours of Shenmue HD and Skies of Arcadia HD to follow Jet Set Radio HD. Whether JSR didn't sell well enough or this is typical modern Sega money problems cancelling dev (Anarchy Reigns year delay due to not being able to afford disc printing, Typing Of The Dead guys working out of a flat, etc) so they can't even get ports of their DC catalogue out, who knows.

Give the mark to Suzuki. Let him have it all, Sega.

When i was working at sega (QA), Shenmue HD was always on a list of games that were coming in, of course it never did. No idea why it didn't happen.
 

Acidote

Member
Considering how SEGA is... I wonder how much of the original assets and code has been lost into oblivion.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
When i was working at sega (QA), Shenmue HD was always on a list of games that were coming in, of course it never did. No idea why it didn't happen.

I swear I read a couple years ago that Shenmue HD remakes were complete for 360...............

Yeah, it was definitely happening. When I say heavily rumoured I mean "enough dev people were mentioning it casually as a real thing". So...

Trust me, you don't want to know the real reasons behind this.

...I'd love to put paid to what killed off seemingly all the Dreamcast Legacy releases (pretty easy money I'd have imagined?). Its going to be ALL IN ON SONIC, NO MONEY FOR ANYTHING ELSE isn't it. Or the equally bizarre "Well Shenmue 3 isn't happening so why even bother trying to make money from the past eh" mindset that had them sitting on it for so long in the first place.
 

Spaghetti

Member
why are people saying shenmue online got shut down? it never came out.

shenmue mobile got shut down in favour of a new version but who knows if that ever happened.

this is weird though. sure sega aren't making shenmue games anymore or rereleasing the old titles, but they're still licencing third parties to make shenmue merchandise.
 
igFaVBoV4Byg1.gif
 

RAIDEN1

Member
Yakuza is the "spiritual successor" to Shenmue...the franchise is dead in the water so to speak..if Sega were THAT BOTHERED about it...they'd have released something already instead of dragging their heels..
 
maybe I'm just weird, but I feel like the Yakuza series has done a pretty respectable job of filling roughly the same role that Shenmue did.
 

thiscoldblack

Unconfirmed Member
What a waste. They could've at least released an HD version for Shenmue 1 & 2. See if that gauge some interest for a third game.
 
I said it a lot of times and I'll say it again. We will NEVER see Shenmue again, just don't bet on it. The IP is dead and had been dead for a very long time, it will neve come back. Shenmue has NOTHING to offer in th is day and age when a lot of games had since surpassed it.
 

iceatcs

Junior Member
Of course, Shenmue is already gone forever.

It is quite stupid to bring the squeal back too long. If they want 3rd one, they have to remake or rerelease I & II.
 

Atolm

Member
Why SEGA didn't make a Shenmue HD Collection for PS360 again?

Ah yeah, because it's SEGA.

Afaik, it's mostly due to legal/copyright reasons.

back in '12 you may remember that Sega went into a port spree. JSR, Nights...they thought it was a great idea, with very low risk and nice proft potential since, well, they don't want to fund traditional AAA anymore. Multiple ports were in development, among them was the canceled Skies of Arcadia port.

Shenmue case was special since not many people know this, but apparently the engine for both games uses licensed technology. It's not Bink Video or Sofdec codecs, apparently it's related to the very own engine.

Well, the thing is, according to what I've been told, the owner of those technologies folded years ago, and it's not clear who owns the copyright now.

Someone shown Sega a working Shenmue prototype for Xbox 360...but after disappointing sales by JSR and Nights, they didn't care enough to bother with the legal hassle. So it never went through the prototype stage, and the Skies of Arcadia port was canceled.

And I guess my dream of getting Model 3/later arcade games ports went to shit as well ;(
 

Lynd7

Member
I said it a lot of times and I'll say it again. We will NEVER see Shenmue again, just don't bet on it. The IP is dead and had been dead for a very long time, it will neve come back. Shenmue has NOTHING to offer in th is day and age when a lot of games had since surpassed it.

Eh? A new game could take every advancement from over the last decade and then build on top of it. Just looking at video and images of Shenmue, something as highly detailed and designed with today's graphics would be pretty awesome.

SEGA could rebuild interest, start with the HD re-release's and then give at least a modest budget to create the third game. The company is long gone anyway, they died mostly with the Sammy merger :(
 
Does Sega even really make games in house anymore? (aside from sonic).. Seems like most games that have the Sega name are just PUBLISHED by them..
 
Afaik, it's mostly due to legal/copyright reasons.

back in '12 you may remember that Sega went into a port spree. JSR, Nights...they thought it was a great idea, with very low risk and nice proft potential since, well, they don't want to fund traditional AAA anymore. Multiple ports were in development, among them was the canceled Skies of Arcadia port.

Shenmue case was special since not many people know this, but apparently the engine for both games uses licensed technology. It's not Bink Video or Sofdec codecs, apparently it's related to the very own engine.

Well, the thing is, according to what I've been told, the owner of those technologies folded years ago, and it's not clear who owns the copyright now.

Someone shown Sega a working Shenmue prototype for Xbox 360...but after disappointing sales by JSR and Nights, they didn't care enough to bother with the legal hassle. So it never went through the prototype stage, and the Skies of Arcadia port was canceled.

And I guess my dream of getting Model 3/later arcade games ports went to shit as well ;(

Oh, wow.
 

Komo

Banned
Does Sega even really make games in house anymore? (aside from sonic).. Seems like most games that have the Sega name are just PUBLISHED by them..

SEGA AM2 are still around, but apparently they just develop under the name SEGA, much like Sonic Team now, I beliiieve. I could be wrong on that last part though.
 

NekoFever

Member
Does Sega even really make games in house anymore? (aside from sonic).. Seems like most games that have the Sega name are just PUBLISHED by them..

The Yakuza games are made by one of the internal teams. The others are basically all Sonic and Sonic spin-offs. Plus the amusement divisions that make the arcade cabinets that are never seen outside Japan.
 
Opinions, how do they work.

Also, fuck SEGA. Fuck this world.

My feelings exactly.


Urm, yeah so? People can like what they like but in my opinion Shenmue 3 will never happen.

Eh? A new game could take every advancement from over the last decade and then build on top of it. Just looking at video and images of Shenmue, something as highly detailed and designed with today's graphics would be pretty awesome.

SEGA could rebuild interest, start with the HD re-release's and then give at least a modest budget to create the third game. The company is long gone anyway, they died mostly with the Sammy merger :(

Visuals and art aren't everything. The gameplay doesn't hold up at all today. They have to change the formula a lot to make it work for in today's world.
 

Gangxxter

Member
Does this only affect the name "Shenmue" or are we talking about the whole Shenmue franchise here? (graphics, design, characters, story, etc.)

I wish Activision would do the same thing with Crash Bandicoot.
 

DigitalOp

Banned
Afaik, it's mostly due to legal/copyright reasons.

back in '12 you may remember that Sega went into a port spree. JSR, Nights...they thought it was a great idea, with very low risk and nice proft potential since, well, they don't want to fund traditional AAA anymore. Multiple ports were in development, among them was the canceled Skies of Arcadia port.

Shenmue case was special since not many people know this, but apparently the engine for both games uses licensed technology. It's not Bink Video or Sofdec codecs, apparently it's related to the very own engine.

Well, the thing is, according to what I've been told, the owner of those technologies folded years ago, and it's not clear who owns the copyright now.

Someone shown Sega a working Shenmue prototype for Xbox 360...but after disappointing sales by JSR and Nights, they didn't care enough to bother with the legal hassle. So it never went through the prototype stage, and the Skies of Arcadia port was canceled.

And I guess my dream of getting Model 3/later arcade games ports went to shit as well ;(

This account is pretty much proof that a subsect of gamers want want want but don't really put their money where their mouth is.

Yes, nobody owes any company anything but if you want to see more games you like made, you have to buy them.

Except Capcom, fuck capcom. They lied and took advantage of people.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Not surprised this has happened considering how Sega has been treating their older catalog of IPs...

Speaking of Shenmue on a slightly related topic I wonder how much this watch is worth.

 

Lynd7

Member
Urm, yeah so? People can like what they like but in my opinion Shenmue 3 will never happen.

Visuals and art aren't everything. The gameplay doesn't hold up at all today. They have to change the formula a lot to make it work for in today's world.

Yeah, I didn't word it clearly. But when I said advancements I meant everything from visuals to gameplay mechanics etc.
 

shin_velcro

Neo Member
Only good thing now is I hope people will stop thinking it's ever going to get another game & just move on. Yakuza is the same damn game any way.
 

MilkBeard

Member
There were some damn heavy rumours of Shenmue HD and Skies of Arcadia HD to follow Jet Set Radio HD. Whether JSR didn't sell well enough or this is typical modern Sega money problems cancelling dev (Anarchy Reigns year delay due to not being able to afford disc printing, Typing Of The Dead guys working out of a flat, etc) so they can't even get ports of their DC catalogue out, who knows.

Give the mark to Suzuki. Let him have it all, Sega.

Yeah, I would be happy if he got the IP and made the rest of the series as indie titles using a small team.
 

Spaghetti

Member
Afaik, it's mostly due to legal/copyright reasons.

Shenmue case was special since not many people know this, but apparently the engine for both games uses licensed technology. It's not Bink Video or Sofdec codecs, apparently it's related to the very own engine.

Well, the thing is, according to what I've been told, the owner of those technologies folded years ago, and it's not clear who owns the copyright now.
i can believe this

shenmue's credits had a huge laundry list of partners for production and development tools
 
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