''Shenmue Online'' (シェンムーオンライン「莎木OL, ''Shenmū Onrain'') was an announced MMORPG where players participate in scenarios from ''

Shenmue II ''Shenmue II'' is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It was directed, produced and written by Yu Suzuki. Like the original ''Shenmue'' (1999), ''Shenmue II'' consists of open-world env ...

'', joining one of three clans, led by Shen Hua, Xiu Ying and Wu Ying Ren, all significant characters from the story.

Development history

In 2004, ''Shenmue Online'' was announced to be development in joint venture between Sega Japan and JC Entertainment of Korea. A private beta testing period was due to begin in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

in November 2005, with a public beta in China in spring 2005, before a release later in 2005. When ''Shenmue Online'' was first announced, under the development of JC Entertainment, the screenshots released were considered by many ''Shenmue'' fans to be disappointing graphically, especially as being part of a game series that boasted ground-breaking graphics on the

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nint ...

. In 2005, JC Entertainment pulled out of the development of ''Shenmue Online'', and as they owned 50% of the properties of ''Shenmue Online'', there was legal debate over who had the rights to the game. However, in November 2005, it was confirmed in an interview with Yu Suzuki that even though the Korean company JCE had announced their withdrawal from development, since ''Shenmue Online'' is a Sega venture, they would fulfil their duty of completing it. Yu said despite the internet rumours, development was well on its way and following their original goals and target. He added that Sega Sammy would make an official announcement about its progress in the future. At the China Joy convention in July 2006, with the development under the guise of a

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

-based company, a trailer was shown, which showcased features, including mini games and combat with marked graphical improvements. In 2006, six new screens from the gameplay along with a 14-minute video were released to the public during the fourth China Expo. These shots showed further improvement on graphical issues, comparing the graphics to other MMOs, and even home versions of ''Shenmue''. Since 2007, news about ''Shenmue Online'' has slowly declined and reports of its cancellation have appeared on ''

Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. History ...

'' and ''Wired''. Sega have yet to publicly confirm or deny the reports.

Gameplay

Quoted from an interpretation of

Yu Suzuki is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, who headed Sega's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimen ...

'
2005-11-05 interview

Notes

External links

Official website
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Shenmue Cancelled Windows games Massively multiplayer online role-playing games Shenmue Vaporware video games Video games designed by Yu Suzuki