You guys may as well be the first to know. This from me might be posted on Dojo soon [no up
http://shenmue.planets.gamespy.com/], so here goes:
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> Can you clarify what you will try to update us on?
Hey
To clarify, what I meant was I wanted to get clarification on something I
heard a couple of days ago, which is that yes, Shenmue Online is ***ed and
Suzuki' s status is, once again, up in the air, which counts Shenmue III
totally out of the picture right now. This is confirmed, it seems. I am not
running any story on it.
Yeah Neil did do stuff for us in the earlier days of Kikizo, and though I
don' t specifically remember saying it to him, yeah I have said those words
to plenty of people; I regret publishing that story to an extent because as
stone-solid true and genuine as our source was - someone who was and still
is on the production side at AM2 - quite well known but not publicly enough
(in the west) for anyone on your forum to have ever guessed correctly -
things changed rapidly during and afterwards of publishing the story, and
most short-sighted people following the story blame us for inaccurate
reporting. Our reporting was fair and the facts were true; Sega' s
consistency, communication to RHQs, and perhaps decisions, were not. SoA' s
flat out denial was hilarious to me. It' s a big company and the fact that
then-PR people in America had no idea of the status of something we had been
following more intimately than they had, for ages, I have to say, came as no
surprise.
Reporting on something that is such a distant (2-3 year) possibility from
provable fruition, in the light that it MIGHT get an announcement more
imminently than that, when we cannot name a source and offer no evidence,
and offer just our word for it, was a bad idea. It harmed my/our reputation,
Kikizo' s name and the rest of it. We' re only publishing exclusive news ever
since then when a) it can be revealed as obviously true soon afterwards
(many times this has happened for us - including Sega scoops); or b, we can
quote and name our source, and then if it' s bullshit it' s their fault for
lying, not ours (Case in point, Ogawa denying Nights about a week before it
was announced - Rest. Case.). It was a valuable lesson. I know plenty of
things that falls into neither a) nor b) to be true right now about all
kinds of game stories that would be big, and would simply not publish them
for this reason. Companies change minds, companies lie, companies will say
media is lying to make them look better, and so on.
As for Shenmue, I would have to say at this stage, it is worth forgetting
about. If all the fans get any rich relatives together and channel it though
Dojo perhaps we could buy rights, hire Suzuki (he' d likely say yes) and
independently make the game under license from Sega at no risk to them. That
is the only way it will get made at this stage I think.
You can post these comments if you like
Sorry about this.
Adam
> You sure it' s okay for me to post this? It' s like a nail in the coffin for us.
If it' s the whole quote, I don' t see what further harm it can do, I mean it
should go without saying I still stand by the article, but right now it
certainly does not look like any of it is headed the way I certainly hoped
it would, and could have gone, at the stage it was published (and I believe
the facts reported were made clearly distinct from my own ' hopes' at the
time). AM2 was not lying to us and we were not lying to the fans. Anyone who
knows anything about Sega knows there have been a lot of changes with the
company and this latest news, which I just learned on Monday, is all I have
to go by at this time... I never set out to say what people want to hear,
but to report what we can verify as fact, and this includes the bad news to
you guys, in this case. I am still of the view, never say never; there are a
million examples of dead IP resurrected. As it stands today though, Shenmue
appears to be a dead, or shelved, IP as far as Sega Sammy is concerned. And
this development only came to be obvious within SOJ in the last month or so
from what I understand.
It' s a good job I never ran a story claiming that Propeller Arena would
definitely hit shelves when it was 100% complete. Imagine.
We guaranteed the date Sonic next-gen would be revealed, where, and how. We
guaranteed VF5 would come to 360. We have the best track record of Sega
interviews of anyone in the world. And when we can' t report something I try
my best to sneak in hints into stories, just for Sega fans.
As for the Shenmue fans' view of Kikizo, all I can say is we have done our
best to keep them updated the whole way along - on the site and behind the
scenes - Suzuki has not spoken to any western media apart from Kikizo in
like 5 years - people would not believe how difficult that is to pull off
with the way Sega is nowadays - so please respect what we have tried to do,
but at the end of the day, I do not run Sega.
Frankly Sega has been akin to religion for me since I was 8 and also changed
my life, and I simply would not play with people' s feelings on this stuff.
There' s one last thing which I have known for a while but still can' t spell
out; but, in the right circumstances, it wouldn' t surprise me if Sega sold
off the rights for this IP and somebody went with those rights. Just look at
Prope. One benefit of Sega Sammy is greater flexibility in how to pursue IP
both old and new. In other words, we' re back to square one because it is
still as likely to see light of day as not, if you adjust your perspective.
That is why the last time we spoke I alluded there is hope even if it might
not be reached in the way people might assume was the only way. But for now,
Shenmue fans should chill for a year or two and assume the worst while
hoping for the best.