You’ve actually gotta hand it to Shenmue followers. Few online game fandoms have been this persistent in efforts to maintain alive a cult hit. Their newest motion: Renting out a video board in New York’s Instances Sq. to demand a publishing accomplice crew up with sequence creator Ys Internet to ship a Shenmue 4.
As IGN factors out, quick commercials within the coronary heart of Manhattan can nonetheless price as little as $40, so it’s not like this was a mighty crowdfunding marketing campaign just like the one which raised hundreds of thousands in 2015 and delivered Shenmue 3 in 2019. It’s nonetheless a formidable gesture of loyalty to a online game sequence that received the basic recreation trending on X (the previous Twitter) and grabbed plenty of mainstream consideration.
Broadcast reside throughout our #Shenmue Day stream, #LetsGetShenmue4 hit the streets of New York with a full on 15 second commercial on Instances Sq.! 🏙️
Shenmue followers do some insane issues to try to get recognised…are you watching @SEGA @SEGA_OFFICIAL?👀 pic.twitter.com/gzfLzQWZb9
— Shenmue Dojo 🐉 (@Shenmue_Dojo) June 4, 2024
The marketing campaign received began after sequence creator Yu Suzuki gave an interview in early Might through which he stated he was down for a Shenmue 4, assuming a publishing accomplice may very well be discovered. That’s all Shenmue followers wanted to listen to. The hashtag #LetsGetShenmue4 began trending on Tuesday because of a coordinated social media marketing campaign led by the fansite Shenmue Dojo.
Why is Shenmue so well-liked?
For these unfamiliar with the sport, Shenmue (1999) and its sequel Shenmue II (2001) had been action-adventures following the story of protagonist Ryo Hazuki. Primarily a martial arts combating recreation, Shenmue and its sequel had been early exponents of the fashionable open-world method, going thus far to ship an immersive story for Ryo’s life that gamers ended up driving forklifts and doing different menial jobs, whereas additionally visiting arcades to purchase gachapon toys or play basic Sega arcade cupboards. Shenmue is extensively celebrated for its no-detail-is-too-small method to Ryo’s life.
Shenmue and Shenmue II had been additionally carefully related to the Sega Dreamcast, the final console that firm produced, nonetheless revered (and lamented) by hardcore video video games fans because it was discontinued in 2001. They held a torch for the sequence for nearly 15 years till Suzuki appeared at PlayStation’s E3 2015 keynote to announce a crowdfunding effort to create Shenmue 3. It raised its preliminary purpose of $2 million lower than 9 hours after the preliminary announcement, and ended up elevating greater than $7 million to assist develop a recreation that finally launched in 2019 on PlayStation 4 and Home windows PC.
Whereas the important reception to Shenmue 3 was middling to nonplussed, Shenmue followers reveled within the supply of a long-demanded sequel, in addition to the fan service it represented and their grassroots triumph in getting it revealed. Clearly they’re feeling the identical vibes once more with this newest marketing campaign. And who might begrudge this sort of enthusiasm, actually?
We’ll see if any writer picks up the bit, although. Deep Silver was the Shenmue III writer, and its mother or father firm, Embracer Group, has been staggered by layoffs and a sequence of high-priced bets on licensed titles that didn’t pan out. It has since offered off Warhammer 40,000 House Marine 2 studio/writer Saber Interactive and cut up into three spinoff firms as a part of an general cost-saving technique meant to appease restive buyers.