After developing several successful Sega arcade games, including Hang-On (1985), Out Run (1986) and Virtua Fighter (1993), the director, Yu Suzuki, wanted to create a longer experience, and conceived Shenmue as a multi-part epic. In 1996, Sega AM2 began work on a role-playing game for the Sega Saturn set in the Virtua Fighter world. Development moved to the Dreamcast in 1997 and the Virtua Fighter connection was dropped. Shenmue became the most expensive video game ever developed at the time, with an estimated production and marketing cost of $47–70 million, though this also covered some of Shenmue II (2001).
Despite sales of 1.2 million, Shenmue did not recoup its development cost and was a commercial failure. It received positive reviews for its graphics, soundtrack and ambition, though its slow pace and emphasis on mundane detail divided players. It attracted a cult following, appeared in several lists of the greatest video games of all time, and is credited for pioneering game mechanics such as quick time events and open worlds. Later appraisal has been mixed, with criticism for its controls, pace and voice acting.
After the release of Shenmue II, further Shenmue games entered development hell and Suzuki left Sega. In 2018, Sega released high-definition ports of Shenmue and Shenmue II for multiple formats. Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, Suzuki developed Shenmue III independently; it was released for the PlayStation 4 and Windows in 2019. An anime adaptation of Shenmue premiered in 2022.
Gameplay
The player controls the teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki as he investigates his father's murder in Yokosuka in 1986. They must explore the open world, searching for clues, examining objects and talking to non-player characters. Occasionally, Ryo battles opponents in fighting sequences similar to Sega's Virtua Fighter series; outside of combat, players can practice moves to increase their power. In quick time events, the player must press the right button within a time limit to succeed.[4][5]
Shenmue features a persistent world with level of detail considered unprecedented for games at the time.[6] Shops open and close, buses run to timetables, and characters have their own routines, each in accordance with the in-game clock.[7][8] The player can inspect objects including drawers, cabinets and shelves, though not all objects are interactive.[9] Ryo receives a daily allowance which can be spent on items including food, raffle tickets, audio cassettes and capsule toys. There are several minigames; in the local arcade, for example, Ryo can throw darts or play complete versions of the Sega arcade games Hang-On and Space Harrier. Later in the game, Ryo gets a part-time job at the docks and must ferry crates between warehouses and compete in races using a forklift.[4][5]
Edge described Shenmue as "a game of middle management, often composed of the unglamorous daily grinds—being home for bedtime, wisely spending money earned from a day job, or training combat moves through lonely practice—that other games bypass".[10]
Plot
In Yokosuka, Japan, 1986, the teenage martial arts student Ryo Hazuki returns to his family dojo to witness a confrontation between his father, Iwao, and a Chinese man, Lan Di. Lan Di easily incapacitates Ryo, and threatens to kill him unless Iwao gives him a mysterious stone artifact, the dragon mirror. Iwao tells him the mirror is buried under the cherry blossom tree outside. As his men recover the mirror, Lan Di mentions a man he claims Iwao killed in China. He delivers a finishing blow and Iwao dies in Ryo's arms.
Ryo swears revenge on Lan Di and asks locals for information. As he is about to run out of leads, a letter addressed to Ryo's father arrives from a Chinese man, Zhu Yuanda, suggesting he seek the aid of Master Chen, who works at Yokosuka Harbor. Through Chen and his son Guizhang, Ryo learns that the mirror taken by Lan Di is one of two. He locates the second, the phoenix mirror, in a hidden basement beneath the family dojo.
Chen reveals that Lan Di has left Japan for Hong Kong. Ryo borrows money to buy a boat ticket from a disreputable travel agency. When he goes to collect the ticket, he is ambushed by Chai, a member of Lan Di's criminal organization, the Chi You Men, who destroys his ticket. Ryo learns that the Chi You Men is connected to the local harbor gang, the Mad Angels, and takes a job at the harbor as a forklift driver to investigate. After he causes trouble, the Mad Angels kidnap his schoolfriend Nozomi. Ryo rescues her and makes a deal with the Mad Angels leader to beat up Guizhang in exchange for a meeting with Lan Di. Ryo realizes the deal is a trap and teams up with Guizhang to defeat the Mad Angels.
Ryo arranges to take a boat to Hong Kong with Guizhang. On the day of departure, they are attacked by Chai. Ryo defeats him, but Guizhang is injured and urges Ryo to go without him, saying he will meet him in China later. Chen advises Ryo to seek the help of a martial artist in Hong Kong named Lishao Tao. Ryo boards the boat and leaves for Hong Kong.
Shenmue was created by Yu Suzuki. After joining Sega in 1983, Suzuki created several successful arcade games including Hang-On (1985), Out Run (1986) and Virtua Fighter (1993).[11] In comparison to arcade games, where the ideal experience is only a few minutes long, Suzuki wanted to make a longer experience and researched role-playing games (RPGs).[11]
To test camera, combat and conversation systems, Suzuki and Sega AM2 built a prototype Sega Saturn game, The Old Man and the Peach Tree, about a young man, Taro, seeking a martial arts grandmaster in 1950s Luoyang, China.[8] Taro brings an old man a peach in exchange for information about the grandmaster; at the end of the game, the man skilfully skips stones across water to hunt fish, revealing that he is the grandmaster.[11]
In 1996, AM2 began developing a 3D Saturn RPG with the working title Guppy.[8] This became Virtua Fighter RPG: Akira's Story, an RPG starring the Virtua Fighter character Akira. AM2 planned a "cinematic" approach, including voice acting and elaborate combat sequences.[11] Suzuki researched locations in China, and constructed four acts with the themes "sadness", "fight",[sic] "departure" and "starting afresh". In this version of the story, Akira would overcome his grief following his father's death, travel to China, defeat an antagonist, and begin a journey with a new friend. Suzuki recruited a screenwriter, a playwright and film directors to write the multi-part story,[11][12] which IGN described as a "revenge epic in the tradition of Chinese cinema".[13]
In 1997, development moved to Sega's upcoming console, the Dreamcast. In 1998, the Sega of America vice president, Bernie Stolar told Next Generation: "I can't tell you what Suzuki-san is working on. Let's just say that I've seen the project and it's going to rock the gaming world."[14] The same year, to better market the game as a Dreamcast "killer app", the Virtua Fighter connection was dropped and Suzuki announced the working title Project Berkley.[14] It had been re-titled Shenmue by the time of the Dreamcast's release in Japan in November 1998.[11] Sega announced that Shenmue was so unique it belonged to a new genre it termed "full reactive eyes entertainment" or "FREE".[14]
A screenshot of an early version of Shenmue, then titled Virtua Fighter RPG: Akira's Story, for the Sega Saturn
AM2 focused on developing the game world, creating a large open environment with minigames and subquests. The setting is modeled on Dobuita in Yokosuka, Japan.[15] The team worked with interior decorators to design more than 1,200 rooms and locations,[11][16] and created over 300 characters with their own names, personalities and relationships, some modeled on Sega employees,[17][18] with detailed clay models as animation references.[19]Meteorological records of 1986 Yokosuka were used to create algorithmically generated weather and day-and-night cycles.[11] The cut scenes are rendered in real time, without full-motion video (FMV), and motion capture was used to capture the movements of Budō (Japanese martial arts) experts.[20] To fit the material onto a manageable number of discs, AM2 developed a new type of data compression.[11]
In 1999, AM2 focused on fixing bugs, finding hundreds each day. At the time, there were no bug-tracking systems, so the team tracked bugs with Excel spreadsheets; at one point, they had tracked over 10,000 unresolved bugs.[11] On one occasion, several non-player characters became trapped in the convenience store where they had gone as part of their scripted routines; Suzuki's solution was to widen the store's door.[8] The product placement of the Coca-Cola and Timex brands also created problems, as the companies had strict specifications for their implementation.[11] Suzuki said the biggest challenge was management, with over 300 staff and no experience of large projects.[11]
According to the localizer Jeremy Blaustein, Shenmue's English localization was fraught with problems exacerbated by the project's scale. At Suzuki's insistence, the English voices were recorded in Japan, which greatly restricted the casting; Blaustein said "we hired basically every single [English-speaking] person that exists [in Japan] and calls themselves a voice actor".[21] The scripts were translated by several people, creating consistency problems, and arrived late, leaving no time for rewrites or proper direction.[21]
Shenmue became the most expensive game ever developed at the time, reported to have cost Sega $70 million. In 2011, Suzuki said the figure was closer to $47 million including marketing.[5] Development also covered some of Shenmue II (2001), which was completed for a smaller amount,[22] and groundwork for future Shenmue games.[23]
Promotion and release
On November 27, 1998, Sega released the Dreamcast in Japan. The launch game Virtua Fighter 3tb, also directed by Suzuki, included a preview disc of Shenmue featuring FMV scenes and an interview with Suzuki, but no gameplay footage. On December 20, 1998, Sega unveiled Shenmue at a conference at the Yokohama International Assembly Hall and demonstrated its clock, weather and quick time event systems; fans could watch the conference online.[14] Initial reactions were positive, with Edge saying it "could be one of the most ambitious and important video game endeavours of the decade".[24] However, the quick time events angered some fans, who had assumed Shenmue would only use Virtua Fighter-style battles.[14]
Sega announced a Japanese release date of April 1999,[25] which was delayed to August 5.[25] At the Tokyo Game Show that March, Sega announced that Shenmue would span multiple games and allowed the public to play it for the first time. At a Japanese consumer show on May 3, Sega demonstrated the facial animation and announced that non-player characters would have their own daily routines. Later that month, Sega showed Shenmue in America for the first time at the 1999 Game Developer's Conference. It was playable the following week at the E3 trade fair in Los Angeles.[14]
At a Japanese consumer conference on June 1, 1999, Sega announced a Shenmue promotion to coincide with a Dreamcast price drop. Sega distributed a limited-edition video, What's Shenmue, with Dreamcast consoles and games, and a playable demo from August 1.[14] The "spoof" demo has Ryo search a small area of Yokosuka for Sega then-managing director Hidekazu Yukawa.[26] Sega also announced that Shenmue had been delayed to October 28.[27] On June 22, Sega announced a "Shenmue Subway Tour", showing playable demos at Japanese train stations that August.[14]NHK spent six months with the development team and broadcast a making-of documentary about the game before its release.[6]
At the end of September, Sega announced a release date for early 2000,[28] before moving it ahead to the final week of 1999.[29] Sega released Shenmue on December 29, 1999, in Japan,[30] November 7, 2000, in North America,[31][32] and December 1, 2000, in Europe.[33]
Shenmue holds an average aggregate score of 89% on GameRankings.[34] Critics praised its graphics, realism, soundtrack and ambition. IGN called it "a gaming experience that no one, casual to hardcore gamer, can miss",[50] and Eurogamer called it "one of the most compelling and unusual gaming experiences ever created".[59]GameSpot wrote that though Shenmue is "far from perfect" it was "revolutionary" and "worth experiencing—provided you have the time to invest".[60]Edge initially called the Japanese version a "landmark";[61] they later said the English version was not the "milestone" they had hoped for, but was "involving, and ultimately rewarding".[7]
Ed Lomas of the UK Official Dreamcast Magazine said the production values were "astounding ... [Shenmue] is the most beautiful game ever made, no doubt about it." Though he acknowledged problems with controls, dated QTEs, script and voice acting, he felt the experience as a whole was "incredible", particularly its immersion and the freedom to pursue the story at the player's pace.[55] Jeff Lundrigan of Next Generation wrote: "Everyone on Earth owes it to themselves to play this. Some will enjoy it more than others, but no one will fail to recognize its magnificent production values and depth of design."[52]
Several reviews criticized the invisible walls, abundance of cutscenes, English voice acting, and inability to progress without waiting for scheduled events.[23][50][62]GameSpot wrote that by "the time you're driving forklifts and participating in the game's QTE-filled conclusion, hours upon hours of boredom will have taken their toll".[60]Game Informer criticized the lack of action, writing: "Determining your character's next move requires little more than talking to someone, who will then tell you who to see or where to go... all that's left is a guy walking around an amazingly detailed environment. If I wanted to experience that, I could see it in another game with proven endless entertainment value. It's called life."[43]
Sales
Shenmue sold 260,000 copies in its first week of release in Japan.[63] It eventually sold 1.2 million copies[64] and became one of the Dreamcast's highest-selling games.[65] However, its sales did not cover its development cost and analysts consider it a major commercial failure.[66][67]USgamer wrote that though the sales would have been a success for most games, only an "impossible" number of sales would have seen Shenmue turn a profit.[66] According to GamesRadar, every Dreamcast owner would have needed to buy Shenmue twice for it to turn a profit, and so "ironically it probably did as much to kill the Dreamcast as it did to cement its reputation".[67] It contributed to Sega's exit from the game console market following years of declining profits.[66][67]
The Shenmue localizer, Jeremy Blaustein, likened the failure to the epic 1980 film Heaven's Gate, which went drastically over budget and was a commercial failure: "Suzuki was coming off of huge past successes, and he was the man. And so this was going be the thing ... And everyone wanted a piece of that $70 million, you know? And of course that's like the worst thing you could do, is to start out a project saying we've got all this money, and then just keep throwing more money at it."[21]Peter Moore, the president of Sega of America at the time, said Shenmue sold "extremely well" but could not make a profit due to the Dreamcast's limited installed base.[68] The Dreamcast engineer and future Sega president Hideki Sato defended Shenmue as an "investment [which] will someday be recouped" because the lessons learnt during development could be applied to other games.[22][69]
Awards
Shenmue received the Excellence Prize for "Interactive Art" at the 2000 Japan Media Arts Festival.[56]Edge awarded awarded it for "Graphical Achievement", writing that Suzuki's "experiment in creating what is a complete, populated virtual world in which a game occurs proves to be a mighty success, particularly the "breathtaking" level of detail of the character models, and that never had there been "such a convincing representation of real life" in a video game.[57]GameSpot named Shenmue the most disappointing console game of 2000, but awarded it the prize for "Best Graphics, Technical" for a console game, and nominated it for "Best Adventure Game", "Best Sound", and "Best Graphics, Artistic".[70] During the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in March 2001, Shenmue received the "Console Innovation" award, along with nominations for "Game of the Year", "Console Game of the Year", "Character or Story Development", and "Game Design".[58]
Influence and legacy
In 2009, the IGN Xbox editor Hilary Goldstein praised Shenmue for its "great ideas", but said it was "ultimately uninteresting". IGN Nintendo's Matt Casamassina felt it was "more of a technical demo than a coherent game".[71] However, IGN UK's Martin Robinson described it as "a deeply personal game" that "opened my eyes to a whole new world for video games, suggesting that they didn't have to be about shooting aliens in the face, rescuing the princess or slaying orcs for hours on end — they could be about real people in a real place... It's the mundane moments that gave Shenmue its poetry."[71]
If the Grand Theft Auto games have been vilified as crime simulators in which you can press a button to buy a hooker then run a hooker over with a car, Shenmue is a game where you can press a button to politely ask directions, then combo into cherishing your elders and always remembering to recycle. Instead of giving us a city to be tested and battered against in all directions, Shenmue builds you a world and asks you to follow the rules rather than break them.[72]
Brendan Main, The Escapist, December 21, 2010
In 2011, Empire wrote that "the digital environment created by Shenmue was revolutionary at the time... Even by today's standards, its rich and affectionate vision of urban Japan is inspiring."[73] In his 2010 book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die, David McCarthy wrote of Shenmue's "paradigmatic impact on the entire video game industry". According to McCarthy, while it appears "crude and blocky" compared to modern games, Shenmue "recreated the real world with... attention to detail that has never been rivaled".[74] In a 2014 retrospective, Edge wrote that "some were entranced by the game's abounding atmosphere and visual detail. Others left frozen by clumpy interaction with an unthreatening, almost rustic world... where they'd wander the districts of Yokosuka while asking unusual questions to pensioners and hairdressers."[10] In the same year, The Guardian wrote: "[Shenmue's] pacing might be glacial compared to the rollercoaster tempo of Uncharted, but slowing things down allows for a greater appreciation of everything that Suzuki and Sega's AM2 department achieved here... how everything is held together remains quite exquisite, under the closest scrutiny, even by 2014 standards."[75]
Reviews of the HD ports of Shenmue in 2018 were less positive. Destructoid's Peter Glagowski wrote that Shenmue had "interesting concepts that are marred by poor execution", and criticized the combat and slow pacing. He concluded: "This open-world design was truly original and fascinating in 1999, but there really wasn't a need to include half of the features that Shenmue has."[76] The Escapist critic Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw disliked the "relentless" and "frenetic" combat, and felt that the open world lacked content between key story moments.[77] The critic James Stephanie Sterling wrote that "Shenmue is dreadful [...] Maybe at the turn of the millennium when this game was worth a shit it could get away with being bold, but boldness is no excuse for wasting the player's time, having absolutely no respect for the audience or its patience, and generally expecting people to make their own fun in a game that doesn't really give all that many tools to have fun with."[78]
Shenmue attracted a cult following. Fans visit Dobuita Street in Yokosuka, where most of the game is set.[79] It has been included in several lists of the greatest games of all time. In 2007, Edge named it the 50th-greatest game,[80] and in 2008 it was voted the 25th-greatest in Game's reader poll of more than 100,000 votes.[81] In 2006 and 2008, IGN readers voted Shenmue the 81st-greatest game.[82] In April 2011, Empire ranked it the 42nd-best game.[73] In April 2013, Den of Geek ranked Shenmue and Shenmue II the joint-best Dreamcast games.[83] In September 2013, readers of the German games magazine M! Games voted Shenmue the best game of all time.[84] In October 2013, MSN UK named it one of the 20 best games of all time.[85] In 2014, Shenmue was named the 71st-best game ever by Slant Magazine[86] and the seventh by Empire.[87]
In September 2011, Suzuki left Sega to focus on his development studio Ys Net.[98] At the E3 conference on June 15, 2015, he announced a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to develop Shenmue III with Ys Net for PlayStation 4 and Windows having licensed the rights from Sega. The campaign reached its initial $2 million goal in just under nine hours.[99] On July 17, 2015, Shenmue III became the fastest-funded and highest-funded video game project in Kickstarter history, raising $6.3 million in total.[100] It was released on November 19, 2019.[101]
Port
A remake of Shenmue and Shenmue II, featuring new models, textures and lighting, was canceled in 2017 due to technical problems.[102] On August 21, 2018, Sega released high-definition ports of Shenmue and Shenmue II for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.[103] The ports were developed by the British studio D3T,[104] and include new graphics and control options, improved user interfaces, and Japanese and English voices.[105] Some details, such as product placement, were omitted, and cutscenes were presented in their original aspect ratio due to technical limitations.[106]
The ports were released in Japan on November 22, 2018, and debuted at number four on the Japanese charts with 37,529 retail sales on PlayStation 4.[107] They remained among the top 20 bestselling games in Japan until December 2, 2018, having sold almost 45,000 copies.[108]IGN reported numerous bugs affecting graphics, cutscenes, controls and saved games.[104] Eigo Kasahara, the planning director of the original Shenmue, expressed frustration and said he had urged D3T to fix the problems.[104] In 2021, a fan project to remake Shenmue based on the 2018 ports using Unreal Engine 4 was announced.[109]
Other media
Sega released a soundtrack album, Shenmue Orchestra Version, on April 1, 1999, before the game's release.[110] A two-disc soundtrack album, Shenmue OST Chapter 1: Yokosuka, was released on March 23, 2000.[111] A compilation film of Shenmue's cutscenes, Shenmue: The Movie, was released theatrically in Japan in 2001 and packaged with the Xbox version of Shenmue II.[112][113] An anime adaptation of Shenmue premiered on February 6, 2022.[114]
The Sega Saturn is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the successful Genesis. The Saturn has a dual-CPU architecture and eight processors. Its games are in CD-ROM format, including several ports of arcade games and original games.
The Dreamcast is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released 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, Nintendo's GameCube, and Microsoft's Xbox. The Dreamcast's 2001 discontinuation ended Sega's 18 years in the console market.
Virtua Tennis, known in Japan as Power Smash, is a 1999 tennis arcade game created by Sega. The player competes through tennis tournaments in an arcade mode. It was ported to the Dreamcast in 2000, and to Windows in 2002. A Game Boy Advance version was also released in 2002, followed by an N-Gage version in 2003. For the home console market, the game was expanded with the introduction of the campaign mode.
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-dimensional sprite-scaling games that used "taikan" motion simulator arcade cabinets, such as Hang-On, Space Harrier, Out Run and After Burner, and pioneering polygonal 3D games such as Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter, which are some of the games besides others from rival companies during that era credited with popularizing 3D graphics in video games; as well as the critically acclaimed Shenmue series. As a hardware engineer, he led the development of various arcade system boards, including the Sega Space Harrier, Model 1, Model 2 and Model 3, and was involved in the technical development of the Dreamcast console and its corresponding NAOMI arcade hardware.
Sonic the Fighters, also known as Sonic Championship, is a 1996 three-dimensional fighting video game from Sega. The game, developed by Sega AM2 and built on their Model 2 arcade system, pits players in one-on-one battles with a roster of characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Sonic the Fighters was made using the fighting engine for Fighting Vipers (1995), and it was the first 3D game in the Sonic series; the idea for a Sonic fighting game was conceived when a Sega AM2 programmer experimented with a 3D Sonic the Hedgehog model in Fighting Vipers, its animation impressing and convincing the Sonic Team to approve the project.
In the history of video games, the sixth generation era is the era of computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld gaming devices available at the turn of the 21st century, starting on November 27, 1998. Platforms in the sixth generation include consoles from four companies: the Sega Dreamcast (DC), Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2), Nintendo GameCube (GC), and Microsoft Xbox. This era began on November 27, 1998, with the Japanese release of the Dreamcast, which was joined by the PlayStation 2 on March 4, 2000, the GameCube on September 14, 2001 and the Xbox on November 15, 2001, respectively. On March 31, 2001, the Dreamcast was among the first to be discontinued. Xbox in 2006, GameCube in 2007 and PlayStation 2 was the last, in January 2013. Meanwhile, the seventh generation of consoles started on November 22, 2005, with the launch of the Xbox 360.
Daytona USA is a 1994 arcade racing game developed by Japanese studio Sega AM2. Inspired by the popularity of the NASCAR motor racing series in the US, the game has players race stock cars on one of three courses. It was the first game to be released on the Sega Model 2 arcade system board. Released by Sega in March of 1994, Daytona USA is one of the highest-grossing arcade games of all time.
Sega AM Research & Development No. 3, known as Hitmaker Co., Ltd. from 2000 to 2004, is a defunct division of Sega, a Japanese video game company. Established by 1993, AM3 was managed by Hisao Oguchi and developed a number of arcade games for Sega. Series introduced by AM3 include Virtual On, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi, and Virtua Tennis. AM3's main focus was on arcade games until the release of the Dreamcast. Additionally, developers Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Kenji Sasaki developed Sega Rally Championship with AM3 before departing to form AM Annex, which later split into Sega AM9 and Sega AM5.
Shenmue II is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega and Microsoft Game Studios. It was directed, produced and written by Yu Suzuki.
Sega AM Research & Development No. 2, previously known as SEGA-AM2 Co., Ltd., is a video game development team within the Japanese multinational video game developer Sega. Yu Suzuki, who had previously developed arcade games for Sega including Hang-On and Out Run, was the first manager of the department.
Virtua Fighter 2 is a 1994 fighting video game by Sega. It is the sequel to Virtua Fighter (1993), and the second game in the Virtua Fighter series. Created by Sega's Yu Suzuki-headed AM2 team, it was designed on the purpose-made Sega Model 2 hardware which provided a significant upgrade in graphical capabilities. Following its release on the arcades, Virtua Fighter 2 was ported to the Sega Saturn home console in November 1995, while ports for some other platforms appeared later.
F355 Challenge is a 1999 racing simulation arcade video game based on the race car and Ferrari event. It was developed by the AM2 division of Sega for the Sega Naomi Multiboard arcade system board under the direction of Yu Suzuki, and was later ported to the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 home video game consoles under the names F355 Challenge: Passione Rossa and Ferrari F355 Challenge respectively for both American and European releases. The only model of car featured in the game is the Ferrari F355 Challenge model. Unlike Sega's other arcade racers like Out Run titles, F355 Challenge aimed to be realistic. The game was considered the most accurate simulation of the F355 possible up until that time.
Virtua Fighter 3 is a 1996 fighting game developed and published by Sega, the sequel to 1994's Virtua Fighter 2 as part of the Virtua Fighter series. Released originally on arcades, an updated version named Virtua Fighter 3tb was later made with the addition of team battles. This updated version of the game was ported to the Dreamcast home console in 1998 after the cancellation of a Sega Saturn port.
Virtua Fighter is a series of fighting games created by Sega AM2 and designer Yu Suzuki. The original Virtua Fighter was released in December 1993 and has received four main sequels and several spin-offs. The highly influential first Virtua Fighter game is widely recognized as the first 3D fighting game released. The latest mainline release was Virtua Fighter 5 in 2006; this version has since been continously updated.
Rent A Hero is an action role-playing video game series released by Sega for the Mega Drive console in 1991 with a large emphasis on humor. The game features the same graphic engine previously used in the development of Sword of Vermilion. However, Rent A Hero has an unusual innovation for the genre. Instead of using standard turn-based battles, fights are in a similar format to 2D fighting games.
Shenmue III is a 2019 action-adventure game developed by Ys Net, produced by Shibuya Productions and published by Deep Silver for PlayStation 4 and Windows. Like the previous Shenmue games, it consists of open-world environments interspersed with brawler battles and quick time events, with a day-and-night system, variable weather effects, non-player characters with daily schedules, and various minigames. Players control the teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki, who continues his search for his father's killer in the mountains of 1980s Guilin, China.
This is a list of development studios owned by Sega, a Japanese video game developer and publisher based in Tokyo, Japan. Accompanied with the list is their history of game development. Also included are the companies that Sega has acquired over the years. For a full list of games developed and published by Sega, see List of Sega video games, List of Sega mobile games and List of Sega arcade games.
Sega Corporation is a Japanese multinational video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It produces several multi-million-selling game franchises for arcades and consoles, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Angry Birds, Phantasy Star, Puyo Puyo, Super Monkey Ball, Total War, Virtua Fighter, Megami Tensei, Sakura Wars, Persona, and Yakuza. From 1983 until 2001, Sega also developed its own consoles.
Shenmue is an action-adventure game series created, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki. Shenmue (1999) and Shenmue II (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. Shenmue II was later released in 2002 to Western markets by Microsoft Game Studios and ported to the Xbox console. Shenmue III, developed by Suzuki's company Ys Net, was released for the PlayStation 4 and Windows in 2019.
The history of Sega, a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company, has roots tracing back to American Standard Games in 1940 and Service Games of Japan in the 1950s. The formation of the company known today as Sega is traced back to the founding of Nihon Goraku Bussan, which became known as Sega Enterprises, Ltd. following the acquisition of Rosen Enterprises in 1965. Originally an importer of coin-operated arcade games to Japan and manufacturer of slot machines and jukeboxes, Sega began developing its own arcade games in 1966 with Periscope, which became a surprise success and led to more arcade machine development. In 1969, Gulf and Western Industries bought Sega, which continued its arcade game business through the 1970s.
1 2 IGN staff (February 24, 1999). "News Bytes". IGN. Archived from the original on April 23, 2000. Retrieved September 19, 2022. Shenmue Delayed "...originally scheduled for Japanese release this April, the game has...been delayed until sometime this summer."
↑ IGN staff (June 1, 1999). "Sega's New Challenge Conference '99 Report". IGN. Archived from the original on June 23, 2000. Retrieved September 19, 2022. "That's right, folks, the first chapter of Yu Suzuki's vision has been moved from August 5th to October 28th."
↑ Provo, Frank (November 11, 2000). "Shenmue Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on December 8, 2014. Retrieved October 2, 2014. cf. Jay (December 2000). "Shenmue". Game Informer. Vol.10, no.92. p.120. cf. "Shenmue Review". Edge. November 29, 2000. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
↑ "DataStream"(PDF). Edge. No.82 (March 2000). February 22, 2000. p.122.
↑ Croshaw, Ben (September 12, 2018). "Zero Punctuation: Shenmue". Escapist Magazine. Archived from the original on November 3, 2018. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
