It’s been nearly five years since the launch of Shenmue III. Even though the game’s release after nearly two decades was akin to a miracle, the story isn’t finished. Fans haven’t given up yet, as proven by a Shenmue 4 ad that decorated New York’s Times Square this week.
Die-hard fans from the site Shenmue Dojo were behind the short ad, which appeared in Times Square on June 4. The campaign consisted of a 15-second advertisement and getting fans on board with the hashtag #letsgetshenmue4 on X.
Do you think Sega noticed? This is admittedly a incredible way to flag the publisher’s attention. Getting one 15-second ad at Times Square starts as low as $40, so it’s not like they had to break the bank. Still, it’s a bold strategy; let’s see if it pays off.
Shenmue fans are still on Lan Di’s trail
The Shenmue saga has been a fascinating one to live through and cover over the years. First released on the Dreamcast in 1999, Shenmue was developer Yu Suzuki’s magnum opus. The Virtua Fighter creator dreamed of an open-world adventure game so personal and unique that he felt it would conceptualize a new genre: FREE, or Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment.
These days, we’d likely drop Shenmue into the open-world RPG subgenre and call it a day. The game did bring about innovations, though, such as time-based story progression and NPC scheduling — the latter of which some games eventually adopted.
Unfortunately, Shenmue mostly heralded a headache for Sega. Despite the positive reception, the game was expensive to make and too niche to meet sales expectations. The series lurched on with Shenmue II in 2001 (2002 on Xbox) but fell off the radar soon after. Suzuki, of course, never gave up. Shenmue III was revealed at the E3 2015 Sony Press Conference, getting a standing ovation and, understandably, some tears. I was right there with you, Michael.
Five years later, Suzuki and Shenmue fans clearly aren’t giving up on a Shenmue 4. The third game sadly couldn’t shake the ol’ Shenmue curse of being too niche for strong sales, but fan action is what got protagonist Ryo Hazuki moving further in his journey to find those damn sailors. And it probably won’t stop even with a Shenmue 4. Suzuki has said the third game represented 40% of the story, so there may be more campaigns ahead. Are we thinking #letsgetshenmue5 someday?
