The future of Shenmue has been completely up in the air since the release of Shenmue 3, but new rumours suggest publisher 110 Industries might be interested in keeping the franchise alive.
As reported by Wccftec, on Twitter, Shenmue Dojo, a prominent Shenmue fansite, quoted an article about rumours that 110 Industries could be making a Shenmue 4 deal. In response, the company’s official Twitter account replied “No Comment,” fuelling even more speculation.
110 Industries is the publisher behind the upcoming action game Wanted Dead, and the company’s website describes it as such “110 Industries is the brand under which approximately 150 dedicated professionals throughout the Globe collaborate to create video games and other assorted visual entertainment products for young and mature audiences.”
While it’s not an outright confirmation, it heavily seems to suggest a deal might be in the works, and 110 Industries has had a close relationship recently with Shenmue creator, Yu Suzuki. At Tokyo Game Show 2021 Suzuki appeared on the publisher’s live stream.
Shenmue 3 was originally released in November 2019, after Suzuki and his company Ys Net launched a Kickstarter at E3 2015. For better and worse, the game stuck to the style of the previous two Shenmue games and ended up feeling like a weird fusion of old and modern design.
Still, the game was met with decent critical reception, and fans of the series were a bit more positive, with a 7.7 user score on Metacritic. The story arc set up in the first game still wasn’t finished with Shenmue 3, however, leaving fans wanting even more. Reports that Shenmue 3 sold less than publisher Deep Silver expected, understandably, left many worried about the future of the franchise.
That wasn’t the last we’d see of Shenmue, though, as an anime adaption produced by Telecom and Crunchyroll debuted in February 2022. We’ll have to wait and see if another game is on the way, but there’s certainly reason for fans to be hopeful.
