Shenmue III, the third Shenmue, "that game Yu Suzuki is taking his SW33T! damnable time about making!" are all names for the eagerly awaited third installment of Sega's Shenmue series. Yu Suzuki, director and producer of the series, envisioned a titanic adventure that sprawled through 12 titles, each one a chapter in the story he had created. But much like the Titanic it sank short of finishing its journey.



The first title was released on 12/01/2000 and since then we have had 6 chapters. Great! you may be thinking, thats 6 games to get through, good ol' Suzuki has been busy since 2000! Well no, hes been very not busy, 6 chapters have been crammed into 2 games and the third game is said to contain chapters 7-12. Only problem with that is since Shenmue II was released on 03/11/2003 there has been rumour aplenty about the third title but nothing has come to pass at all, its production status is "Unknown" so effectively its in limbo for all we know.



As of late Yu-san has told his legion of fans that Shenmue III is currently not an active project. So effectively he and AM-2 are ignoring these 44,000+ fans and leaving the saga unfinished.

Maybe they'll tie up the story in Shenmue Online? We'll only need to wait 2-3 years for a possible European/American release. I for one would settle for a book that finished the story, because frankly MMO's + storyline = ftl. It would be a tragic end to such an amazing story, but alas it looks like thats the way its heading.