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Korea-based Online game developer JC Entertainment announced today that it is working with Sega on the development of an Online game based off the Shenmue series, Korean newspaper Chosum Ilbo reports.
The title, which has been in development since February of last year, has a development and marketing budget of 30,000,000,000 won ($25,945,455 US). The marketing budget is said to include costs for both Korea and overseas. A closed beta test is planned for November of this year, with an open trial expected to begin in the first half of 2005.
A platform for the game has not been revealed, but given the Korean development background, we presume a Windows release is most likely.
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Following our initial report from earlier in the day, new details have come our way on Sega's attempts to take its Shenmue series of console adventure titles to the Online world. The resulting game, now officially titled Shenmue Online is being developed for the PC.
Shemue Online is a massively multiplayer action RPG. The game will feature virtual recreations of areas from 1980s Hong Kong and China and promises to allow tens of thousands of players to assume the role of militants, using martial arts, Chinese weapons and other powers in real-time fighting sequences.
Development and publishing duties for the game are being handled via partnerships between multiple firms. Korean Online developer JC Entertainment is managing content development along with Korean Online operations and Korean marketing for the title. Sega, while also responible for content development, is supervising development and licensing related to Online game operations outside of Korea. T2 Technology Holdings will handle the Chinese operations of the game as part of a recent agreement reached with Sega.
Fans of the series will be pleased to know that series father Yu Suzuki, now head of Sega internal studio Digital Rex, is taking a role in the game. Sega states that Suzuki will supervise ongoing activities for the game. Suzuki is known for having created the original storyline behind the full Shenmue saga.
As mentioned in our previous article, a private beta test for Shenmue Online will take place in in November of this year in Korea, to be followed by a Korean open beta test and commercial launch in Spring of 2005. T2 Technology expects to have the game out in China also in 2005. Plans for release outside these two territories have yet to be revealed.
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I hate MMO games, but since this game is gonna be in the Shenmue universe, it is absolutely going to own my soul whenever it comes out. I love the Shenmue games, and I can't wait for this. I'd much rather have Shenmue III come out, but this will do. If you haven't played a Shenmue game, you really should, they are so great, and extremely underrated. Shenmue games bring storytelling in games to a whole new level, and pretty much redefined on how a game should play, in my opinion.
SEGA needs to hurry up and start working on Shenmue III, they've already got the storyline finished, and have had it done for quite some time now, they just need to create that into a game.