シェンムーのソーシャルゲーム シェンムー街が一年で終了

2010年にリリースされましたシェンムー街が一年足らずで終了となりました。このシェンムーというゲームは英語ではShenmue TownやShenmue Cityとして知られておりましたが、絵画向けにサービスが提供されることはありませんでした。このゲームはシェンムーのクリエーターで知られる鈴木裕氏が率いるYS NetとSEGAおよびYahooモバゲーで開発されていました。

※鈴木裕氏はバーチャファイターの開発でも有名です

シェンムーのオリジナルコンセプトはよりどんどん深くなっていく街をつくることと、ゲームがローンチした際に鈴木裕氏は語ったとのことです。オリジナルのシェンムーは一人用のゲームですが、ソーシャルゲームのコンセプトと相まって、複数人でより自由な世界観をつくことがこのプロジェクトをスタートさせたと語っています。

The Shenmue spin-off social game launched in Japan in late 2010 has already been killed off. A message posted on the Shenmue Gai website recently thanked players for playing and noted the service was being closed.

The game was known by a variety of names in English -- Shenmue Town, Shenmue City, and Shenmue World -- despite it never being available in English-speaking countries. It was firstannounced in 2010 shortly before its launch in December of that year. The unexpected game was developed by YS Net, the company led by Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki, and was published by Sega for the Yahoo Mobage social game service.

"The original concept of Shenmue was to take the world and keep expanding upon it and making it deeper and deeper," Suzuki said prior to the game's launch when asked why he decided to make a social game. "That's something that was rare in games back then. I think that concept shares a lot in common with the social-game genre, and that's what got me started on this project. Shenmue was a single-player game, but it featured a huge cast and a vast amount of freedom -- you lived with all the people in the game, and they all had their own free behavior. That, in particular, shares a lot in common with social games."

There had been long-term plans for expanding the game to the series' "vast storyline ... a lot of [which] was never rendered in game form." That could have included content set after Shenmue II, as Suzuki said, "If we can keep gamers excited and remain popular enough, I think that'll provide us a chance to continue with the story ahead. I still have a very strong desire to make a Shenmue sequel, but that's not something I can tackle alone -- a lot of other things need to come together before it could happen."

At GDC in February, Suzuki talked about bringing the game to smartphones as he had always thought of it "as a multiplatform game." An iPhone port -- a prototype of which was shown -- could have paved the way for an eventual western release, though it now seems that will never happen. Between this and the failure to launch of Shenmue Online, the chances of Shenmue III happening don't look especially bright at the moment.

Suzuki left his position at Sega last year in favor of an advisory role. This came not long after he took on a producer role at Premium Agency.