Speculation: Why there is no HD version of Shenmue

[Ziming]

Source: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... stcount=74

Why SEGA didn't make a Shenmue HD Collection for PS360 again?

Ah yeah, because it's SEGA.

Afaik, it's mostly due to legal/copyright reasons.

back in '12 you may remember that Sega went into a port spree. JSR, Nights...they thought it was a great idea, with very low risk and nice proft potential since, well, they don't want to fund traditional AAA anymore. Multiple ports were in development, among them was the canceled Skies of Arcadia port.

Shenmue case was special since not many people know this, but apparently the engine for both games uses licensed technology. It's not Bink Video or Sofdec codecs, apparently it's related to the very own engine.

Well, the thing is, according to what I've been told, the owner of those technologies folded years ago, and it's not clear who owns the copyright now.

Someone shown Sega a working Shenmue prototype for Xbox 360...but after disappointing sales by JSR and Nights, they didn't care enough to bother with the legal hassle. So it never went through the prototype stage, and the Skies of Arcadia port was canceled.

And I guess my dream of getting Model 3/later arcade games ports went to shit as well ;(

[Stocke]

Is that just a fan theory?

[nskachu]

This seems too legit to be actually true. I mean, what can one even believe nowadays? Anyways, this is the best theory I know so far.

[BlueMue]

Shenmue definately has it's very own unique engine and I believe you could actually buy the engine standalone for some strange reason. Why would anyone grab this specially tailored engine?

Anyway I think this theory is actually pretty believable but I doubt it would be hard for them to get the rights as nothing besides Shenmue used this engine, it simply is Shenmue and thus should be such an integral part that it their property already.

[Henry Spencer]

If you look at the credits for Shenmue 1; the game had a fuckton of outsourced contracted work and sponsorships, so it would make sense.

[mue 26]

Who is the guy that wrote that? Not saying it's not true, but as it is that piece of text carries no weight whatsoever, the guy signed up to Neo Gaf the same day he posted that. So it might as well be gibberish. Seems a strange thing to bother speculating over.

[Who Really Cares?]

Its actually the most believable bit of Shenmue news on recent time.

[IlDucci]

In terms of licensed technology, with a quick look, both games just seem to use the CRI systems (AHX, ADX, SFD...) and Shenmue I's audios use DC standard ADPCM encoding. So you can discard Audio and Video data.

[MiTT3NZ]

Funny, the way they (apparently) marketed the Game Power Kit/SoftImage "Build Your Own Shenmue Plug-In", it was almost as if the engine was either built around it or actually in-fucking-side it (no idea how they'd manage that, but I never used it, so what the fuck would I know?)

Either way, the company that developed SoftImage 3D, or whichever version it was, is now defunct, and the SoftImage name/brand is now owned by Autodesk. However, I don't believe they own the rights to the technology used for SoftImage 3D, XSI, or whatever, so there's a possibility that, assuming there is uncertainty surrounding who the software actually belongs to, and the nature of the deal between SEGA/AM-2 and the previous SoftImage guys (if there was any deal at all), it could be down to that.

Hell, it could even be down to the colossal fuck-up Yu/SEGA apparently made in regards to project management. All it really takes is to drop the ball on one outsourced contract or make one shoddy deal and it could have huge repercussions down the line.

[mue 26]

It can't be that rass cleet hard to re release the game. Virtually every other classic to semi classic game has pulled it off.

[Crimson Ryan]

I can think of two: Gargoyle Mechanics and SIMS.

This is the last I heard of them on that note. viewtopic.php?t=24835

In the end they released a single PS2 game in 2005.

[Mitsuzuki]

Here is some literature on the two Softimage plugins for Shenmue: Softimage 3D Extreme and Softimage 3D Base.

This piece is from a Japanese company called Born Digital, who are still up and running.

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As a funny aside, doing a search for Shenmue (in Japanese) on Born Digital's site yields a single result: Edge Magazine's book called 1001 Videogames You Must Play Before You Die.

[BlueMue]

I wonder if they ever actually sold any of these plugins. I definately doubt there's a game other then Shenmue and Shenmue II that used it.

[Crimson Ryan]

I wonder if they ever actually sold any of these plugins. I definately doubt there's a game other then Shenmue and Shenmue II that used it.

Skies of Arcadia.

[BlueMue]

Really? I would've never guessed that. The visuals are so vastly different, not just from the artstyle but because the game world is totaly differtly rendered.