HAS ANY OTHER GAME SUFFERED THE SAME FATE?

[FRASIER]

Have there been any other games which have had the same happen due to money issues? Have there been 2 games released in a series and then just gone dead? or have there been any happy stories where a third has been made? if you see where I am going here?

[alimn]

I don't remember any game for now,
but there will be games like this in near
future if enough people don't buy them!

Mass Effect can be one of those games.
(It's a trilogy)

Regards-Alimn

[MiTT3NZ]

Oh, hey, that reminds me, you know that game by Silicon Knights?
You meant Too Human?
Yep, SEGA's spittin mad that it's surpassed Shenmue as the most expensive game ever. Now they probably feel it's got no true historical recognition.

[Milky Joe]

Duke Nukem's been delayed for like 12 years and is still in the works is it not?

[MiTT3NZ]

Duke Nukem's been delayed for like 12 years and is still in the works is it not?

Yep. And it'll be ready when it's ready. I like that approach, coz rushed games are gettin tiring.

[Kon El]

Isn't Knights of the Old Republic supposed to be a trilogy. I thought I read that everyone was waiting for the 3rd game to come out.

[etjester]

That's an excellent example. Nobody said KotOR was a trillogy, but volumes 1 and 2 were big hits, even with non-Star Wars fans, so the fact that a sequel isn't in the works is a bit strange.

LucasArts has expressed a desire for more games in the series, but there doesn't seem to be a developer who is undertaking it.

BioWare (Knights of the Old Republic) abandoned the franchise to make Jade Empire, and now the Mass Effect trilogy, which should keep the main Edmonton team busy at least another 4 years in my estimation. They're additionally working on the long-term PC RPG project Dragon Age, along with an untitled Sonic RPG, and an untitled MMORPG.

Meanwhile, Obsidian Entertainment (Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords) still has the rights--I believe--to make another game in the series, but they have since gone on to make Neverwinter Nights 2 and are supposedly working on an Aliens RPG and Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion, so it's doubtful there will be a sequel from them any time soon.

The main reason for this, I believe, is that with every day that no one works on KotOR III, the Odyssey engine gets more and more out of date. Making a sequel is no longer simply strapping a story and environments onto the old engine; it would require a "Next Gen update," so to speak.

So this is probably the best parallel to Shenmue, especially with the cliff-hanger endings to the second chapter of both franchises.

[2ndOpp]

Yeah but KotoR is recent, and another game is still likely.

Sega seems like the only company that drops the ball on big games:

Shenmue
Panzer Dragoon Sage
Skies of Arcadia

all much needed games, but Shenmue was the only one that was in the middle of a story :( I can't think of any other game stopped mid story.

[OL]

The Fallout series (my personal favorite series of RPGs) had pretty much the same luck as Shenmue for a while. Two games came out, then years went by without any word of a sequel in sight. They came out with "The Brotherhood of Steel", which, in this comparison, could be likened to Shenmue Online; someone finally did something new with the series, but longtime fans were pissed about it.
Finally, a few months ago, they announced a third installment. I didn't really believe it, though, until I saw the first trailer for it. And I almost wet my pants with excitement.
And hey, it only took them 9 years to finally come out with it.

[SaM_4000]

Have those games metioned above stopped in the middle of the storyline like Shenmue has though

[FRASIER]

good point! Im not sure they have you know, KOTOR is ended who you want it to so thats ok, but yeah Is this the only game in history for a story not to have been finished????? why this epic why us WHY OH WHY? OH WHY DALILA!!

[ToL]

Sega seems like the only company that drops the ball on big games:

Shenmue
Panzer Dragoon Sage
Skies of Arcadia

Panzer Dragoon Saga (not Sage ;) ) wasn't meant to have a sequel made to it, though. Team Andromeda wrapped up a lot of loose ends with Saga and although it did have a cliffhanger ending, they didn't plan to follow it up with another game in the first place. Unlike Shenmue.

[Miles Prower]

Have those games metioned above stopped in the middle of the storyline like Shenmue has though

This is exactly it. Most game series simply have sequels for the sake of having sequels, there's rarely a big, planned storyline like with Shenmue.

[2ndOpp]

Sega seems like the only company that drops the ball on big games:

Shenmue
Panzer Dragoon Sage
Skies of Arcadia

Panzer Dragoon Saga (not Sage ;) ) wasn't meant to have a sequel made to it, though. Team Andromeda wrapped up a lot of loose ends with Saga and although it did have a cliffhanger ending, they didn't plan to follow it up with another game in the first place. Unlike Shenmue.

Lol Sage...typos

No, I know they never had plans for sequels, but they are games that should have. That where Sega dropped the ball.

[VGAce]

Isn't Knights of the Old Republic supposed to be a trilogy. I thought I read that everyone was waiting for the 3rd game to come out.

As far as I know, KOTOR wasn't even meant to have a second game, but the first was so damn popular that they couldn't resist making another. You can tell throughout KOTOR II that the story has an "addendum" feel to it, something based on the first game but never alluded to or even suggested in KOTOR I. It's two separate stories. A lot of people are clamoring for a third KOTOR (including myself), but that doesn't mean a third game is coming out.

So this is probably the best parallel to Shenmue, especially with the cliff-hanger endings to the second chapter of both franchises.

Well, you can call KOTOR II's ending a "cliff-hanger" if you want to, but I'll call it what it really was: pathetic. For such a valiant effort, Obsidian absolutely screwed the pooch with that incredibly lazy and unimaginative ending. It was the very definition of anticlimatic. And that's my little rant on that.

Anyway, as far as games besides Shenmue that are unfinished but in the middle of their story, there aren't a lot. It's a monstrous task to plan, from the start, to have a continuing story that will span multiple games (a trilogy is one thing, but who knows how many titles it would have taken to fully realize Shenmue's uncut story). This is why I'm keeping an eye on Mass Effect - the game looks fantastic, but I have my doubts that they will churn out three games in the Xbox 360's life span (if recent reports are true, the first Mass Effect may not be released until January 2008, well past the two-year mark for the 360).

Still, there are titles that have been in Shenmue's place and been resurrected, such as Fallout as Orange Lightning has mentioned. There's always hope. Sometimes a company will look into their old and unused franchises for some fresh ideas and tap into some untapped potential (usually when all their current franchises are stale and not selling very well). I feel this is how Shenmue III will finally come about, but I don't think it will happen anytime soon.