Shenmue

It’s becoming abundantly clear that if anyone is going to awaken Shenmue from its decade long slumber, it’s going to be Sony. Not only has the platform holder publicly acknowledged the fervent demand for the franchise in recent interviews, but PlayStation 4 architect Mark Cerny is actually good friends with series creator Yu Suzuki. And sensing an opportunity to shake protagonist Ryo Hazuki’s unfinished escapade back to life, the users on Facebook group Shenmue 500K have prepared a picture demanding that the platform holder brings the dormant Dreamcast property to the PS4.

How could you resist?

The image – which composes of a collage of members holding up individual letters – reads: “Thank you Sony for listening to us. Please save Shenmue.” The graphic was publicly Tweeted to Gio Corsi, the head of the organisation’s new localisation division, as well as developer relations executive Adam Boyes and Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida. The latter actually responded to the message, simply saying: “Very nice.”

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We’re confident that the company’s having discussions with SEGA about the possibility of a new Shenmue game, but at the end of the day, the decision lies at the Japanese publisher’s feet. We suspect that the ship has sailed on the long anticipated third instalment, but with the company keen to port its best Dreamcast titles to the PlayStation Network, we wouldn’t be surprised if some sort of high-definition re-release of the first two entries eventually made its way online. It would be a pretty big deal if Sony could somehow get exclusivity on that, but as the property’s straight-faced hero himself would say, we’ll see.

[source twitter.com, via twitter.com, thearabgamer.com]