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If you’re just getting caught up, Shenmue Town was originally announced as a digital PC game for the Yahoo! Mobage site — a collaboration between DeNA’s digital Mobage Town platform and Yahoo! in Japan.
So just what is Shenmue Town? For SEGA fans back in the days of the Dreamcast, Shenmue and its sequel were high on the list of gaming priorities. The games were open-world action-adventure titles with a heavy focus on telling a dramatic story.
The Shenmue games are now famous for being some of the most expensive projects undertaken by SEGA. If you’re having a hard time drawing up an image in your head, think of SEGA’s newer Yakuza series as a spiritual successor to the Shenmue franchise.
New details reveal Shenmue Town to be a “gaiden” (sidestory) game set in the city of Yokosuka, which is where the first Shenmue game took place. The game is being developed by YS Net under the supervision of SEGA and published, surprisingly, by Sunsoft.
Additionally, it appears Shenmue Town isn’t just a PC game — it’s also a mobile game on the Mobage Town platform, although it’s unclear as whether there will be any differences between the two versions. Like other Mobage titles, Shenmue Town is free-to-play with a micro-transaction model that relies on users buying items in the game with real money.
SEGA and Sunsoft are pushing Shenmue Town pretty hard, too. The game is being referred to as the long-awaited revival of the Shenmue franchise. The game’s official Twitter feed indicates that pre-registration for Shenmue Town, set to launch this winter, has already begun.
