When Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki appeared at the beginning of 110 Industries' Tokyo Game Show presentation late last year, most people watching probably didn't bat an eyelid. For fans of the Shenmue series, however, Yu Suzuki's prominent inclusion in the 40-minute showcase video raised some interesting questions, the most common of which was "why?"
Prior to the release of the video, neither Suzuki nor his YS Net development studio had any obvious affiliation with the 110 Industries brand. With that in mind, for 110 to dedicate the first five minutes of its TGS showcase to the legendary Japanese developer seemed like something of a strange decision. Six months on, the real reason for Suzuki's inclusion may finally have been revealed.
After seeing an Instagram post promoting the publisher's upcoming third-person action game, Wanted: Dead, one hopeful Shenmue fan posted a comment suggesting that 110 team up with Suzuki to create Shenmue 4. In all likelihood, this was probably little more than wishful thinking on the fan's part, but somebody from 110 actually responded. In the reply, they asked the fan to "guess why [Suzuki] was at [their] TGS stream."
While it's perhaps unlikely that 110 would directly announce a project of this scale in such a manner, the idea of the publisher backing Shenmue 4 doesn't actually seem all that far-fetched. It could certainly explain how Suzuki came to be in the TGS showcase video, and would be very much in keeping with the company's mantra of encouraging "creativity, bold design choices and innovation," three things that, for better or worse, the Shenmue series is certainly renowned for.
For his part, Suzuki has repeatedly stated that he'd love to make more Shenmue games if given the chance. According to an interview between Shenmue fansite Shenmue Dojo and Shenmue 3 producer Cedric Biscay, Suzuki even went as far as pitching Shenmue 4 to potential publishers directly in late 2020, though whether or not he was successful in securing funding remains to be seen. Given the company's lofty ambitions, though, it seems pretty likely that 110 Industries would at the very least have been one of the publishers that Suzuki approached at that time.
News of a potential fourth Shenmue game will no doubt go down well with fans of the series, many of whom have waited decades for a conclusion to Suzuki's epic saga. This, together with the success of Shenmue the Animation (which has consistently outperformed more established anime series like Attack on Titan while attracting an average weekly viewership of over 240,000 people on Toonami), suggests that the future is actually looking pretty bright for this once dormant franchise.
Sources: Shenmue Dojo 1, 2