In 2006, Yu Suzuki said that the story of shenmue will be finished trough games.
A few weeks ago, he told a journalist of kotaku (I don't remember exactly)
that Shenmue online was frozen but not cancelled.
Chapter 1 to 6 = several years
The final ten chapters will be more difficult and long to create...
And it will need AM2 + amusement vision (who helped yu suzuki team)... not realistic in a few years.
But may be in five or ten years when Sega will have solid profits. (it's not the case actually)