SEGA has in a recent itw with famitsu 360 stated that they were willing to develop SHENMUE III but needed the support of an exclusive platform in order to sustain the costs and the eventual insufficient sales.

Personnally i would be so glad to be able to play a now-gen (or next gen) SHENMUE 3 i would actually buy it twice, that's right, twice.

All that we need now is a platform with the balls and the cash to sustain the project.

http://scrawlfx.com/2010/01/sega-interested-in-shenmue-iii-worried-about-sales

Come on people ! Vote ! Let's show them we want SHENMUE !!!

Honestly, I don't see it happening. MS would be the most likely to fork over the cash in these situations but I'd be surprised if they would in this case. They paid for exclusivity for Shenmue II in North America and that killed sales for the game. I guess if MS could get a worldwide exclusive it's possible. The 360 needs all the help it can get in Japan but I just don't see it happening. Especially if Yu Suzuki isn't involved in the project.

Sony has shifted it's focus to first and second party exclusives. Given their financial situation and their new philosophy, paying for Shenmue 3 exclusive just doesn't seem in the cards. I don't see Sony parting with significant cash for an exclusive unless it's guaranteed to move significant amounts fo PS3 hardware. As much as I'd love a Shenmue 3, I don't think that would be the case.

Nintendo certainly has the cash to buy a Shenmue 3 exclusive and it's large userbase could be appealing to Sega. Sega games have sold best on Nintendo consoles since they've went third party. However, I don't see Nintendo doing this though. Nintendo is the least likely of the Big 3 to purchase an exclusive. I could see Sega releasing a Shenmue 1 and 2 compilation on Wii since it would be the cheapest console to release one for. They could probably get away with a straight port of the DC titles with 16:9 support added. Most DC games already supported 480p so it could be cheap option for Sega. It could be another one of those infamous third party "tests." Outside of that, I don't think we'd see Shenmue on the Wii.

So to summarize, I don't think it's going to happen. I'd love to see Shenmue 3 but I think Sega is just trying placate Shenmue fans via press release. Shenmue 3 was supposedly all but done, if they wanted to release the game, we'd have seen it by now.

It's bad business, and not only that, I believe it's just for a timed exclusive.

Hmm... who would I like to see, or who would be most likely to do it? Those are 2 different answers to me. (Nintendo, and Microsoft, in that order.) But truthfully, I don't think it's going to happen. Yes, it's a series with critical acclaim. But it doesn't have the sales to justify anyone buying it. MS I think might do it for more of a push in Japan, but even that's a bit of a stretch to me...

 in favor of which platform ?

And, yes, it might be bad business... But  Dreamcast or Xbox were probably the reason why the first two iterations of SHENMUE failed...

I think MS should take it, its only fair since PS3 has Yakuza. Spread the goodness yes?

Honestly Shenmue sales weren't that bad. They were good actually considering the userbase of the DC at it's release. Shenmue 2 sales were hampered by Sega not releasing the game in North America for Dreamcast. Taking the money for Xbox exclusivity in North America was a huge mistake. Especially with Shenmue having save games from the first game transferring over to the second game.

1) It can't be for Xbox. The majority Dreamcast fans are definitely not Xbox fans, as we saw with the abysmal Shenmue II sales for Xbox. It infuriated me that Shenmue II was only on Xbox back then.

2) If you want to cut major costs and easily make a profit, make the game on the Wii. That way you can improve visuals and load times over the Dreamcast versions, while still copying over a lot of assets. Even if the game sold a measly 250k I could see it profiting if they used the Wii.

3) If they want a great looking game and potential for the most success, make it on the Playstation 3. Sony owners have a wide variety of gaming tastes, and would probably be more accepting than both the 360 and Wii audience. However, this would also increase risk of financial losses.

I'd say Wii simply for the controls (Opening drawers, touching Sailors). They'd have to port the first two, too.

But as an owner of Shenmue 1 and Shenmue 2, the games were great for their time but they've been eclipsed by other open world games. Being able to talk to everyone in a city and get a job isn't as fun/amazing as it was almost 10 years agon.