Sega West president Mike Hayes has confirmed that the company will be reinventing classic Sega IPs in the next three-five years. “We constantly review the IP we’ve got in the locker because that’s one of Sega’s big advantages,” Hayes said while talking to VG247.

“And when we bring it out and do it properly, like re-imagine Sonic or doing Sega Rally Arcade Online and stuff like that, we have success. Some of it when we try and do it, like Golden Axe on PS3 and 360, it didn’t do so well.

“So we carefully look at each IP and every month, we review the locker of IP and think, ‘how could we release those and if so, what are we going to? Will it be a big game, digital, free-to-play?’ We constantly look at it. What I can say is that you will continue to see a reinvention of classic Sega IP coming to various platforms over the next three-five years.

“Shinobi on 3DS is a good example and some of the digital games we’re releasing are good examples, like the Golden Axe redeux and stuff like that. So you’ll see more of it, but we literally look at it all the time.””

When asked about Shenmue’s next project, not 3, rather Shenmue City, Hayes said- “There are no plans for Shenmue City.”

Sega also announced Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown recently.

The official website for Shenmue City has opened its doors and a lot of new information related to the title has emerged.

First off, it won’t be a direct sequel to Shenmue 1 but will be taking place in a parallel universe with you starting off exactly from where you did with Shenmue 1.

The game will be a free to play title but will contain a in-game transaction model. Characters from the canned Shenmue Online will be used in the game.

Interestingly, SEGA is NOT developing this game and they aren’t even publishing it! YS NET are the developers while Sunsoft is funding the project. The game is being directed by Yen Suzuki.

Source