Due to failure to prove use of the trademark, Sega has apparently lost the rights to the Shenmue francise. This was indicated on the Shenmue USPTO page, which stated that, “Registration cancelled because registrant did not file an acceptable declaration under Section 8.”

Usually, there’s a small window of opportunity provided to trademark holders prove their use of the trademark. Trademark holders have to prove use of the same during the fifth and sixth years, along with during the ninth and tenth years of the trademark’s existence. At the very least, it seems that having Ryu Hayabusa in Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed wasn’t a good enough reason.

The last real Shenmue game to release was Shenmue II, which came out in 2001 for the Xbox and Dreamcast. Shenmue City was released for mobiles but failed to catch to on, leading to its cancellation. What’s Sega’s next move for the franchise? We’ll need to wait for an official update to find out.

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After teasing that we’d see Shenmue’s Ryo in Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing Transformed, Sega has announced that the kart racing game is available now for iOS. It is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch with iOS 7 or later, weighs 1 GB and costs $4.99. Hit up the App Store here to purchase it.

Transformed includes several tracks and ten racers with mobile features such as daily and weekly challenges, touch-optimized controls and schemes, a revamped World Tour mode and much more. Unlike its predecessor, this title focuses more on multiple vehicle formats such as planes and boats along with the typical kart racing, and you’ll be switching between these formats several times within a track.

You can check out our review of the game here. Will you be picking up the game for iOS? Let us know what think of this development in the comments below and whether it’s more fun than the console version.

Sumo Digital has announced that Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing Transformed will not have the option to voice chat on Wii U.

It was announced recently that the Wii U will not have in-built voice chat, but that developers will have the option to include the feature in their games on a game by game basis. Even then, the microphone in the Wii U gamepad wouldn’t work, rather users would have to use third part headsets.

The devs said on the official Sonic forums that it’s because of that that they won’t support voice chat: “We don’t support voice chat on WiiU for those reasons, one of the side effects of being a launch title basically.”

However, the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will have voice chat. “Does support it on PS3 and 360 though!”

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.