You were all happy there for a moment, weren't you?
As several sources reported earlier in the week, there was a "Shenmue III" trademark listing with the European Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM). As fans of the series have been waiting for many years for the a sequel, it got a lot of people talking.
Unfortunately, Sega confirmed to GameSpot that the trademark is a hoax. They're currently "looking into the origins of this application," which supposedly covered "computer game programs," "computer game software," and "video game discs and cartridges." It sucks, too, because this franchise was supposed to be a trilogy, but was cut short after Shenmue II released for the original Xbox in 2002. That doesn't mean a third title won't eventually show up, though.
However, this is another example of a false trademark for a highly anticipated project that doesn't officially exist. Fallout 4 was "outed" in a similar fashion, although we figure there's more of a chance of a new Fallout than a new Shenmue .
