To celebrate # HobbyCumple30, we remember one of its most popular kits, the announcement of Shenmue II for Dreamcast … and PS2 on the cover of the magazine.
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We continue our celebration of 30th anniversary of Hobby Consolas looking back, and enjoying the moments that defined our magazine. Before we have talked about how was the decision cover of Hobby Consolas issue 1, and we even commented on how was the first magazine of the members of the writing.
But in these 30 years of video games, we have also made some mistakes. And today it’s time to review the most popular gazapo in the magazine. On the cover, no less, we publish that Shenmue II would appear on the Dreamcast and PS2. Why was this written?
The error belongs to the magazine number 119, which was launched in August 2001. Shenmue (Yu Suzuki’s and Sega AM2’s ambitious Dreamcast title) had been released a year earlier in Europe, but had been available in Japan for two years now. In his time, he had beaten the record as the most expensive video game of all time, and his technical achievements were beyond question.
Shenmue was the way the Dreamcast had shown its power… and the sequel began to unfold almost immediately. That summer of 2001, Hobby Consolas arranged an interview with the team, to obtain new information before launch.
This interview belonged to our Big in Japan section. Keep in mind that Japanese development was still on the crest of the wave (and that not all launches in the land of the rising sun reached the West), so it made sense to dedicate a monthly section to the Japanese industry.
On another occasion we can talk about the Japanese development crisis, and its current recovery … but in 2001 the Japanese market was so relevant that We had a correspondent in Japan, who sent us interviews, reports and previews from the other side of the world.
He The correspondent at that time was Christophe Kagotani, who also worked as a special envoy for other European magazines, such as EDGE. And when he sent us the interview dedicated to Shenmue II, he included a question “Will it appear on other platforms?”
At a time when the NDAs were not so restrictive, and studies could reveal previously unknown information, Christophe was told that the game would appear on the Dreamcast and “on another console.” And then there was the chain of unfortunate events that led to the cover error.
