Not too many people had heard of 110 Industries when the publisher took to the stage at last year's Tokyo Game Show, though the man who they chose to kick off their 40-minute presentation needed no introduction. Legendary game developer Yu Suzuki's involvement with the company’s showcase led to muted speculation that his YS NET studio and 110 may be working together, and these rumors only grew louder back in April when the publisher started interacting with Shenmue-related posts on social media.
After teasing a big announcement that never actually happened, the publisher eventually stopped interacting with tweets mentioning Shenmue and began promoting its debut title Wanted: Dead, a Ninja Gaiden-inspired hack and slash game that's scheduled for release later this year. That all changed late last night, though, with a now-deleted tweet in which the publisher responded with "Eventually" after a fan asked about getting Shenmue 4. If that weren't enough, Yu Suzuki has now had his say on the long-standing rumors too.
In an interview with Game Rant, the influential Japanese developer first tried to downplay the idea of a collaboration between the two companies, dismissing the talk as little more than rumors. However, upon being asked about 110's "Eventually" tweet, which went out just a few hours before the interview began, he seemed genuinely surprised, revealing that he hadn't spoken to 110 about the tweet. When pressed further, he agreed that it wasn't normal for a publisher to make comments about games that they weren't involved with before offering a "No comment" of sorts.
To add further fuel to the fire, within just a few hours of the interview's completion, the tweet in question had been deleted, but not before a snapshot of it was taken using the Wayback Machine. 110 Industries, whose CEO is currently visiting Japan from Switzerland, has been approached for comment about the tweet, though the publisher is yet to provide a response at the time of writing.
The 110 Industries rumors were just one of many topics discussed during Game Rant's interview, with Mr. Suzuki also sharing some of the lessons that he learned from the development of Shenmue 3 and providing a few ideas as to what a fourth Shenmue game might look like if he ever gets a chance to make one. The main topic of conversation, however, was YS NET's highly addictive new game Air Twister, a Space Harrier-style rail shooter that's already been downloaded by more than 30,000 people in its first five days on Apple Arcade.
For those interested in learning more, Game Rant's interview with Yu Suzuki will be published on the site over the coming days.
Source: Twitter (Via Wayback Machine)