Sega has had a roller coaster of a year and North American Dreamcast owners were on the receiving end of one of the biggest jolts. The Japanese company announced at the Autumn Tokyo Game Show that the North American Dreamcast version of Yu Suzuki's life-sim Shenmue II was canceled, and that the game would see release here at the end of 2002 as an Xbox exclusive. Needless to say, fans were pissed! There was a glimmer of hope though, as the game was still set for a European release on Sega's beleaguered console.

EB Games has noted the strong desire for the game amongst the Sega aficionados and has decided to do something about it. The games retailer has listed the import UK version of Shenmue II on its site, which will sell for $59.99. This price includes a converter disc, which will allow the disc to boot on the region-specific Dreamcast. The import version of the game supports the 60 Hz video option, which basically means that there will be no problems getting the game to work on North American televisions. The game and the boot disc are all that are required to play the game on domestic machines.

Gamers looking to get in on some Shenmue-action can make their way over to EB Games' site to pre-order the title. The game is currently slated to start shipping on December 20.

Update (12.14.2001): Several sources have notified us that retail stores will be carrying the import version of Shenmue II as well. Contact your local game supplier and find out if they have the game in stock.