Shenmue 3!

[sj33]

About the failure of the US Xbox release of Shenmue 2, surely if for whatever reasons, many of the fans of the first game had simply played a copy of the game on the Dreamcast (they wouldn't need to buy a new console, for one), wouldn't that remove a large portion of the possible audience for the game buying the Xbox release? None of the Xbox sequels mentioned above were released on the DC (eg DOA 3). Also, there's also the issue of how well it was promoted, perhaps. At the end of the day, the series should have sold much more but I guess it didn't...

I believe places like GameStop in the US actually sold European copies of the game bundled with bootdiscs. I completely believe that the decision to make the US version of the game an XBox exclusive probably alienated whatever little audience the game had left.

[tokyochojin]

Did the game sell okay in Europe then? I remember preordering and getting mine for Xmas 2001 but by then Dreamcast was on the bottom shelf in HMV and get flogged off for 59.99.

[Sam The Man]

There are some games that despite being good didn't sell well because they are too exotic or unfamiliar to the masses. The masses mostly want another Fifa, another C.O.D or another familiar title that they can relate to in their own reality/world and alot of Sega's games were compared to those mentioned very exotic with Nights Into Dreams being an example. Shenmue sold ok but it was never going to be a huge seller like a Fifa or a GT. More examples of quality games that didn't sell greatly due to them being unfamiliar to the masses would be ICO, Shadow Of The Colossus, Katamari Damacy, Okami, Jet Set Radio, Rez, Mirrors Edge and quite a few others. If companies want to develop these Labours Of Love then they need other more familiar or established franchises to offset the losses or to make money compared to their other more creative and original titles. Thats why for Sega to have been financially successful one of the many things they needed were the big selling franchises like FFVII, VIII, IX, Resident Evil 2, 3 TR2, TR3, Tekken 1,2,3, MGS on their 32 bit system & FFX, XII, GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, MGS2, 3 on their 128 bit system that would shift their console so they could get away with their own creative/original/exotic titles.

Taking all this into consideration and also taking into account the fact that Shenmue cost Sega 80m us dollars (parts 1 & 2) Sega should never of even green lit the Shenmue project to begin with despite the fact that i really enjoyed it back in the day and I.M.O the atmosphere was one of the best ever it just showed one of the reasons why Sega financially were in the trouble they were in and why they dropped out of the hardware race.

[Neon Ignition]

I love that this thread is 10 pages long for a game that doesn't exist

If it helps, I'm 99% certain Shenmue III would involve collecting mini-toys from vending machines, kicking and punching hundreds of pedestrian and would involve some despisable mystical magic mumbo jumbo before Ryo defeats Lan Di.

[Team Andromeda]

One of those has a sequel. Another has one in the works. One was total rubbish. Just sayin'.

I said rush out and make a sequel and that with those IP managing to turn to a profit in the end , when was Blade Runner made ? . And its not like EA ever made or is going to make a sequel to BladeRunner the game and I best lower than hoped for sales counted for that

one of the Xbox sequels mentioned above were released on the DC (eg DOA 3). Also, there's also the issue of how well it was promoted, perhaps. At the end of the day, the series should have sold much more but I guess it didn't...

It was easy to mod the X-Box . Lets not bring copies into it . The Dreamcast didn't sell enough consoles and Shenmue never sold enough copies . Why is so hard for people to understand that ? Dreamcast/NA@MI IP like PSO, Virtua Tennis, Moneyball sells enough to make a profit and so gets sequels even to this day its not hard to understand why

Did the game sell okay in Europe then?

No. It never top the charts in Euro land I don't think it ever made the top 10 , never mind 20 games sold for that month or months after (so no it never sold that good) . Don't believe the crap about it being the most imported game either , more so has it doesn't take much for a game to become the most imported game ever in the USA -since they've never been a big importer of video games given the size of their market .

[Dogg Thang]

I said rush out and make a sequel and that with those IP managing to turn to a profit in the end , when was Blade Runner made ?

And they didn't rush out and make a sequel to Shenmue either. Doesn't mean they can't later, just like those IPs. They were your choice of examples.

[Team Andromeda]

And they didn't rush out and make a sequel to Shenmue either. Doesn't mean they can't later, just like those IPs. They were your choice of examples.

2 years's ? That's the standard time for a game sequel and that's looking over SEGA confirmed it was in development and continued that stance till the game came out . Bladerunner came out in what 1982 before Yu Suzuki even joined SEGA and no sequel to this day; Blade Runner the game it's self came out in 1997 (before Shenmue) and still no sequel never mind a million plus sales

If a game sales and makes a profits it's odds on for a sequel , if it doesn't its a much much harder pitch . But you know its took SEGA years to make a sequel to OutRun, so there's always a little hope

[Dogg Thang]

I think it's just me missing the point of your initial comparison here.

[Team Andromeda]

I'm not and I don't know why you're keeping on when most people know full well the reasons why we haven't had a Shenmue III and its down to the game taking too much to make for too little return (for various reasons)
Deep down everyone knows this to be true and there's lot of great Films, lots of great games that in both respects should have done better at retail, should have had sequels made to them (in both cases some were even planed, but dropped down to lack of interest) but it cost the studios too much to make and they got too little back in return

I love to see sequels to O.TO. GI II, Ninja Blade, Blue Dragoon, Oddworld Stranger's Wrath , Kung Fu Chaos,
Phantom Dust, XIII and so many more its untrue , but deep down I wise know the reasons why they're not being made or will have a hard time ever getting green lite . If MS with all its billions in the bank its ready to fund sequels to Blue Dragon, Too Human, Lost Odyssey ECT , if SONY had second thoughts over a Getaway III (SONY own lavish production and where each entry in the series sold better than each entry in Shenmue) one can hardly be surprised that SEGA isn't quite ready to make a Shenmue III .

It's simple... Shemue II didn't sell enough copies to justify making a sequel

[Dogg Thang]

I'm not

Sorry, I said it's me missing the point of your comparison.

[MrKirov]

I think someone needs to calm down tbh. Whether it happens or not isnt our choice ultimately, and you can argue as much as you want, but its getting silly now. Obviously people in this thread have different opinions, but none of us know what will happen in the future.

[parkinho]

This thread is utter ****e. Everyone knows that Shenmue III is gonna be a Dreamcast II launch title.

[Guts]

Thread resurrection!

Apparently Yu Suzuki is considering a crowd funding type of thing like Kickstarter to make Shenmue III!

Good luck gathering that 70 million bucks, Yu!

[CMcK]

I would give money to a Shenmue 3 Kickstarter so folk would stop going on about it.
It's the Episode 1 of gaming that will never live up to expectations anyway. And IMHO the Shenmue series is one of the most boring things I have ever played.

[wakka]

This is the only Kickstarter I would ever support. And I wouldn't even hate on Yu if he took the money and never got the game finished.

Ideally it would be produced for the Dreamcast. I want to hear that disc drive making a racket or it's just not Shenmue.