Embracer Q3 Report Presentation @ 9AM CET (3AM EST) 19-2-2020/2-19-2020

Peter said:
A lot of people, if not all have been going about Deep Silver, Koch Media and Epic. but I have yet to see anyone take into consideration what YSNET want. I mean, what if Yu-san and YSNET do not want to move forward with Koch Media. We have instances over the past year where you could say there might have been some friction on the part of the developer and publisher, most notably, the Epic deal.

But with statements indicating that Shenmue III did indeed make a profit, that can do nothing but strengthen Yu Suzuki's position to shop around for another publisher. He has a product which sold, niche or not. It sold on top of a Kickstarter campaign which seen a lot of copies of the game go out for free, in that regard. It sold, despite being exclusive to a PC store. It sold, despite an arguably average advertising campaign. Most of all, it sold in the face of weekly/monthly trolling, criticism, and clickbait bastardising of both the franchise and Yu Suzuki himself. You can sit on the fence all you want, hypothesize about this, wonder about that, but money and profit margin is all that matters in this business, and Shenmue III has profited.

To add to the attractive appeal of a publisher investing in a future Shenmue game, there are quite a few incentives:
  • The next game could probably be the last in the series​
  • The staff is already assembled​
  • infrastructure and contacts already in place​
  • Research and story are already done​
  • Assets, materials and architecture are in place​
  • A loyal fanbase, with its own solidified community​
What happens in the future, I will agree, that since... 2 years ago, I have had zero doubts about Shenmue IV, as well as the series being completely finished. I still have zero doubts. But, this is Yu Suzuki we are talking about. He is the man. He does things on his own terms, with no compromise. Honestly, I think we will have a bit of a wait, possibly the majority of 2020, before Shenmue IV is even announced. That's not a bad thing either because we have 1 more element of DLC to come, as well as a steam release to promote. That's outside of any other deals which could be struck as the year goes on, such as Xbox Game Pass, or Switch deals (personally I cant see any of these happening, but they are possible). I would hazard an educated guess that staff will remain at YSNET, quietly working away. I could be wrong, but common sense would say that a good chunk of money will have been reserved to keep the majority, if not all of the staff on for a sustained period of time throughout 2020. They will be free to quietly work away on the future, as we deal with Kickstarter rewards, and a steam release.

I cant speak for everyone, nor can I claim to know anything others don't, but Shenmue is in a good place believe it or not. So is YSNET, believe it or not. We are NOT going into another 20 years of no Shenmue. This is just the beginning. Just gotta go back to practicing our Wude.
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:) My friend, spot on. I'll post this as an article on shenmueitalia.com, this is something that people needs to read.
 
With a team in place just look at how many games RGG studio has chucked out in the last few years. If they hadn't have switched to the Dragon engine, they probably would've chucked another couple out by now.

I just pray that if Shenmue 4 is made by the skin of its teeth, Yu has to know that and be prepared to wrap it up.
 
Peter said:
I don't think you need to single yourself out as someone who didn't. Its not a minority mindset. The Shenmue doom and gloom crowd have been around since the original games release. Combined with late 2000's internet culture, they were awakened with the Kickstarter campaign. Shenmue III didn't make $10 million?? SHENMUE IS DOOMED! Deep Silver have came on board as the publisher? SHENMUE IS DOOMED! Those models look awful and that trailer was even worse. SHENMUE IS DOOMED! Shenmue III will be an Epic Store exclusive? SHENMUE IS DOOMED!

It got boring fast, and whilst of course it could say some potential buyers either way, a lot of people just don't care. Clearly enough didn't care to return a profit for a game that hasn't been cast in the best of light throughout its development, and scored an average rating on various aggregator sites.

Despite all of that... still sold a profit.
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The spot. You're on it. <3
 
It's nothing like SM2 situation with SEGA going bankrupt and million dollars in red.
Today we all know SM3 made revenue and it's got a decent fanbase spending a good amount of cash to be profitable!

Peter said:
A lot of people, if not all have been going about Deep Silver, Koch Media and Epic. but I have yet to see anyone take into consideration what YSNET want. I mean, what if Yu-san and YSNET do not want to move forward with Koch Media. We have instances over the past year where you could say there might have been some friction on the part of the developer and publisher, most notably, the Epic deal.

But with statements indicating that Shenmue III did indeed make a profit, that can do nothing but strengthen Yu Suzuki's position to shop around for another publisher. He has a product which sold, niche or not. It sold on top of a Kickstarter campaign which seen a lot of copies of the game go out for free, in that regard. It sold, despite being exclusive to a PC store. It sold, despite an arguably average advertising campaign. Most of all, it sold in the face of weekly/monthly trolling, criticism, and clickbait bastardising of both the franchise and Yu Suzuki himself. You can sit on the fence all you want, hypothesize about this, wonder about that, but money and profit margin is all that matters in this business, and Shenmue III has profited.

To add to the attractive appeal of a publisher investing in a future Shenmue game, there are quite a few incentives:
  • The next game could probably be the last in the series​
  • The staff is already assembled​
  • infrastructure and contacts already in place​
  • Research and story are already done​
  • Assets, materials and architecture are in place​
  • A loyal fanbase, with its own solidified community​
What happens in the future, I will agree, that since... 2 years ago, I have had zero doubts about Shenmue IV, as well as the series being completely finished. I still have zero doubts. But, this is Yu Suzuki we are talking about. He is the man. He does things on his own terms, with no compromise. Honestly, I think we will have a bit of a wait, possibly the majority of 2020, before Shenmue IV is even announced. That's not a bad thing either because we have 1 more element of DLC to come, as well as a steam release to promote. That's outside of any other deals which could be struck as the year goes on, such as Xbox Game Pass, or Switch deals (personally I cant see any of these happening, but they are possible). I would hazard an educated guess that staff will remain at YSNET, quietly working away. I could be wrong, but common sense would say that a good chunk of money will have been reserved to keep the majority, if not all of the staff on for a sustained period of time throughout 2020. They will be free to quietly work away on the future, as we deal with Kickstarter rewards, and a steam release.

I cant speak for everyone, nor can I claim to know anything others don't, but Shenmue is in a good place believe it or not. So is YSNET, believe it or not. We are NOT going into another 20 years of no Shenmue. This is just the beginning. Just gotta go back to practicing our Wude.
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Yeah @Peter , with such report YSNet might already be on the lookout for the best partner now.
When that happens we could also send a feedback summary to YSNet, so that in the next game we can all reach a real Shenmue 2-type orgasm.

ShenSun said:
Its in our nature to be anxious and assume the worse when it comes to anything Shenmue related. But today was a win for all of us. We should celebrate that. On to shenmue 4
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Been waiting the whole damn day. Party Time!!!!!! 🍻🍻🍻🍻
 
mjqjazzbar said:

Is he basically just saying he doesn’t really care what Deep Silver has to say?
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From what I can gather, he's saying that the guy who's reporting on the figures has no bearing on how they feel/their projects.

Wouldn't look deep into it, really.

Of course, someone who's French can verify that!

EDIT* Missed the initial tweet about where explicitly the CEO of Deep Silver was mentioned.

So yeah, I think Cedric is referring to going forward, he doesn't feel the CEO has any bearing on anything or their projects.
 
tomboz said:
If we get Shenmue 4 in game form, I’ll be happy regardless of who published it.

Id be lying if I said I had any attachment to DS though. Obviously I’m in no doubt that having a publisher (and thus additional funding) lead to a better game, but any publisher could have pumped in the money and we’d have likely ended up with the same game.

I’m probably one of very few Shenmue fans who doesn’t hold the Epic deal against them (it made financial sense to take it), but their contribution elsewhere has been piss poor in my opinion.

I actually find it a little insulting for the Embracer CEO to come out and say that Shenmue isn’t marketable to the mainstream when their lack of strategy when it came to marketing the game was so amateurish.

A record breaking Kickstarter and the decent sales of the remasters is indicative that Shenmue could appeal to a wider audience, but there was absolutely no hype created around the time of release. Providing press with images and b-roll from old builds, mediocre trailers (I appreciate that this was partly down to YsNet, but as the people responsible for selling the game, DS should have pulled rank) and the bullshit surrounding the embargo played a big part in sales going the way they did.

Shenmue 3 was never going to sell 1 million copies in its first quarter, but for it to have performed so poorly in week 1 shows just how bad a job DS did when it came to marketing the game to the public. That a remastered version of some 20 year old games that was nearly unplayable at launch sold nearly double the copies in its opening weeks in both Japan and the UK is embarrassing.
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Well, the situation could only be improved if there would be another (bigger) publisher.
We can forget EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Square Enix etc, all of these big names are unrealistic
and then we already are on the DS AA publisher level. Koch Media / THQ Nordic is already pretty much the biggest
AA publisher and distributor in Europe.
It wont be easy to just find a publisher that will do everything better.
The only good deal would be a deal with Sega and that doesnt help us if they are not interested.

And yes, Koch Media / Deep Silver didnt do the best job with the marketing but still
all of the Shenmue 3 banners at events, Youtube and Facebook Ads, the press previews, Shenmue 3 booth at Gamescom,
the invitations / travels to Japan etc were handled by Koch Media. All of this costs money and you need connections.

If YS Net chooses the self publishing way, they have to handle all of this themselves.
There will be no booth in a Gamescom main hall because thats not for indie games,
there wont be banners at E3 or whatever because advertising space costs thousands of dollars
and YS Net has to invite and handle the press themselves. Which means a small japanese studio
has to handle the press from the west all the time. Japanese studios like Square Enix, Koei Tecmo or Capcom
can do that because they have employees just for that.
How would YS Net handle this?
Why would Sega help with this stuff when they are not the publisher? Yes, they helped at Tokyo Game Show
but probably only because they and Koch Media are partners and all of Sega's booths at Gamescom
are in the Koch Media main hall. I doubt that Cedric can help much with these things,
hes using third party publishers for his own projects.
 
I am quietly confident Shenmue IV will be a thing, because although it is a niche game, the very fact that the majority of the fanbase is pretty hardcore pretty much guarantees a number of sales as well as some exploitation of collectors editions etc.

I think with the hard work of creating the assets and learning UE4 done, I think SIV would be easier. The real question is if they can work on a smaller budget?

I think Kickstarter isn't an option, but I wonder if there might be an alternative. I know i'd be happy to run the risk of funding Shenmue IV if it meant a copy of the game and perhaps some perks at the end of it.

Also, i'd like to thank Peter and Tomboz for being voices of reason in what is a pretty emotional time for Shenmue fans. I realised I get quite upset when I read negative news, but reading your posts makes things a bit clearer.
 
bcdcdude said:
I am quietly confident Shenmue IV will be a thing, because although it is a niche game, the very fact that the majority of the fanbase is pretty hardcore pretty much guarantees a number of sales as well as some exploitation of collectors editions etc.

I think with the hard work of creating the assets and learning UE4 done, I think SIV would be easier. The real question is if they can work on a smaller budget?

I think Kickstarter isn't an option, but I wonder if there might be an alternative. I know i'd be happy to run the risk of funding Shenmue IV if it meant a copy of the game and perhaps some perks at the end of it.

Also, i'd like to thank Peter and Tomboz for being voices of reason in what is a pretty emotional time for Shenmue fans. I realised I get quite upset when I read negative news, but reading your posts makes things a bit clearer.
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We’re all on the same team! And all in this together :)
 
scooterusa said:
He is saying that Shenmue 4 wasn’t dependent on DS regardless of the reports. I read that as they already have a partner for S4.
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I remember that when Cedric was asked a few years ago regarding Shenmue IV, he said that it was 50/50 even if Shenmue III sold like shit. His most recent tweet would seem to fall right inline with that original statement.
 
Not sure if these articles from VGC and Siliconera were already posted, so apologies in advance if so!

www.videogameschronicle.com

Shenmue 3 ‘performed fine but isn’t a mass market game’, says publisher | VGC

Deep Silver parent company gives appraisal of long-awaited sequel…
www.videogameschronicle.com www.videogameschronicle.com

www.siliconera.com

Shenmue III Is "Not a AAA Mass-Market Product" Says Publisher About Sales

Shenmue III's publishing company comments on how the game is doing after release, stating that it is financially "fine".
www.siliconera.com www.siliconera.com
 
Peter said:
A lot of people, if not all have been going about Deep Silver, Koch Media and Epic. but I have yet to see anyone take into consideration what YSNET want. I mean, what if Yu-san and YSNET do not want to move forward with Koch Media. We have instances over the past year where you could say there might have been some friction on the part of the developer and publisher, most notably, the Epic deal.

But with statements indicating that Shenmue III did indeed make a profit, that can do nothing but strengthen Yu Suzuki's position to shop around for another publisher. He has a product which sold, niche or not. It sold on top of a Kickstarter campaign which seen a lot of copies of the game go out for free, in that regard. It sold, despite being exclusive to a PC store. It sold, despite an arguably average advertising campaign. Most of all, it sold in the face of weekly/monthly trolling, criticism, and clickbait bastardising of both the franchise and Yu Suzuki himself. You can sit on the fence all you want, hypothesize about this, wonder about that, but money and profit margin is all that matters in this business, and Shenmue III has profited.

To add to the attractive appeal of a publisher investing in a future Shenmue game, there are quite a few incentives:
  • The next game could probably be the last in the series​
  • The staff is already assembled​
  • infrastructure and contacts already in place​
  • Research and story are already done​
  • Assets, materials and architecture are in place​
  • A loyal fanbase, with its own solidified community​
What happens in the future, I will agree, that since... 2 years ago, I have had zero doubts about Shenmue IV, as well as the series being completely finished. I still have zero doubts. But, this is Yu Suzuki we are talking about. He is the man. He does things on his own terms, with no compromise. Honestly, I think we will have a bit of a wait, possibly the majority of 2020, before Shenmue IV is even announced. That's not a bad thing either because we have 1 more element of DLC to come, as well as a steam release to promote. That's outside of any other deals which could be struck as the year goes on, such as Xbox Game Pass, or Switch deals (personally I cant see any of these happening, but they are possible). I would hazard an educated guess that staff will remain at YSNET, quietly working away. I could be wrong, but common sense would say that a good chunk of money will have been reserved to keep the majority, if not all of the staff on for a sustained period of time throughout 2020. They will be free to quietly work away on the future, as we deal with Kickstarter rewards, and a steam release.

I cant speak for everyone, nor can I claim to know anything others don't, but Shenmue is in a good place believe it or not. So is YSNET, believe it or not. We are NOT going into another 20 years of no Shenmue. This is just the beginning. Just gotta go back to practicing our Wude.
Click to expand...

This is the best post I’ve read in a long time.
 
Sonoshee said:
Not sure if these articles from VGC and Siliconera were already posted, so apologies in advance if so!

www.videogameschronicle.com

Shenmue 3 ‘performed fine but isn’t a mass market game’, says publisher | VGC

Deep Silver parent company gives appraisal of long-awaited sequel…
www.videogameschronicle.com www.videogameschronicle.com

www.siliconera.com

Shenmue III Is "Not a AAA Mass-Market Product" Says Publisher About Sales

Shenmue III's publishing company comments on how the game is doing after release, stating that it is financially "fine".
www.siliconera.com www.siliconera.com
Click to expand...

Wow people in the comment sections of those articles are so ignorant and bitter especially over the epic deal plus the lack of ports as ports cost time and money which would mean more delays they could not afford. Many have no clue that Yu Suzuki did approach Microsoft and they were not interested in the game being on their platform. They still think that the game flopped. The denial is unreal. I mean I did not like how 3 turned out in retrospect, but I don't have some blind hatred for it either.
 
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That Guy. said:
Wow people in the comment sections of those articles are so ignorant and bitter especially over the epic deal plus the lack of ports as ports cost time and money which would me more delays they could not afford. Many have no clue that Yu Suzuki did approach Microsoft and they were not interested in the game being on their platform. They still think that the game flopped. The denial is unreal. I mean I did not like how 3 turned out in retrospect, but I don't have some blind hatred for it either.
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Yeah I try to stay clear of the comments section on those kind of sites, too many salty people :p
 
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