Do you think that it will somehow succed?

Honestly I think Shenmue 3 has a very good chance of being successfull.
But the main preponderance in my view is how much Sony will promote the game.
Is Sony does a good push on the game, it might sell really well...




Sorry but the Sony talk needs to stop.
Sony didnt save Shenmue III. Sony didnt fund Shenmue III. What they did was provide indie level of support through their 3rd Party Production arm (which is basically a tiny department with very limited means). SCE isnt even involved in any way in Shenmue III. Sony doesnt publish the game, they dont fund it, they just provide assistance the same way they did for any indie they had an exclusivity deal going. That + the E3 showing, which honestly, benefited Sony more than it benefited Shenmue. To this day, they dont even mention the game or upload medias.
 
GhostTrick Media coverage is not the key to success. If the mainstream website cover the game too much they create a hype. A hype the game is never able to live up too. If it flies under the radar there is a chance that it will attract new fans Other indie games also did not get a big media coverage but ended up being successful in the end.

I seriously think that Shenmue did not the gaming press. The gaming press is small shaddow of its self compared to old days when gaming mags were a thing. After the dead of most gaming magazines and when the internet took over, the gaming journalism is a joke. No detailed reports anymore. Just clickbaits every where.
 
GhostTrick Media coverage is not the key to success. If the mainstream website cover the game too much they create a hype. A hype the game is never able to live up too. If it flies under the radar there is a chance that it will attract new fans Other indie games also did not get a big media coverage but ended up being successful in the end.

I seriously think that Shenmue did not the gaming press. The gaming press is small shaddow of its self compared to old days when gaming mags were a thing. After the dead of most gaming magazines and when the internet took over, the gaming journalism is a joke. No detailed reports anymore. Just clickbaits every where.


I agree that marketing or press coverage isnt everything and that good word of mouth can carry success. The problem is that it works for games with little to no coverage. Games that people havent heard about and that aren't even review by the press sometimes. The problem is that Shenmue III will be stuck between little marketing or coverage... But you can be sure that the game is big enough to be reviewed. And oh boy reviews will tear the game appart. Which means the first contact people will have with this game is the press either shitting on the game or laughing at it. I mean, look at Shenmue I-II. From cult classics to some insane revisionism. The remaster scored like a 76 on Metacritic and spawned dumb memes about "forklift simulator" "outdated boring game" despite being cult classics that used to review amazingly well. Shenmue III wont have that aura and I'm willing to bet 5 european dollars that the review will be all about "It's not Shenmue because it doesnt have cutting edge visuals" "animations are outdated" "the game isnt interesting" or, of course, "Yakuza exists and is better".

Basically, the game isnt big enough to get a fair amount of press coverage, yet it is big enough to be reviewed at launch (and trust me, it wont be pretty). So the difference with Shenmue III and these small games is that Shenmue III will have a negative press at launch.
 
It might be torn apart yes but there is still a chance to be successful. Shenmue is a niche game and that what it always will be. It is not for the people consuming mainstream media so it does not matter what the mainstream media will say about it. Mainstream media is for the mainstream taste. And the mainstream taste is irrelevant for the success. The game is more adventure fans and the adventure fans will find about the game by themselves .

Shenmue 3 can be successful enough warrant a sequel. It won't be full success with rockstar style smales figures but it can be successful enough.

No matter what meta critics say. Or whatever the ign, kotaku...... guys say.

They are not the only way to get information about games anymore. The word can be spread by fan youtubers as well. If some big youtube dude or gal likes the game for example that could generate the interest of many people out there. Many more people than a positive review would generate.

The reviews of Shenmue 1 for example were really good, at least in the german games media at the time. All the magazines I read back then, gave the game at least a score in the 80 per cent range to the 90s rae.

But besides this super postive reviews Shenmue was not the success it deserved.

Or there also were games that were hated by critics the general public liked.

We should not overate the influence of ratings. They can have a impact of course but the impact is as big as many people think.

I think shenmue won't be as profitable as the Rockstar titles but proftitable enought not to be considered as failure.
 
I don't think it matters if it's the third entry in a series -- so was Fallout 3. So was The Witcher 3. Sure, they were huge games, but those series weren't always AAA.

I also think it's too early to judge the coverage and marketing. We're 5 months from launch. It's barely begun. The game's too far away for anyone but hardcore fans to be really excited yet. People don't get excited until they've seen gameplay, and gameplay reveals are commonly showing up closer to launch nowadays to capitalise on the hype.

I've said this many times, but the biggest factor is quality: if the game is interesting and unique, fun to play, and has interesting characters and story etc. it will catch on.

All the doom and gloom is completely overblown if you ask me.
 
I don't think it matters if it's the third entry in a series -- so was Fallout 3. So was The Witcher 3. Sure, they were huge games, but those series weren't always AAA.

I also think it's too early to judge the coverage and marketing. We're 5 months from launch. It's barely begun. The game's too far away for anyone but hardcore fans to be really excited yet. People don't get excited until they've seen gameplay, and gameplay reveals are commonly showing up closer to launch nowadays to capitalise on the hype.

I've said this many times, but the biggest factor is quality: if the game is interesting and unique, fun to play, and has interesting characters and story etc. it will catch on.

All the doom and gloom is completely overblown if you ask me.

Indeed, we should have a much better grasp of Shenmue III’s release quality and the hype surrounding it towards E3 in a few months...patience is a wude...

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What about Kingdom Come Deliverance? I mean it had not so favourable coverage by the gaming media (some of them ripped it apart for not being diverse enough) and yet the game went on to sell a million copies in its first week (or month, I can’t remember which one it was)

Favourable press coverage doesn’t always mean everything. I expect a lot of the gaming “press” to shit on the game. Because there are a good chunk of them that do love to shit on Shenmue, but that doesn’t necessarily mean much since I don’t think they have as much influence these days.

The real question should be “how will this game play on a Twitch stream? And will it be entertaining enough to get non fans interest to check it out?”

Streaming is where it is at and it has been shown before that popular streamers can drive sales. Or it can get people’s interest to check out a game. So my question is can Shenmue III reach that audience? Can it reach a new audience in that manner?

I think it’s gonna be an uphill battle for Shenmue III. It’s still largely a cult game with a loyal rabid fan base. Does anyone know the numbers for the HD collection? Did it do well enough to get a new audience?

I could see Shenmue III having a bit of the same problem that Yakuza had. In the sense that I knew so many people who were interested in Yakuza but felt daunted to jump into an ongoing series. Then Yakuza 0 came along and it gave them the oppurtunity to jump in fresh.

So I wonder if something similar might happen with Shenmue III? Might there be audience that is curious but doesn’t want to jump into something ongoing?

But who knows how this will go for Shenmue III. There are Indie games that have constantly broke through to a wider audience that I would have never expected to break through. So who knows how it will go for Shenmue?

All I know is that Deep Silver had better have something up their sleeves to push the game because we are 5 months out from release and the silence is worrying. The fact that there is little to no interest outside of the interest shown in the community worries me a little. They better have something up their sleeves to bring interest back.
 
So I wonder if something similar might happen with Shenmue III? Might there be audience that is curious but doesn’t want to jump into something ongoing?

Shenmue I & II is available and cheap. For a long time Yakuza and Yakuza 2 weren't available on modern systems. Anyone who's willing to play older games will try I & II, I think, and for the many people who aren't willing to play older games, all YS Net can do is make the story easy to understand for newcomers (recap videos?), and word will spread that you don't need to play I & II to enjoy it. I bet less than 20% of Witcher 3 players had played Witcher 2, so it's doable.

But I agree Deep Silver need to start their push soon. There are huge ads for Control on the PS4 store right now, which is apparently coming out on the same day.
 
Maybe Deep Silver should really start pushing soon. But do they have enough stuff to push? They need to Show some relevant stuff for the Marketing campaign. But what if Yu and his Team are not ready yet for this type of media coverage?

I need to be honest here. I personaly liked all the Trailers of Shenmue so far. With the Music and the cut, they were perfect for the fans.

But I am not sure if they game would have got my Attention as a non fan. It looked too unsual to really grasp up.

it is difficult to feature stuff everbody likes in S3, like Big Explosions, or Blood and Gore because they do not exist in Shenmue

I really like this MK 11 Trailer for example




it is short and was polished to the max to look cool. with the Music. It shows well what the game is about.

But how to feature Shenmue 3 in such a short a Video?

a short Clip, that shows the fighting, talking and exploring System? Might look well from a fans perspective but from a outsider's perspective it may look rather boring.


As I said already Marketing S3 is going to be a tough matter.

A longer deep Video would be better. To show a Segment of the game with a narrator.
 
Shenmue I & II is available and cheap. For a long time Yakuza and Yakuza 2 weren't available on modern systems. Anyone who's willing to play older games will try I & II, I think, and for the many people who aren't willing to play older games, all YS Net can do is make the story easy to understand for newcomers (recap videos?), and word will spread that you don't need to play I & II to enjoy it. I bet less than 20% of Witcher 3 players had played Witcher 2, so it's doable.

True enough...pardon my ignorance (because I've never played The Witcher) but is that a Final Fantasy type deal (numbered sequel yet not connected) ? Or is it actually a continuing story? Again pardon my ignorance but I've never played it so I don't know if it's the former or latter.

It is one possibility and like I said I honestly don't know. You never can tell what's gonna be a success and what isn't. Or what's gonna hit with players and what isn't.

Maybe Deep Silver should really start pushing soon. But do they have enough stuff to push? They need to Show some relevant stuff for the Marketing campaign. But what if Yu and his Team are not ready yet for this type of media coverage?

This is actually a really good point. Does anyone know if the English dub has finished recording yet? Could it possibly be that they just don't have enough ready from the English dub (in terms of completed product I mean with the dub implemented into gameplay) to show yet and could that be the hold up for Deep Silver? I would have to imagine Deep Silver will be showing off the English version so I wonder if that could be a hold up at all? Or is it just that Deep Silver still don't see it as the right time?

I've got to imagine we've got to get something more this month or May at least. I'm still waiting for that 15 minute extended video to be shown...makes me wonder, is that apart of a marketing push that we just don't know yet? Or will get it in full as a Kickstarter update?
 
I think we need to trust DS to the right thing in the marketing and do all fan possible to promote the game at our own terms.

It is not easy to promote the game unfortunately. Short clips are common now on youtube to promote future games.

But are these short clips to right format to promote Shenmue 3? I do not think so, but I am not a marketing guru. So I cannot out rule the possibility that a marketing guru can make a good short clip.

But at least Imho Shenmue is a series that is quite deep. It takes time to show it's strengh. you cannot show just a short clip with the best action to promote it. You have to dig deeper.
 
True enough...pardon my ignorance (because I've never played The Witcher) but is that a Final Fantasy type deal (numbered sequel yet not connected) ? Or is it actually a continuing story? Again pardon my ignorance but I've never played it so I don't know if it's the former or latter.

It is one possibility and like I said I honestly don't know. You never can tell what's gonna be a success and what isn't. Or what's gonna hit with players and what isn't.
The Witcher 1, 2 and 3 are all connected, with loads of returning characters, but each game tells a self-contained story.

The good thing about the plot of Shenmue is it's very simple on the surface. The first game in particular you could probably summarise in a well-edited five minute video, considering the limited number of story-critical characters. As long as you show Nozomi, the Chens and Chai, you're pretty much good to go.

There's a bit more going on in the second game but I still think you could comfortably summarise them both in under 20 minutes. Hopefully they provide something like that in Shenmue III.

As you say, success is impossible to predict. All anyone can do at this point is speculate.

I think it'd be smart of them to show some of the silly stuff like frog racing and Ryo wearing goofy clothes. Not as the main focus, of course, just for some variety, because that stuff works great in short videos.
 
With what little time I have these days, I am currently replaying the Witcher 3 again, with never having played the first 2. The game on its own is one of my favorite's of all time, and I haven't completed Horizon Zero Dawn yet, or even opened Red Dead Redemption 2. Theres no reason Shenmue 3 cant have the same effect on the general gaming population.
 
It all comes down to promoting it like a AAA title, getting the word out about its upcoming release at big events such as the next upcoming event which is E3, but with the help of Sony if possible it can catch casual gamers eyes. Its going to be a solid game I believe. The challenge will be making it appealing to newcomers. Sometimes I wonder if it could also be released on XBOXOne, would Microsoft promote it effectively? Since Phil Spencer claims he's a die hard Shenmue fan.
 
there is a pretty "easy" way for a higher chance of success. all you need is a game that has a very high quality in one category.
doesnt matter if its the storyline, the gameplay, the genre. it just needs something really special.
if the game has something like that, you can find a big streamer on Twitch or Youtube who will check it out for sure.

there is a very new example - the game Outward released by Deep Silver just one week ago.
this game was a failed Kickstarter project. Deep Silver came on board after that and funded the game.
Outward is a super small indie survival RPG made by TEN people. its a super oldschool RPG with no help mechanics.

by the time of the release the developer had the OK from Deep Silver to provide review codes for
streamers on Twitch and Youtube.
the very first Steam reviews from normal buyers were like "meh" / "okayish", i think the score was something like 55%.

but then the content creators on Twitch and Youtube who have a special interest in the genre started with their content.
a guy called ESO made review and tipps videos which have hundred thousands of clicks
and a guy on Twitch called Cohh did like five live streams 5 hours each day with 20.000 people watching
and because the guys on Youtube and Twitch really really liked the game, you could easily see
that it made the people in the comments and in the chat curious. when a big streamer plays an indie game for 4 hours a day and enjoys it more than a AAA game - its the best promotion you can get.

and suddenly the Steam reviews became way more positive. right now the score is at 75% with 1600 reviews.
again, this is just a indie game made by 10 people.

Twitch and Youtube can make a huuuuuge difference if you provide free copies for the right people.
a positive and serious recommendation from a streamer who people trust
has way more value than any 3 minute trailer.
 
there is a pretty "easy" way for a higher chance of success. all you need is a game that has a very high quality in one category.
doesnt matter if its the storyline, the gameplay, the genre. it just needs something really special.
if the game has something like that, you can find a big streamer on Twitch or Youtube who will check it out for sure.

there is a very new example - the game Outward released by Deep Silver just one week ago.
this game was a failed Kickstarter project. Deep Silver came on board after that and funded the game.
Outward is a super small indie survival RPG made by TEN people. its a super oldschool RPG with no help mechanics.

by the time of the release the developer had the OK from Deep Silver to provide review codes for
streamers on Twitch and Youtube.
the very first Steam reviews from normal buyers were like "meh" / "okayish", i think the score was something like 55%.

but then the content creators on Twitch and Youtube who have a special interest in the genre started with their content.
a guy called ESO made review and tipps videos which have hundred thousands of clicks
and a guy on Twitch called Cohh did like five live streams 5 hours each day with 20.000 people watching
and because the guys on Youtube and Twitch really really liked the game, you could easily see
that it made the people in the comments and in the chat curious. when a big streamer plays an indie game for 4 hours a day and enjoys it more than a AAA game - its the best promotion you can get.

and suddenly the Steam reviews became way more positive. right now the score is at 75% with 1600 reviews.
again, this is just a indie game made by 10 people.

Twitch and Youtube can make a huuuuuge difference if you provide free copies for the right people.
a positive and serious recommendation from a streamer who people trust
has way more value than any 3 minute trailer.
Are there any twitch or youtube e-celebs that like Shenmue?
 
Are there any twitch or youtube e-celebs that like Shenmue?

Yes that is a good question. I personally do not know. I am not into lets play. I just watch gaming news and gaming tech stuff. But if there were such people that would help Shenmue a lot. But so far Shenmue only got rather negative attention from youtube. At the least the videos that randomly appeared in tab were more negative than postiv.
 
Are there any twitch or youtube e-celebs that like Shenmue?

yes, there is Huber from Easy Allies on Youtube - the guy who went crazy on the E3 Shenmue 3 announcement
and there is Maximilian Dood on Twitch who live streamed the Shenmue HD re release with 15.000 people watching.
i'm pretty sure there are more people like that.

i really hope that Deep Silver will provide free copies for these guys because thats the easiest promotion you can get.
im not saying that this can save the game, IF the game is really bad, then it cant be helped.
but if its a high quality niche game, these content creators on Youtube and Twitch can reach a way bigger crowd.

these guys can reach people who didnt even know that the game exists.
 
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Honestly while I was reading the Edge magazine article, I couldn't help but think maybe this will be bigger than we think. That it'll become a nice sleeper hit by the end of the year... who knows...
 
Here’s a quick marketing outline that may help Shenmue III sales tremendously this year and beyond...

May - Backer Trial Version Release
June - E3 Official Launch Trailer Release
Shenmue I & II Switch Release
Pre-Order Trial Version Release
Aug - Early Review Release
PlayStation & Steam Featured Release
Streamer & Social Media Contests

Future - Xbox One Featured Release
Nintendo Switch Featured Release
Google Stadia Featured Release
Apple Arcade Featured Release
Multi-Platform Sale Promotions
Ongoing DLC Promotions

Shenmue III’s long-term marketing opportunities may be paramount to its success and the saving of the saga...
 
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