SegaSammy should take back Shenmue.

Its widely accepted Shenmue I did around 1.2 million sales, some say 1.18 million

This is a board post from 2007 IGN: https://www.ignboards.com/threads/shenmue-was-not-a-flop-interesting-look-at-sales-data.148682510/

Wikipedia while not academia has it at 1.2 million: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenmue_(video_game)

Kotaku have Shenmue 1 as the 9th best selling dreamcast game: https://kotaku.com/the-best-selling-games-for-ps1-n64-saturn-and-dreamc-1830239627

VGChartz (yes I know the accuracy can be questioned) has it as the 4th best selling dreamcast game of all time as 1.18 million: https://www.vgchartz.com/article/270395/dreamcast-turns-19-top-10-best-selling-games-on-the-console/

And one more at 1.18 million: https://www.listal.com/list/bestselling-dreamcast-games

The HD ports are much more difficult to judge as no figures were ever released. Based on what little we know it's likely, IMO it did around 250k-350k sales as a spectrum. I'm also sure someone mentioned that it is still getting new players on Steam and PS4 in a steady manner, so it's not done too badly.
 
spud1897 said:
Its widely accepted Shenmue I did around 1.2 million sales, some say 1.18 million

This is a board post from 2007 IGN: https://www.ignboards.com/threads/shenmue-was-not-a-flop-interesting-look-at-sales-data.148682510/

Wikipedia while not academia has it at 1.2 million: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenmue_(video_game)

Kotaku have Shenmue 1 as the 9th best selling dreamcast game: https://kotaku.com/the-best-selling-games-for-ps1-n64-saturn-and-dreamc-1830239627

VGChartz (yes I know the accuracy can be questioned) has it as the 4th best selling dreamcast game of all time as 1.18 million: https://www.vgchartz.com/article/270395/dreamcast-turns-19-top-10-best-selling-games-on-the-console/

And one more at 1.18 million: https://www.listal.com/list/bestselling-dreamcast-games

The HD ports are much more difficult to judge as no figures were ever released. Based on what little we know it's likely, IMO it did around 250k-350k sales as a spectrum. I'm also sure someone mentioned that it is still getting new players on Steam and PS4 in a steady manner, so it's not done too badly.
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Indeed. In any case, point being, when your game is less expensive to make or to continue, it doesn't need to sell as many copies as others.

Hence why I understand that people can be confused on why Shenmue is left aside when it might be a million seller when Yakuza isn't and keep getting new entries.

Then again, making a Shenmue game wouldn't put SEGA in jeopardy. It's just that, in a world of safe profits, it seems like making a new entry doesn't seem like a thing SEGA wants to do. And unfortunately, considering how long it took to get a Shenmue I and II remaster...
 
Ren said:
Except no Yakuza game has sold more than Shenmue. Shenmue I & II HD port sold about half what the most sold Yakuza games sold with sales estimated to be 250k+
Except Yakuza games has never surpassed Shenmue 1 sales.
Shenmue has 1.2 million sales and Yakuza never had reached even half that.
Shenmue 2 Was the one that only got around 1/10 of Shenmue I sales since the mistake of porting it on Xbox which got many people to pirate the game including myself, since there was no way I could buy it on Dreamcast during that time I didn't even had internet access or computer.
If Shenmue II was released on Dreamcast globally it would had been a completely different story.
Shenmue I & II sold actually Very well with sales estimated to be 250k+ not bad for a port.
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You know those numbers are false, right?

Yakuza 1 sold over 600,000 in Japan alone, on the PS2.

People really need to get their sources correct on this.

Edit* it sold over 1 million on the PS2 and possibly even more, as I think these numbers are only for Japan:

nlab.itmedia.co.jp

伝説の極道が、PS3で大暴れ！――東京と沖縄でリアルな街を駆け抜けろ

大人のみなさん、お待たせしました。桐生一馬が帰ってきました。あの、伝説の龍が帰ってきたのです。今度のプラットフォームはPS3。そして今度の舞台は東京と沖縄。あらゆる面で過去作品からグレードアップした「龍が如く3」を、大人の貴方に！
nlab.itmedia.co.jp nlab.itmedia.co.jp

BTW, I always thought that it was a fact 'mue sold 1.2 million on the DC; now people are disputing that?
 
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Truck_1_0_1_ said:
You know those numbers are false, right?

Yakuza 1 sold over 600,000 in Japan alone, on the PS2.

People really need to get their sources correct on this.

Edit* it sold over 1 million on the PS2 and possibly even more, as I think these numbers are only for Japan:

nlab.itmedia.co.jp

伝説の極道が、PS3で大暴れ！――東京と沖縄でリアルな街を駆け抜けろ

大人のみなさん、お待たせしました。桐生一馬が帰ってきました。あの、伝説の龍が帰ってきたのです。今度のプラットフォームはPS3。そして今度の舞台は東京と沖縄。あらゆる面で過去作品からグレードアップした「龍が如く3」を、大人の貴方に！
nlab.itmedia.co.jp nlab.itmedia.co.jp

BTW, I always thought that it was a fact 'mue sold 1.2 million on the DC; now people are disputing that?
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Disputing that, not really. But it's more like giving a Vgchartz screen is.. well.
 
G4's Icons episode on Yu Suzuki also mentioned that Shenmue I went on to sell 1.2 million. And the Japanese Dreamcast magazines always have it listed in their charts, though I don't really know how to read them precisely...
 
Truck_1_0_1_ said:
You know those numbers are false, right?

Yakuza 1 sold over 600,000 in Japan alone, on the PS2.

People really need to get their sources correct on this.

Edit* it sold over 1 million on the PS2 and possibly even more, as I think these numbers are only for Japan:

nlab.itmedia.co.jp

伝説の極道が、PS3で大暴れ！――東京と沖縄でリアルな街を駆け抜けろ

大人のみなさん、お待たせしました。桐生一馬が帰ってきました。あの、伝説の龍が帰ってきたのです。今度のプラットフォームはPS3。そして今度の舞台は東京と沖縄。あらゆる面で過去作品からグレードアップした「龍が如く3」を、大人の貴方に！
nlab.itmedia.co.jp nlab.itmedia.co.jp

BTW, I always thought that it was a fact 'mue sold 1.2 million on the DC; now people are disputing that?
Click to expand...

I don't want to return to the same topics, but it's always the same wild guess about "more than 1 million" with no real evidence
These below are the only REAL numbers for Yakuza:


"2005
-Yakuza 1 - 232.650 copies

test

web.archive.org

2006
-Yakuza 1 - 345.323
-Yakuza 1 the best 275.340

-Yakuza 2 465.380

test

web.archive.org

2007

-Yakuza 1 the best 484.199
-Yakuza 2 572.917
-Yakuza 2 the best 65.057

test

web.archive.org

2008

Yakuza 1 repackage version - playstation the best 53.657
Yakuza 2 the best 201.866

test

web.archive.org

2009

Yakuza 2 the best 255.061

test

web.archive.org

the total is:

Yakuza 1 (3 releases, lifetime sales from 2005 to 2008): 883.179 copies

Yakuza 2 (2 releases, lifetime sales from 2006 to 2009): 827.978 copies


At least Yakuza 1 and 2 never reached the 1 million mark, and took multiple budget releases and almost 4 years each to get these results.


Also to make a more realistic comparison, since in Yakuza mutliple re-releases are counted, we should start to count also Shenmue HD sales and not just the original 1.2 million.
 
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Before you drop this line of conversation once more... source for this data?? EDIT: Seen the links, please make them clearer as I missed them.

Regardless anymore Yakuza V Shenmue and I'll be issuing warnings
 
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spud1897 said:
Before you drop this line of conversation once more... source for this data?? EDIT: Seen the links, please make them clearer as I missed them.

Regardless anymore Yakuza V Shenmue and I'll be issuing warnings
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it's all there, don't know why links are converted in "test".

There is nothing more to add to this, it's hard numbers after all, but please also tell others to stop spread misinformation based on their personal preferences, otherwise the circle will never ends even in future topics. A genuine Yakuza Vs Shenmue should not be a taboo discussion in a normal forum.
 
Take them back? What? They already own the IP. They have it. They could do anything. If they are so inclined they could even make Shenmue 3. One totally separate from the one that exists now.

They wont do anything though.
 
Suzaku said:
it's all there, don't know why links are converted in "test".

There is nothing more to add to this, it's hard numbers after all, but please also tell others to stop spread misinformation based on their personal preferences, otherwise the circle will never ends even in future topics. A genuine Yakuza Vs Shenmue should not be a taboo discussion in a normal forum.
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I think all he's saying is that the discussion is fine, but since this is a Shenmue forum, too often those discussions can get a little heated. That's what we don't want.
 
They should, they could, but they won't.

Modern Sega is an extremely unconfident, ambition-less, risk adverse and low profile company, and the few talent it retained in-house is basically held hostage by either Nagoshi's Yakuza sequels/spin-offs or Sonic games.
 
I still maintain if they took one of the Yakuza teams (They run parallel teams to push out the amount of Yakuza games) - and let Suzuki and some of his writers run that to make a Shenmue game they could make a Shenmue game quite effeciently. Let Suzuki world build and write a story (hint) and let that team crank out content.

It would allow them to put all their crazy ideas into Yakuza and their real world, mundane style stuff into Shenmue. If you've played Judgement its a lot more grounded in reality than some of the Yakuza games and also featured a lot of things that would work functionally for Shenmue. Before people burn with rage that they aren't the same game I know, I get that but neither is Super Monkey Ball which they also make!

That team have so many people who can craft great stories around small areas (by modern standards) - it would obviously require quite a bit of retooling for being able to talk to anyone etc. but I still feel it was a missed oppurtunity. Imagine starting instead of that wonky presentation video we got alongside the kickstarter but with a set of tools that allows for walking, talking, fighting, buying things from shops, classic sega video games, quest systems etc. etc. etc.

But thats about the only reason I would see for taking this game back into Sega Sammy's hands.

If they do look at doing it they could start by maybe doing a spin-off game set back in Shenmue 1 or something but based around another character.
 
Life_247 said:
I still maintain if they took one of the Yakuza teams (They run parallel teams to push out the amount of Yakuza games) - and let Suzuki and some of his writers run that to make a Shenmue game they could make a Shenmue game quite effeciently. Let Suzuki world build and write a story (hint) and let that team crank out content.

It would allow them to put all their crazy ideas into Yakuza and their real world, mundane style stuff into Shenmue. If you've played Judgement its a lot more grounded in reality than some of the Yakuza games and also featured a lot of things that would work functionally for Shenmue. Before people burn with rage that they aren't the same game I know, I get that but neither is Super Monkey Ball which they also make!

That team have so many people who can craft great stories around small areas (by modern standards) - it would obviously require quite a bit of retooling for being able to talk to anyone etc. but I still feel it was a missed oppurtunity. Imagine starting instead of that wonky presentation video we got alongside the kickstarter but with a set of tools that allows for walking, talking, fighting, buying things from shops, classic sega video games, quest systems etc. etc. etc.

But thats about the only reason I would see for taking this game back into Sega Sammy's hands.

If they do look at doing it they could start by maybe doing a spin-off game set back in Shenmue 1 or something but based around another character.
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The plots to the games have been written/conceived by the same 3 people since 2008 (Yakuza 3).
 
@Truck_1_0_1_ - Sorry I didn't mean the main plot which you would hope would be concieved by the current classic Shenmue team. I more meant the "world building" rather than the central plot and script, so the environmental and incidental parts of the world.

Also from a Sega stand point I feel they're almost getting to saturation with the Yakuza games which is why Judgement was such a nice spin-off. Having main Yakuza/Judgement/Shenmue games all coming out of one studio with one engine and a team you can move between projects gives a good variation.

I think that is the only way Sega would be a positive, I mean the only other option would be if S3 made enough money and Yu has most of the funding in place would be for Sega to publish and promote the game as they do for many others.
 
Life_247 said:
Sega to publish and promote the game as they do for many others.
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Sega's promotion of titles has always been very lacklustre though. I know it wasn't much better with Deep Silver but atleast Yu got some extra funding with them.
 
ShenmueTree said:
Take them back? What? They already own the IP. They have it. They could do anything. If they are so inclined they could even make Shenmue 3. One totally separate from the one that exists now.

They wont do anything though.
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If I was suddenly appointed as president of Sega in the bizarre world, I would be bold and would release both a new "Sonic 4" and a new "Shenmue III". With those names :-)

As some kind of apology to the fans and as a way to retroactively fix both games shortcomings and erasing the originals from existence :-).

(That doesn't mean I put Shenmue III at the same level of Sonic 4, which was a disaster several orders of magnitude higher!)
 
They won't take the franchise back without changing it to earn more money. There is no way they would work Yu-san competly freely that' why I am against such possibility.

The Extra Money is no good when Yu has to change the game to cater the mainstream. Sega is not stupid. Shenmue cost them a of money back then they won't make the same mistake twice. They would change the concept and that is not good.
 
I've been thinking of (admittedly wishful thinking) scenarios for how and why Sega would get involved with the future of Shenmue. None of this is intended to say that it's obvious they should do it and they'll make a ton of money, but just offer a few ideas on how they can maximize the opportunity if they do end up getting involved in Shenmue again. I put a little "tl,dr" blurb at the bottom if you wanna just skip to that.

I actually think in a way having 5 installments planned is a benefit than if the series was to end with 4. You can get a bit more return on investment with small profits from two installments instead of one, even if none of them will be huge successes. I don't think there will ever be a scenario where they bring development back in-house, but hopefully they could lend more help with a few devs chipping in, having a better selection of external partners, and some localization help.

If they commit to supporting Shenmue IV and V, they could go back to d3t and finish the true remaster of S1 and S2 that they were working on before they pivoted to the HD releases. It could give them an opportunity to not only make the graphical updates, but also make a few gameplay and quality of life improvements, and maybe even completely re-record the English dub. The idea would be to have 3 modestly profitable releases in S1&2 (re)-remastered, Shenmue IV, and Shenmue V. Maybe 4 if they release S1 and S2 separately if the quality of the remasters can justify it. Maybe you get small sales boost on the original HD releases as well.

Shadow of the Colossus had a similar-ish thing, where there was a PS3 "upscaled" remaster, and a PS4 remaster with improved art assets and lighting, so I don't think it's that crazy to release another remaster if the quality is there. Hell, maybe you could even release an improved Shenmue III (if there's a way Sega could be involved in publishing a remastered version of that, or be involved in publishing an Xbox Series X version)

With the new console generation coming up, it's possible that a Shenmue IV and V can exist within this generation on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC, so hopefully by the time Shenmue V comes around, they're running on all cylinders and can make Shenmue V more efficiently. I also just absolutely hate how Deep Silver has been handling the PC release of Shenmue III and would love for Sega to be the publisher again.

TL;DR summary - A scenario for Sega publishing or at least supporting the Shenmue series going forward would be to make a small profit off of two new games (Shenmue IV and V), release the true HD remasters from d3t for S1 and S2 and get another round of re-release profits, and then maybe a very moderate sales boost for the first round of remasters from 2018. If they somehow had the rights to publish a remastered or Xbox Series X version of Shenmue 3 or at least profit in some way, add that as well.
 
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