Shenmue 3 Sales

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Weren't the physical sales 19,000 last week?

So you think it's UNDER 1,000 for this week? Find that hard to believe...
 
By the way, on Amazon.it Shenmue 3 was sold out, then back to stock and now almost sold out again (6 copies remaining). I wonder if they expected very low physical sales and sent few copies to stores or what else...
 
Crimson said:
By the way, on Amazon.it Shenmue 3 was sold out, then back to stock and now almost sold out again (6 copies remaining). I wonder if they expected very low physical sales and sent few copies to stores or what else...
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Yes. This was typical in my days at GameStop for niche releases like, say, Shenmue III. If we had only a few preorders, we would get those plus..5 to 10 extra. In extreme cases, we would only get what was preordered.

Atlus games were extremely tight in my time there--2 to 4 copies over preorders, if any at all.
 
Not shenmue 3 related, but its nice to see a game that ostensibly did poorly in the charts did seem to come out alright in the end with control
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Hopefully shenmue 3 might be similar, but I think 3 is doing far worse than control did initially and definitely was far more harshly received both before the release and after so its kind of like comparing apples to oranges. Contrasting that we now know Control's budget was at 33 million and we can guesstimate Shenmue is at most half that, so theres also that discrepancy.
 
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heh, I was just about to post that. I don't think SIII is doing worse though, not in the UK , anyway. It was beaten by Wreckfest and Man of Medan here at launch. Man of Medan sold 61% worse than it's predecssor Until Dawn so it wasn't a rocking week for new games either.

Ironically, that was Shenmue III's original launch week too (August 27th)

I noticed Deep Silver published Yakuza Kiwami in the UK and it shifted 6,300 units in it's first week and that was a budget release. That's pretty fucking terrible but we still got Y6, Kiwami II , Fist of the North Star and Judgement and I'll bet money it's pacing around the same as those games if not better.

FOTNS is gonna be one of those really rare physical releases in a few years. Glad i got a copy :D
 
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jsh020 said:
Not shenmue 3 related, but its nice to see a game that ostensibly did poorly in the charts did seem to come out alright in the end with controlj

www.gamesindustry.biz

People of the Year 2019: Remedy Entertainment

In April 2016, Remedy Entertainment launched Quantum Break, a product that embodied certain qualities that most people …
www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz

Hopefully shenmue 3 might be similar, but I think 3 is doing far worse than control did initially and definitely was far more harshly received both before the release and after so its kind of like comparing apples to oranges. Contrasting that we now know Control's budget was at 33 million and we can guesstimate Shenmue is at most half that, so theres also that discrepancy.
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I'm not sure if Shenmue 3 is doing "far worse" than Control. Control didn't chart on npd top 25 or any European charts either IIRC. It's pretty much a huge commerical flop, which is really unfortunate, I'm rooting for Control the whole way for the game awards. But good to see the game is selling slowly but steadily.

Hopefully the Black Friday sales in the US were enough for Shenmue to get some good sales. It's still $35 here so hope it continues to sell.
 
Yeah there's no way it's done worse than Control, it was 50% at Black Friday and still didn't trouble the charts so those holding out for a discount still weren't going for it. Shenmue III topped the chart while stock was available.
 
Down by Law said:
Yeah there's no way it's done worse than Control, it was 50% at Black Friday and still didn't trouble the charts so those holding out for a discount still weren't going for it. Shenmue III topped the chart while stock was available.
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Is there any chance you could do a sales analysis thread of everything up to this point? You seem to know your stuff and your posts are always really informative.

I know its a bit of a large request, but i thought id throw it out there.
 
ShenSun said:
Is there any chance you could do a sales analysis thread of everything up to this point? You seem to know your stuff and your posts are always really informative.

I know its a bit of a large request, but i thought id throw it out there.
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I'll be honest, as soon as the game was in my hands I went right off the boil as I was too busy playing it :D

All I can say for certain is it was #1 in the US for all videogame sales at Best Buy when the BF discount kicked in, and prior to that it was around #7 so still not slouching.

It peaked at around #12 on Amazon UK and around #7 in the US

3rd Best Seller on Base.com (UK site) but they sold out quickly

Simply Games UK it sold reallty well, it was #2 on release day for the CE and shortly went out of stock

Sales were very front loaded, but that's expected. The charts are all over the place right now as deep discounts, big brand names and hardware bundles dominate.

I can't imagine there's many 12 year old kids wishing for Shenmue III for christmas, and the current chart reflects that

We will have a better idea come the new year.

If i had to put money on it, I think IV will definetely happen. I wouldn't expect it to have much more of a budget than 3 had though. It seems to occupy a similar sales territory to low budget (that doesn't mean BAD) eurojank like 'The Surge' for example.

Shenmue has an in-built fanbase, not the largest but certainly one of the most passionate (and seemingly deep-pocketed) They know there's a market. But getting the budget to returns ratio right is not easy and I would hazard a guess that's exactly what DS and YSNET are trying to hammer out right now.
 
Also, lets be honest, the target market for the game is the 30+ bracket (I was 17 when Shenmue II came out) and the majority of older gamers have more disposable income, are shifting to buy digital, and to be brutally honest... they spend less time on message boards and more time just playing games than discussing them.

I'm a massive geek. I only post on here and rllmuk (the old UK EDGE forum, where I can tell you , Shenmue III has been received to near universal acclaim there)

I really wish we had Epic and PSN numbers. Those are the real deciding factor nowadays.
 
@Down by Law I cannot tell you how much these two posts have calmed me down and cheered me up. I'll buy you a pint sometime.
 
I don't have any insightful thing to add, but I always return to a question I had a long time ago.

Is there any reason why this game launched at 60$, instead of say 40? Was it to try to bank on the hype? Was it because that was the "price" on Kickstarter, so they didn't want to upset backers?

I really think that a lower price point would allow for some sales from people on the fence. Being 60, people will just wait for a discount.
 
Down by Law said:
to be brutally honest... they spend less time on message boards and more time just playing games than discussing them.
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I've noticed this for the longest time, and it annoys me to no end because it means we end up with a diminished segaboi and arcade-fan presence.
 
Dietsoap said:
I've noticed this for the longest time, and it annoys me to no end because it means we end up with a diminished segaboi and arcade-fan presence.
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I mean the lack of sega fans on the internet is more due to Sega's spotty output more than anything, they are a company thats in desperate need to pull a capcom, and if fucking capcom can win back public trust then anyone can.

Of course I dont know what they can even do, even when sega does something right they get punished for it, case and point Valkyria Chronicles and its incredible ability to lose money. But even then I'd argue Revolution was what sealed the franchise's death and is the direct reason for why 4 flopped, so its still kind of reflecting poorly on sega's output.
 
jsh020 said:
I mean the lack of sega fans on the internet is more due to Sega's spotty output more than anything, they are a company thats in desperate need to pull a capcom, and if fucking capcom can win back public trust then anyone can.
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I'm not even talking about their newer output, just their days back in the arcade and consoles. It's true though that more solid and consistent modern output would retroactively help shed (positive) light on their past with younger players, though. @SakuraTaisen kind of touched on this in another thread.
 
SEGA fans definitely skew older (and more handsome and smarter and funnier), meaning that they have less of a presence on the Internet. Plus all their systems besides the Mega Drive, and in some regions the Master System, are fairly niche in the west.
 
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