Shenmue I & II HD sales data

Taarabt said:
There are barely any issues with the remakes, yes there is the odd glitch! But seriously it doesn't destroy the whole game

The loading times make it playable and that is the best thing sega could have done!!
Click to expand...
I agree. I think most of the bugs and glitches are very minor at worst. The benefits of the remake far outweigh the negatives. I really love the fast loading times.

Shenmue 1 & 2 is currently on page 5 of the top selling games on Steam. Sure, it may have fallen from where it was, but it is still selling better than 98% of all other titles on Steam.
 
tomboz said:
I don’t think Sega will be kicking themselves at all. They took a huge risk with the original games and it didn’t pay off.
Click to expand...
Sega have an almost superstitious terror of the Shenmue brand. The reason I said what I did on the first page is because I'm sure plenty of executives at Sega literally thought that's what would happen if they spent any significant amount of money on the port.
Which they didn't.
Which is why it's sold out - they hardly printed any, they didn't expect it to sell.
Which is why it's buggy - they didn't want to spend what was needed to get it rock solid.

I personally think they're wrong. I've spent the past, I dunno, is it fifteen years? buying that whole line about how Shenmue was basically videogaming's Heaven's Gate. That it probably contributed to the existential threat that Sega found themselves in at the turn of the century.
But was it? Did it?
Shenmue's failure was a symptom, not a cause - the cause was a series of hardware blunders that destroyed Sega's brand.

As for the games themselves, sure, they're not for everyone. But the audience exists. Even if we ignore how well these re-releases have generally been received even by those completely new to the series*, even if we ignore the record breaking Kickstarter, even if we put aside all of that: The success of games like Life Is Strange, Heavy Rain, or even Animal Crossing, prove that the audience was there all along.

In 2018, this is really obvious to me. Sega could have made their money back from Shenmue and then some. They just didn't have the faith, or they didn't have the balls.

*I've not seen anyone's opinion of the series being negatively tarnished due to the bugs, fwiw.
 
Taarabt said:
There are barely any issues with the remakes, yes there is the odd glitch! But seriously it doesn't destroy the whole game

The loading times make it playable and that is the best thing sega could have done!!
Click to expand...
Sorry!? So broken cutscenes, crashes, crushed blacks, save files not working and numerous other things don't ruin the experience of playing these games!?

Well let's just hope sega and d3t reps don't see comments like yours, or they may well start to think the same
 
I'd take the old slower loading if it fixed just a "few" glitches.
Charts are one thing but what I'd like to see is sold unit numbers. Since this is what matters.
Has the KS Slacker backer numbers improved/spiked, since this release?

I always felt that Shenmue got blamed for SEGA's failure and leaving the console business more then the silly choices of 32X/Mega CD expansion and the whole Sega Saturn fiasco.
Even though Shenmue sold 1.18 million copies and that reported $70 Million went not only to marketing but also the Sega Saturn version and most of the development of Shenmue 2. I think what put SEGA off Shenmue was likely the lesser return on the 2nd game on DC and the XBOX port. But that was when everybody knew the dreamcast was dead and the xbox was a fresh new system from a new company entering the home console space. I recall them slashing the prices on xbox like mad just to ship units against the PS2.
 
Last edited:
A lot (literally every other post from what I could see) of users on Resetera were mentioning Shenmue 2's music is all messed up. Would hate if that's true...

I think the cutscene bugs in Shenmue 1 are pretty terrible as well and the save bug where you can't carry across your finished game save and have to play through the entire ending again. Those definitely need sorting.
 
Henry Spencer said:
A lot (literally every other post from what I could see) of users on Resetera were mentioning Shenmue 2's music is all messed up. Would hate if that's true...
Click to expand...
Shenmue 2 instruments are pretty bad on consoles right now. On PC the beta patch massively improved the game's audio. Still not perfect but good enough to not bother me much.
 
Sega helping fund and get on board for Shenmue 4 is the best we can hope for IMO. We All must buy a copy/copies of shenmue 3 even though we're receiving kickstarter copy.

I honestly think sega only wants to be a small investor at most though. I can see sega potentially selling off shenmue assets too. Maybe Sega lending the licence for S4 and some investment for a cut of profits ？ Maybe Sony making Shenmue 4 a launch title or up coming exclusive for PS5？

I really hope shenmue 4 doesn't get lost in the crowd and then delayed and history repeats itself.

I think kickstarting shenmue 4 would cause alot of ill will towards the shenmue brand. I just think a 2nd kickstarter would bring with it huge negativity am I the only one who feels that way？Hopefully profit made from shenmue 3 goes towards shenmue 4 and we already have a good chunk of the budget.
 
This is such an interesting thread. It's also quite delightful too seeing these reports of strong sales.

Just to note, Shenmue HD reached #2 in the UK purely based on name and reputation. Sega barely marketed this, whilst its competitors like Crash (and the #1 game for example, F1 2018) had a huge marketing blitz and significant marketing budget behind them, so whilst this is fantastic news it's also a small miracle. I'm of the firm belief people bought it because of the Shenmue 3 hype and resurgence, and Shenmue's mythic reputation i.e. it sold well just on the name "Shenmue".

I also think if Shenmue HD can hit #2 that says to me Shenmue 3 is destined see the same chart position, or superior.

Also NPD's August report that'll give us some insight on how Shenmue HD did in the US is coming September 18:

 
catonkatonk said:
Sega have an almost superstitious terror of the Shenmue brand. The reason I said what I did on the first page is because I'm sure plenty of executives at Sega literally thought that's what would happen if they spent any significant amount of money on the port.
Which they didn't.
Which is why it's sold out - they hardly printed any, they didn't expect it to sell.
Which is why it's buggy - they didn't want to spend what was needed to get it rock solid.

I personally think they're wrong. I've spent the past, I dunno, is it fifteen years? buying that whole line about how Shenmue was basically videogaming's Heaven's Gate. That it probably contributed to the existential threat that Sega found themselves in at the turn of the century.
But was it? Did it?
Shenmue's failure was a symptom, not a cause - the cause was a series of hardware blunders that destroyed Sega's brand.

As for the games themselves, sure, they're not for everyone. But the audience exists. Even if we ignore how well these re-releases have generally been received even by those completely new to the series*, even if we ignore the record breaking Kickstarter, even if we put aside all of that: The success of games like Life Is Strange, Heavy Rain, or even Animal Crossing, prove that the audience was there all along.

In 2018, this is really obvious to me. Sega could have made their money back from Shenmue and then some. They just didn't have the faith, or they didn't have the balls.

*I've not seen anyone's opinion of the series being negatively tarnished due to the bugs, fwiw.
Click to expand...
I agree with you entirely that Shenmue has nothing to do with Sega’s failure and have argued many times that Shenmue’s sales figures are actually very impressive given how poorly the Dreamcast sold compared with the PS2 (I think I figured out once that had there been as many Dreamcasts sold as PS2s and the same percentage of console owners bought the game it would have been the best selling game ever - although this was some years ago before GTA5). It’s a shame as the Dreamcast was a great system that was doomed because of mistakes before it - but that’s a different conversation.

As for people’s opinions of the series not being tarnished, I’ve seen plenty across these forums let alone the internet at large. Were it not for fans giving the game ten ratings on meta critic and steam before they’d even played it, I’m sure the ratings would look very different.
 
The sales news sounds great but I also thought of something else. When you check trophy statistics (on PS4) it seems to show that few people get far in the game. Even just reaching Charlie seems to be quite rare.
Companies do use this data along with regular sales numbers and it's a general fact that most people don't finish story driven games. This even made Rockstar think aloud if they should even bother creating stories for single player.
But I was still a bit surprised and I'm curious if it will change given some more time.

tomboz said:
I really do hope to be proven wrong and don’t want to sound pessimistic as this is my favorite game series of all time; but I feel that the disinterest they have shown towards the port and their failure to act quickly to address the numerous problems with it has done a lot of damage to the series on the whole.
Click to expand...
I don't know if it's really pessimistic. Maybe a bit cautious or realistic? I mentioned in another thread that these bugs unfortunately affected review scores and thus the series in general. Some reviewers liked the games but gave a 7/10 in the end because of bugs and glitches. That's a pity since it was avoidable. A few more 8/10's certainly look different from the perspective of people who are not into Shenmue.
 
ys. said:
The sales news sounds great but I also thought of something else. When you check trophy statistics (on PS4) it seems to show that few people get far in the game. Even just reaching Charlie seems to be quite rare.
Companies do use this data along with regular sales numbers and it's a general fact that most people don't finish story driven games. This even made Rockstar think aloud if they should even bother creating stories for single player.
But I was still a bit surprised and I'm curious if it will change given some more time.


I don't know if it's really pessimistic. Maybe a bit cautious or realistic? I mentioned in another thread that these bugs unfortunately affected review scores and thus the series in general. Some reviewers liked the games but gave a 7/10 in the end because of bugs and glitches. That's a pity since it was avoidable. A few more 8/10's certainly look different from the perspective of people who are not into Shenmue.
Click to expand...
I think the scores given by a lot of reviewers were also based on the assumption that the game would be working properly on launch.

I hate that we’re living in a time where devs release games unfinished and fix them with patches after launch; but I think it may have really helped the ports in this instance.
 
Trophy statistics always depress the shit out of me. I sure hope companies don't start removing single player content out of games due to them. I will pretty much stop gaming if they did since that's all i play. Online does nothing for me.
 
Ghost_Messiah said:
This is such an interesting thread. It's also quite delightful too seeing these reports of strong sales.

Just to note, Shenmue HD reached #2 in the UK purely based on name and reputation. Sega barely marketed this, whilst its competitors like Crash (and the #1 game for example, F1 2018) had a huge marketing blitz and significant marketing budget behind them, so whilst this is fantastic news it's also a small miracle. I'm of the firm belief people bought it because of the Shenmue 3 hype and resurgence, and Shenmue's mythic reputation i.e. it sold well just on the name "Shenmue".

I also think if Shenmue HD can hit #2 that says to me Shenmue 3 is destined see the same chart position, or superior.

Also NPD's August report that'll give us some insight on how Shenmue HD did in the US is coming September 18:

Click to expand...
Great. Thank you :)
 
ys. said:
The sales news sounds great but I also thought of something else. When you check trophy statistics (on PS4) it seems to show that few people get far in the game. Even just reaching Charlie seems to be quite rare.
Companies do use this data along with regular sales numbers and it's a general fact that most people don't finish story driven games. This even made Rockstar think aloud if they should even bother creating stories for single player.
But I was still a bit surprised and I'm curious if it will change given some more time.


I don't know if it's really pessimistic. Maybe a bit cautious or realistic? I mentioned in another thread that these bugs unfortunately affected review scores and thus the series in general. Some reviewers liked the games but gave a 7/10 in the end because of bugs and glitches. That's a pity since it was avoidable. A few more 8/10's certainly look different from the perspective of people who are not into Shenmue.
Click to expand...

I never knew companies looked at the trophy stats. Interesting. I do think some will be waiting for the game to be patched as well as others taking time to play due to their own circumstances.

Agreed on the reviews part and I do think SEGA have got away with given the buggy ports they gave us. Overall 7/10's is what most expected but it could have been more, though this doesn't look to have hurt initial sales. Longer term who knows.

@Let's Get Sweaty very interesting on the France situation.
 
#2 on the PlayStation 4 chart in Australia!


#4 on the all-platforms chart also in Australia, no sign of it on the all-platforms top ten in New Zealand:

http://trade-media.com.au/news/read/anz-igea-top-ten-charts-week-34

Seems like a very strong performance worldwide, but going by these sales reports, stronger performance in certain regions than others. Still though, more good news! Performance in the US will be September 18, via NPD.
 
Last edited:
Ghost_Messiah said:
#2 on on the PlayStation 4 chart in Australia!


#4 on the all-platforms chart also in Australia, no sign of it on the all-platforms chart in New Zealand:

http://trade-media.com.au/news/read/anz-igea-top-ten-charts-week-34

Seems like a very strong performance worldwide, but going by these sales reports, stronger performance in certain regions than others. Still though, more good news! Performance in the US will be September 18, via NPD.
Click to expand...
Nice @Ghost_Messiah. Mind if I borrow these for the dojo social media?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top