Also just old-fashioned word of mouth. I recommend the Shenmue series to lots of people who play video games. One thing about sales: Remember that sales continue for a while, and that with new DLC comes re-releases (at least digitally). Another thing: I paid 70 bucks for the PS4 digital edition. Physical sales are okay and all, but many people buy digitally these days. There is no physical overhead on digital releases, no shipping, packaging, printing, manufacturing costs. Just the cost of programming and marketing, which yields a higher profit margin. I have yet to see a full backers+digital+physical including all markets sales figure, but if Japan has sold in excess of 20,000 physical copies, who knows how many digital copies that is? If and when this gets to Steam it will generate more sales. If it gets released to Switch/Xbox eventually, that´s even more. I´m imagining that the game has already sold in excess of 100,000 copies if you include backers, digital and physical copies. That´s not a bad figure for any game! Not every game is a million-seller. The original Shenmue sold a worldwide total of 1.2 million units. That´s it, ever. (Granted, the Dreamcast audience was limited.) We´ll see how it pans out, but I expect Shenmue 3 to probably sell maybe half that number of copies during its lifetime. It was always a niche game. We´re that niche. I expect Yu Suzuki to finish it for the fans, probably either via Kickstarter or a collaboration with Sega. Another way to inject some quick cash into the brand (and gain fans) would be to release a 1-on-1, story-driven fighting game (VF style as far as the gameplay is concerned). Suzuki has the rights, after all, and he has already created the graphic assets. I´d certainly buy a copy. Such a game could familiarize a new audience with the story ans spur sales of the main games. Just a thought.
