What if Shenmue 3 Fails?

Will you stay in the Dojo?

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Truck_1_0_1_ said:
TECHNICALLY, it wasn't (and definitely not in Japan) and having the 4 processors is a predecessor to the, "core," methodology and there are a ton of absolutely amazing games on the console.

One has to sit back with hindsight and time to truly see one's/something's worth. In 2020, I think we can all agree that the Saturn wasn't a failure. A disappointment revenue-wise, but not a failure (ala the 32X).

And I'm sticking to the same thing with 'mue; sure time won't help getting us IV quicker, but we can't judge the total reception and numbers until we have a bit more time.
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I know that 'Reality' tells us that 32X was a failure except it had awesome ports of Virtua Fighter, Space Harrier and Afterburner II. Also Virtua Racing Deluxe is literally one of only a small few racing games I like. Also combined with Sega CD. THE TRUE POWER OF BLAST PROCESSING IS UNLEASHED.
Lol I know I'm an adult but I'm sorry.... Failure you say? Lol...

My argument for many years/decades was that Japan was cooler and had way cooler games. Saturn/Dreamcast really drilled this argument home for me...

Please excuse the word indulgences here but there is a point: -

Please correct me if you think I'm wrong here but going from my Sega history and my recent Sega experiences I think that Sega America/Europe/Japan are almost separate companies. I note on Nintendo Switch store that there is an entry for 'SEGA' but also 'SEGA EUR' - I think that Sega Japan would be interested in a collaboration with Ys.Net for Shenmue 4 but I don't think it'd be a global concern. I think it'd be region specific, if at all. Consider this: S2 DC never made it to the US legitimately. But Europe got the Japanese version with English subs. I think if Sega got involved at all it would be in an extremely limited way. The only studio close to the Shenmue DNA is 'Yakuza' studio (I apologise, forget their proper name, Ryu something something, sorry) and they are wrapped up in Kiwami/Yak 7.

The more I analyse it the more I think it's unlikely. BUT I WANT TO BE PROVEN WRONG SO BADLY!! Sega on board is complete win. But....
 
Shenmue 3 averaging a 69 Metacritic and not selling terribly well is probably all the proof Sega needs they should stay away, unfortunately. Shenmue 3 needed to make a bigger splash to win Sega’s full support. Can’t see how they’d invest anything in a series that’s never earned them much money and continues to be fairly niche and unpopular. It seems Deep Silver is a much better publisher for this type of game.
 
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mjqjazzbar said:
Shenmue 3 averaging a 69 Metacritic and not selling terribly well is probably all the proof Sega needs they should stay away, unfortunately. Shenmue 3 needed to make a bigger splash to win Sega’s full support. Can’t see how they’d invest anything in a series that’s never earned them much money and continues to be fairly niche and unpopular. It seems Deep Silver is a much better publisher for this type of game.
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It's frustrating that the promotion was not so great. Old artworks are still promoted on official source. The only people aware of the beauty of the game are the players themselves. We were all surprised by how magnificent the game looks and that's not normal.

I appreciate the Youtube advertising though, and their overall support.

Meanwhile, the game only cost 12 million. It's even more difficult to understand why Sega didn't re-invest in the franchise considering the cult following proved by the kickstarter fever. But it was a time when Nagoshi wasn't as powerful as today in the Sega's hierarchy so maybe...
 
mjqjazzbar said:
Shenmue 3 averaging a 69 Metacritic and not selling terribly well is probably all the proof Sega needs they should stay away, unfortunately. Shenmue 3 needed to make a bigger splash to win Sega’s full support. Can’t see how they’d invest anything in a series that’s never earned them much money and continues to be fairly niche and unpopular. It seems Deep Silver is a much better publisher for this type of game.
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Given Sega's poor history when it comes to business decision, I would love for Sega to make another poor business decision and totally back Shenmue 4. Sega already fell off years ago so it's like "fuck it", make the leap
 
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Dehone said:
Given Sega's poor history when it comes to business decision, I would love for Sega to make another poor business decision and totally back Shenmue 4. Sega already fell of years ago so it's like "fuck it", make the leap
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Sega may be interested. Yu Suzuki said he's in talks with Sega about working on other franchises and he's hired on as a consultant. I think Sega would be more open if Shenmue 4 used the Dragon engine of the Yakuza games.

I know most people don't want to hear that but if it gets us to Shenmue 6 I'm down.
 
Yokosuka said:
It's frustrating that the promotion was not so great. Old artworks are still promoted on official source. The only people aware of the beauty of the game are the players themselves. We were all surprised by how magnificent the game looks and that's not normal.

I appreciate the Youtube advertising though, and their overall support.

Meanwhile, the game only cost 12 million. It's even more difficult to understand why Sega didn't re-invest in the franchise considering the cult following proved by the kickstarter fever. But it was a time when Nagoshi wasn't as powerful as today in the Sega's hierarchy so maybe...
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The Kickstarter didnt automatically mean the game was going to be a success. Roughly 70,000 backers plus however many additional were going to buy the game. Looking at the sluggish sales so far, why would Sega make that investment? Shenmue failed the first two times. Doubt they were gonna try a third.

There are other franchises that Sega could revive that could probably be more successful than Shenmue and they dont even touch those
 
BruceWayne911 said:
Sega may be interested. Yu Suzuki said he's in talks with Sega about working on other franchises and he's hired on as a consultant. I think Sega would be more open if Shenmue 4 used the Dragon engine of the Yakuza games.

I know most people don't want to hear that but if it gets us to Shenmue 6 I'm down.
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Well hopefully Yu Suzuki still has enough pull to convince Sega to be on board. I know hes shifted his focus to mobile gaming though in recent years, but im hoping his position is more console focused
 
Dehone said:
The Kickstarter didnt automatically mean the game was going to be a success. Roughly 70,000 backers plus however many additional were going to buy the game. Looking at the sluggish sales so far, why would Sega make that investment? Shenmue failed the first two times. Doubt they were gonna try a third.
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I think the main reason that Shenmue 1 failed was due to the amount of budget Yu and his team spent on the Saturn port which that got cancelled.

other reasons that why Shenmue 1 failed:
-Product placements
-Failure of Dreamcast
-Not being available on PS2
 
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The Shenmue 3 sales are sluggish because the game was very badly presented through four years of (non-)promotion and various mistakes. The kickstarter page was terrible and very amateurish to begin with. Many people in 2015 were ready to take the bandwagon but at the condition the game looks cool. It doesn't.

If I didn't know the Shenmue series, I probably thought the game is not worth my attention. I would even think it sucks after watching some gameplay from youtubers. Because the game does really look dreadful if the youtuber doesn't know how to play it properly (the combat, the useless drawers, dialogues, annoying story etc.)

About Shenmue 1, it didn't fail. In fact, it sold very well. It was just too expansive for Sega at the time. Shenmue 2 did flop but the conditions were special: the Dreamcast was factually dead so the game was certainly published in a limited amount. Sega did not even publish the game in Europe, Big Ben Interactive did. I'm not sure Virtua Tennis 2 sold better for instance.
 
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Dehone said:
Well hopefully Yu Suzuki still has enough pull to convince Sega to be on board. I know hes shifted his focus to mobile gaming though in recent years, but im hoping his position is more console focused
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The biggest problem that Shenmue faces is there is no room for huge profits. Video game developers dont want to break even or make a little bit of money. It all boils down to money.
 
Yokosuka said:
Sega did not even publish the game in Europe, Big Ben Interactive did. I'm not sure Virtua Tennis 2 sold better for instance.
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Is that true? Never noticed this. Really wanna verify this now because I never even knew this. Makes a lot of sense given the circumstances at the time.

I wish we could see the publisher benchmarks for success on the Shenmue III project as a whole.

Would love to believe Mr Suzuki earmarked some of the funds raised or money from S3 sales/epic deal to get S4 moving forward/pre-production at the very least. This might sound disingenuous as S3 money is S3 money but I'm just hoping that S3 and 4 can be defined as 'Shenmue Project' as a whole.
 
I guarantee you the internet will be set ablaze if he did that because people are morons, so I hope he doesn't ever reveal how Shenmue IV is being funded. You know the headlines and forum posts will look something like (I think I posted something like this before):

SCAM-MUE: FAN-FUNDED SHENMUE III INTENTIONALLY CUT SHORT SO YU SUZUKI CAN PROFIT OFF OF SHENMUE IV, V and VI.
 
.... And yet publications that have a lot of sway are labelling S3 a failure (in a sales sense of course) - On a personal level i just wish there was a clean and positive argument to counter the 'sales' at the very least. Just feels like the negativity is getting piled on without much intelligence behind it.
 
I still wonder when we'll hear more from Shenmue 3 in terms of sales. Something like Darksiders 3 (published by THQ-Nordic who owns Deep Silver) looked like it'd be a failure as well, yet it ended up being a success. Considering the low budget and the EGS deal, who knows.
 
A success or non-failure in sales would mean: Sega completely funding Shenmue 4 with Suzuki on board.

On the other hand, it's trickier to define a failure. I would say: if Shenmue 4 turns out to be a massive downgrade in terms of design (e.g. a very linear game with poor content) or not announced in the three years.

gamesbloke said:
Is that true? Never noticed this. Really wanna verify this now because I never even knew this. Makes a lot of sense given the circumstances at the time.
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From French Dreamcast Official Magazine (July 2001). Bigben was said to be the new publisher of Dreamcast products in Europe:
DreamcastMagazine_juillet_aout_2001-Page024.jpg
 
My belief is the epic deal was the guarantee that the publisher didn't lose out financially. They've already got the blu-ray press rolling. So not a big deal if they sling a few 100k Shenmue 3's in there as well. Keep it codes only for PC. All gravy. (This has no basis in truth but just my thoughts)

So I think the question on the publishers mind is whether it's worth making that same investment on a pure S4 without the same level of initial funding.

If there is another epic deal to be made I guarantee it'll get made for S4 to offset any risks.

S4 will definitely not be an evolution in gameplay or graphics. I'm figuring it'll be more of the same. But I'm a very negative person as a rule lol.

Many thanks Yokosuka for the article. You posted after I posted mine so edited my post with thanks to accommodate your efforts.
 
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