SEGAbits Shenmue III Hype Train! Update: Funded but lets go further!

[Berto]

Yeah, why funding on something that don't belong to them anymore.

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=75643558&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch

[Tad]

Oh, I know. But as it's well documented, Shenmue's failure wasn't due to the game itself. It actually sold rather well.

[Tad]

Yeah, why funding on something that don't belong to them anymore.

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=75643558&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch

Out of curiosity, why do they have the copyright symbol of Sega at the bottom then?

[Berto]

Out of curiosity, why do they have the copyright symbol of Sega at the bottom then?

May be because they took some footage from Dreamcast's Shen Mue 1/2.

[max_cady]

I'm sorry... what?

[Trippled]

I'm also wondering about Sega involvement...

I spent the last couple days stalking Sega profiles on Linkeldn and Facebook, and it seems Naoya Tsurumi (top boss at Sega Sammy) is friends with Keiji Infafune and Yu Suzuki

https://www.facebook.com/naoya.tsurumi/friends?pnref=lhc

Tsurumi is also the one who bought Atlus and made comments about them letting use Sega IP. And I think that Suzuki is referring to him when he said "Sega is no problem for Shenmue 3, they just dont want the financial risk".

My impression - seems like he is a nicer executive - letting Shenmue 3 and Bayonetta 2 get made.

[George]

Oh, I know. But as it's well documented, Shenmue's failure wasn't due to the game itself. It actually sold rather well.

SEGA invested the money in hopes that it would be another big game that would sell units the way that Virtua Fighter sold the saturn, but in a world wide way. Shenmue was a failure in what SEGA wanted, it didn't move Dreamcasts and wasn't a bigger hit than Virtua Fighter. Especially considering that the Saturn and Virtua Fighter 1/2 attach rate was crazy. i think at one point everyone that owned a Saturn owned a copy of the game.

Marvel vs Capcom, Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure all sold better than Shenmue and altogether cost way less than Shenmue did.

I love the games, but let's not pretend it wasn't a failure for SEGA. People want to think failure means the game isn't good. The game is great, just the fact of life sadly.

[max_cady]

It's at 85%. Donated 100 bucks. By far the largest contribution I've ever made.


I'm still trying to process all this information...

[Trippled]

Right, and I think Yakuza has replaced Shenmue....Sega president Hideki Sato said: "altough Shenmue has not recouped the cost, we can lent the experience into future projects..."

Then Suzuki said: " I'm thankful that Nagoshi has been able to learn from the challenges I endured, and use it to give back to Sega. It's a good thing for Sega and I'm very thankful for that."

[max_cady]

I picked this up on NeoGaf:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXJTWEEi6BM


The way they reacted was... priceless.

[George]

Right, and I think Yakuza has replaced Shenmue....Sega president Hideki Sato said: "altough Shenmue has not recouped the cost, we can lent the experience into future projects..."

Then Suzuki said: " I'm thankful that Nagoshi has been able to learn from the challenges I endured, and use it to give back to Sega. It's a good thing for Sega and I'm very thankful for that."

Sounds like PR speak, no other game used the Shenmue engine that I know of.

[Trippled]

Sounds like PR speak, no other game used the Shenmue engine that I know of.

I'm assuming just production management and such. Like building a big game.

[Tad]

SEGA invested the money in hopes that it would be another big game that would sell units the way that Virtua Fighter sold the saturn, but in a world wide way. Shenmue was a failure in what SEGA wanted, it didn't move Dreamcasts and wasn't a bigger hit than Virtua Fighter. Especially considering that the Saturn and Virtua Fighter 1/2 attach rate was crazy. i think at one point everyone that owned a Saturn owned a copy of the game.

Marvel vs Capcom, Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure all sold better than Shenmue and altogether cost way less than Shenmue did.

I love the games, but let's not pretend it wasn't a failure for SEGA. People want to think failure means the game isn't good. The game is great, just the fact of life sadly.

I'm not. I'm saying it was a failure because of Sega. The marketing was completely irrelevant to what the game was, they pumped so much money into the Saturn then DC version it was impossible to claw it all back and by the time it was released, the DC was already bleeding out. It was said that each DC owner had to buy two copies for it to make money or another words, it had to convince gamers to buy the same number of DC's again. That was never going to happen.

Oh, and let's not forget about sticking the sequel on a completely new console that was still finding it's place.

If it's true they wanted it to sell bigger than VF, then that's also silly. VF was (is) a well established franchise that grew a fanbase over the years. Shenmue was something completely new.

[George]

Virtua Fighter 1 (not the sequel) sold 1:1 with the Saturn on launch. Virtua Figher was a NEW IP.

"Sega released the Saturn in Japan on November 22, 1994, at a price of JP¥44,800. Virtua Fighter, a nearly indistinguishable port of the popular arcade game, sold at a nearly one-to-one ratio with the Saturn hardware at launch and was crucial to the system's early success in Japan."

Crazy Taxi was also a 'first entry IP' and still outsold Shenmue. Not to mention the VF port on Saturn was terrible.

[Tad]

And? Doesn't automatically mean Shenmue or anything else will have the same ratio.