Shenmue 1 and 2 Sales

[FistOfLegend]

Hey everyone. I cant remember wether S1 did bad in sales, but I know that Shenmue 2 did. Does anyone have a rough estimate of the number of units sold for Shenmue 2? And im sure that if the creators of shenmue did the right advertising and offers, then more people would be drawn to the Shenmue story. If they made the third installment a great ending to the series, that woul dbe satisfying to every Shenmue fan I would think.

[DeadPool]

have you tryed the internet? i hear it is very good in these sort of matters.

[NeoShredder]

XBOX Shenmue II sales were affected because all Shenmue II fans imported the Dreamcast version.

[Kenny]

Or downloaded it, whichever.


All I can recall is that Shenmue I sold a little over a million units, Shenmue II sold less than that afterwards.

[St. Elmo's Fire]

have you tryed the internet? i hear it is very good in these sort of matters.

[Staplerfahrer Klaus]

have you tryed the internet? i hear it is very good in these sort of matters.

Actually, this kind of info is quite hard to find.

All I can recall is that Shenmue I sold a little over a million units...

Yeah, that's what I remember too. When you think about it, Shenmue didn't actually sell BADLY, it just couldn't turn a profit. Most games sell less than 1 million units.

[momo]

most games dont cost $23,000,000 to make.

[KoroshiyaIchi]

Shenmue didn't actually sell BADLY, it just couldn't turn a profit.

Aren't they the same thing? If you do not turn a profit, the game has sold badly...

[Staplerfahrer Klaus]

I consider "sell badly" to mean it sold a small number of units. So for me, no.

[FistOfLegend]

Yes because Residnet Evil 4 is a popoular game and it only sold a little over 1 million units for Gamecube, and they are still making Re5. So I dont think that medicore sales would totally stop the developers from making Shenmue 3. They cant just leave it with a hollow ending like it did in Shenmue 2.

[Kenny]

Well, RE4 probably cost alot less to make than Shenmue. If Shenmue had just a 3-5 million budget or so, we'd already be seeing the entire series unfolded by now, I bet.

[alimn]

Shenmue is an expensive game
& I heard that they spent more than 50 million dollars on Shenmue2
...

"It is notable for entering the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive video game ever developed at the time ($40-60 million)."

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/ says

Most Expensive Computer Game Development

The project took seven years to complete, and was the brainchild of Japanese developer Yu Suzuki, head of Sega's game-development AM2 division.

Sega was founded in 1951 and has since become a world leader in interactive digital entertainment. Sega says their future is about using cyberspace to create an out-of-this-world gaming environment. The mastermind of Shenmue, Yu Suzuki, began working for Sega in 1983 as a programmer and game producer, and a year later he created the world's first simulation arcade game, Hang On.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
So why is Suzuki's Shenmue so good!? It might have an everyday storybook subject matter – a Japanese high-school student, Ryo Hazuki, goes on a mission to unravel the mystery surrounding his father's death – but you just have to see the game to believe it! Suzuki rounded up 100 other men to help him concoct this grand story that has amazing graphics and an innovative system that far exceeds any games before it.

CHECK THIS OUT…
If aliens came down and kidnapped Suzuki and he could only take one game with him, guess what it would be? Mah-jongg (the ancient Japanese tile-matching game), which is the only game in the world more complex than his baby Virtua Fighter.

EDITED:I forgot to say that http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/ says this not me... ;)

[Who Really Cares?]

the joy of copy and paste ;) ...but yes both games have cost SEGA a lot

[FistOfLegend]

Wait a minute, why would Shenmue 2 cost the same if not more than Shenmue 1. I undestand that for the first game they are makin git all new, so the technology and resources are expensive. Sice SEGA had experience with making a Shenmue game, wouldn;t the seond game cost less to make?

[Kiyuu]

Wait a minute, why would Shenmue 2 cost the same if not more than Shenmue 1. I undestand that for the first game they are makin git all new, so the technology and resources are expensive. Sice SEGA had experience with making a Shenmue game, wouldn;t the seond game cost less to make?

According to Yu Suzuki, Shenmue II costed roughly 1/3 of the first game.