by MiTT3NZ » Wed Nov 15, 2017 6:43 pm
I recall a number floating around here of sales figures for Shenmue 2X at about 300-400k, and the Wikipedia article puts it at 100k for the Dreamcast version. Also I remember the latter being comparatively cheap (or less expensive, at least) than most releases at the time.
Safe to say that Shenmue games didn't sell more than two million copies. That's quite good, especially for a perceived failure such as the Dreamcast.
As you say though, that's with a 40 million budget. Let's be generous and say 30% of every sale was going directly to SEGA (not AM2, Microsoft, covering advertising or publishing costs) and each game sold at £40 (though I definitely remember buying brand new DC games at £25)
That's £24 million. Converting that into USD around 2003 would've been roughly $40m. That would mean they broke even. Only they didn't, because the games cost $47m.
Either way you look at it, SEGA didn't make money out of Shenmue. Yes, it's a genuine shame, but that's reality.