Cédric Biscay : Monaco Hebdo and modogameur.fr interviews

[Peter]

Always great to hear word from Cedric. Thanks for the translation!

[Sonoshee]

Thanks Yokosuka for the translation on these, just love Cedric!

[Yokosuka]

Damnit, I just missed his speech in the Desert Bus de l'Espoir 2015.

[Himuro]

I thought it was a good time to come out of exile to give confidence this can reach 1m.

I think Shenmue III can sell one million.

As I said before:

This will be an easy 100k. What we want is at least 500k or 1 million at LEAST.

I disagree with whoever said it's impossible to gain a new audience with a third game. Street Fighter got popular with II. Final Fantasy hit worldwide popularity with SEVEN. The Witcher with three.

If Sony markets it in the way Shenmue SHOULD be marketed, allows Suzuki to do a demo ON STAGE at E3, this will sell at least 1 million worldwide. Count on it.

[Giorgio]

"Sega did nothing with Shenmue. The idea was to make Shenmue III and create a huge buzz around this game".

'Nuff said.

[Yokosuka]

I thought it was a good time to come out of exile to give confidence this can reach 1m.

I think Shenmue III can sell one million.

As I said before:

This will be an easy 100k. What we want is at least 500k or 1 million at LEAST.

I disagree with whoever said it's impossible to gain a new audience with a third game. Street Fighter got popular with II. Final Fantasy hit worldwide popularity with SEVEN. The Witcher with three.

If Sony markets it in the way Shenmue SHOULD be marketed, allows Suzuki to do a demo ON STAGE at E3, this will sell at least 1 million worldwide. Count on it.

Moreover, the market is getting bigger and bigger, more than expected : 29 million PS4 consoles in the world at the moment and we're still in 2015.

I target 2 million if things go well.

[Himuro]

I think Steam will be the deciding factor that makes it a success more than the PS4.

[Amir]

Valkyria Chronicles managed to sell 500,000 copies on Steam (though to be fair it's heavily discounted a lot of the time). 1-2 million is definitely viable if marketing is effective.

[KidMarine]

1 million copies seems very doable to me.

But I'm saving up to buy multiple copies to do my part just in case!

[Yokosuka]

Don't forget that a word-of-mouth ​publicity is better than buying several copies.

If the game is indeed an artistic success, all our energy should focus on spreading the word.

[shredingskin]

all our energy should focus on spreading the word.

[punkmanced]

1Million copies would be possible, IMO, provided:

-S1 & S2 are released beforehand in some form
-Suzuki & Co don’t skimp on the marketing side of things (ie. the typical Shenmue pitfall)

S3 won’t have the competitive advantage the original game had back in ’99 (aka the most graphically-advanced game on the planet), so …yeah…they really need to think their overall strategy through.

[KidMarine]

S3 won’t have the competitive advantage the original game had back in ’99

It is on a system that already has an install base 3 times bigger than the Dreamcast's with 2 years to go. Not to mention how many Steam users there are. Plus the Shenmue name has grown and grown since 2001. I think S3 ultimately has more going for it than the first 2.

[Sonoshee]

1Million copies would be possible, IMO, provided:

-S1 & S2 are released beforehand in some form
-Suzuki & Co don’t skimp on the marketing side of things (ie. the typical Shenmue pitfall)

As long as Sega keep their noses out of it, it'll be fine. Their lack of advertising for mostly any of their IP's was always shocking.