Biscay has stated he doesn’t foresee another KS campaign in the future; then again, if Shenmue 3 were to only sell 100K copies at launch, he might suddenly feel the need to eat those words… assuming part 4 would still be an option.
Personally, I’m optimistic in regards to Sony’s backing…though at this point we don’t have much to go on. Sega’s past marketing campaigns from the Shenmue 1 & 2 days weren’t exactly stellar considering they were promoting one of the Dreamcast’s flagship franchises, and…let’s face it, back then, Shenmue’s graphics were amazing enough to sell quite a few of those copies to begin with (there was no competition; graphics-wise, the game looked like it came straight out of the 21st century. Not the case anymore).
-Shenmue 1 sold about 1.2M copies;
-Shenmue 2 (DC/ Xbox), roughly 500K units.
http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=shenmue
I’m curious to see where part 3 will stand. One thing’s certain: the game won’t sell nearly as well without an HD collection. It should only be a matter of time until that’s announced, IMO.
I think the lack of marketing was a huge reason for I & II doing poorly. Shenmue IIx was a joke marketing-wise as well.