Wait what have I missed?
Basically I had this idea of how we can incorporate the 4 Wude into our local communities. My idea was to have businesses, schools, and other institutions learn about the principles and apply it to their daily lives. Ultimately this would bring positive reinforcements such as revenue, competition, (business-wise) and even educate people on what Shenmue actually is while bringing attention to our efforts. However, there is a HUGE flaw that Mittens pointed out. Most people may be reluctant to do this and it would be difficult to be taken seriously... after all it's a videogame! Therefore, I've rescinded my post to do further research on how we can make make our efforts work for us--- we want Shenmue 3 right?
So let's segue into this new theory of mine. Hold on to your lace girdles ladies and gentlemen, the obvious is about to be stated. If Sega failed to move copies of the first two installments in the first place (due to expensive manufacturing, aggressive competition, lack of publicity, abandoning North American consumers, Microsoft etc.) then what the hell are we doing here? Surely, there are thousands of us gamers worldwide that do enjoy the series. But let's face it... we'd have to be billionaires to bribe Sega into giving Suzuki the license. Let me make this absolutely clear that I'm not giving up, and nor should the rest of you.
But here's the thing. I know some people don't put much stock into what people randomly say in comments, boards, and sites outside of here, but it's staring at us right in the face. In fact, if you go to Sega's facebook, you'll see scattered comments about S3, which is expected. But pay attention to what other fans are saying about us. Yeah, the Shenmue fans, "they're great, they're tough, they have so much hope, they never give up" etc. while others are simply disgusted and annoyed.
We can sign as many petitions as want, we can tweet, thunderclap, and quintessentially harass them to no end, but it's ultimately up to Sega to decide... and that's going to be a real kick in the nuts for them. Remember Sega was ALWAYS ahead of their time. Think about their consoles and the actual technology put into them. Think about the games. Then think about the money . When you invest that much money into something, any smart entrepreneur would be seeking a return. You not only want to gain capital, you want a cushy profit margin. You want EXCESS so you can keep production going. Sega invested too much too soon. And to top it off, I would say that most of us gamers could not afford to invest in their systems to give them that said return.
Let's go back to Sega's navy blue and bruised nuts for a minute. I bet it kills Sega inside to not only have to give up making future hardware but also having to reconsider giving up their golden child (Shenmue) to another company yet AGAIN. Remember Tomb Raider? Look what happened... it got ported to Sony. Sega never understood it's market... gamers are mostly comprised of people who don't necessarily have disposable income.
I'm really trying not to be pessimistic, this is pure speculation on my part. The only way Sega could ever, ever get Shenmue 3 out there is to stop sulking and give in to a competitor (e.g. Sony or what have you). Now that competitor has to wonder whether or not investing in this game is going to leave them bare-assed in the cold too. We have to be more understanding as to what's going on. Because at the end of the day, you never want to screw anybody out of their money. If anything, instead of attacking various companies, we need to become Shenmue's PR agent and see how we can establish a better selling point than Sega ever did. And even if we did, who's to say that we will be the model consumer ready and willing to buy the game? So instead of them relying on their niche market, we need to impress "prospective buyers".
So my question to all of you is this: who's a used car salesman around here?