So is Shenmue NOT mass market?

[Shibiryo]

Himuro that post is perfect. I learnt a lot from it, thanks.

[BlueMue]

A table about the US sales :


All the franchises imported to Xbox have failed. It seems Sega were only interested in immediate exclusive contracts to save them from the bankrupt rather than to earn mass money in a further perspective.

[BlueMue]

Wow I've never seen such hard evidence how shitty the Xbox was for Sega. It's really sad but shows what kind of games the Xbox players were into *cough* Halo *cough*.

I wonder how the sales of Shenmue II on DC and Xbox fare in Europe.

[south carmain]

I would blame the complete lack of marketing for sega games on the xbox before the players tbh.

Also I'm appalled at how skies of arcadia has only sold 260 thousand copies. That game is amongst the greatest jrpgs to ever be released.

[Giorgio]

A table about the US sales :

All the franchises imported to Xbox have failed. It seems Sega were only interested in immediate exclusive contracts to save them from the bankrupt rather than to earn mass money in a further perspective.

It is interesting how the SEGA games on the Nintendo Gamecube had better sales than on their console, that is the SEGA Dreamcast.

And of course a game sold way better on PlayStation 2 because of the massive user-base (compared to the one of the Dreamcast, and of the ones of the other consoles).

[joka]

A table about the US sales :


All the franchises imported to Xbox have failed. It seems Sega were only interested in immediate exclusive contracts to save them from the bankrupt rather than to earn mass money in a further perspective.

Not related to Shenmue but people need to factor in that Jet set radio future and GT 2002 were actually bundled with a lot of xboxs which wouldn't count towards those sales.
Also that's Shenmue 1 DC sales being compared with Shenmue 2 Xbox so not a true like for like is it.
I appreciate Shenmue 2 wasn't released in the US on DC but just stating.

[Himuro]

A table about the US sales :


All the franchises imported to Xbox have failed. It seems Sega were only interested in immediate exclusive contracts to save them from the bankrupt rather than to earn mass money in a further perspective.

Really confirmed that Shenmue 1/2 should have went to BOTH ps2 and gamecube, possibly all three.

Also I'm appalled at how skies of arcadia has only sold 260 thousand copies. That game is amongst the greatest jrpgs to ever be released.

That's pretty standard for a lot of jrpgs unfortunately.

[xbluemystx]

I've tried getting countless friends to play this series. Only 2 of them finished both games and they both requested that I guide them through it as fast as possible, completely changing the experience. They claimed to enjoy it but didn't seem enthusiastic until the second game. It's been said countless times - it has pacing problems and other minor flaws. A lot of people are conditioned for a certain type of lifestyle pace where money and sex is the only thing that matters to them and they just want things easy and don't know how to connect with anything else. Very few people are aware enough or consciously uplifted to enjoy experiences and the spiritual aspects of things. I was even a bit ignorant when I played Shenmue in high school. A student was really passionate about it, tried to get me to play it, I got confused by numerous things including the save feature and gave up. I eventually got my own copy and beat it without a guide - which took me about a month of questioning countless NPCs for help. I imported the sequel for him because he was crushed that it was canceled for the US - but he became an alcoholic and never played it but I fell in love with it and it's been my passion ever since.