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Embracer CEO on Shenmue III: "Shenmue III is not a mass market product but has done fine financially"
- Thread starter Deleted member 8196
- Start date
OP
OP
It was a nice way to say that the game did not meet their expectations
They were smart taking that EGS deal tho
They were smart taking that EGS deal tho
I wonder how much guaranteed money they got in return for exclusivity of a niche title tho
It's not a mass market product because it feels like a student project, it has none of the polish that 1 & 2 have. I was shocked at just how rough it was given the amount of years spent developing it.
Shenmue 1 & 2 are far more fleshed out, and are vastly superior games compared to this fanfic.
I was a diehard fan of the first two games, and I did not enjoy 3.
Shenmue 1 & 2 are far more fleshed out, and are vastly superior games compared to this fanfic.
I was a diehard fan of the first two games, and I did not enjoy 3.
From their official report
"Shenmue III was the principal Deep Silver revenue driver in the quarter, followed by another new release of Let's Sing 2020. Moreover, Metro Exodus continued to give a significant con-tribution to Deep Silver's revenue in the quarter, as well as other notable back catalog titles such as Kingdom Come Deliverance and Outward."
Add to op
"Shenmue III was the principal Deep Silver revenue driver in the quarter, followed by another new release of Let's Sing 2020. Moreover, Metro Exodus continued to give a significant con-tribution to Deep Silver's revenue in the quarter, as well as other notable back catalog titles such as Kingdom Come Deliverance and Outward."
Add to op
I could have told you that 5 years ago when the game was announced via a kickstarter that already killed all future sales.
they lost 99% of their sales when they decided to fund the game via a kickstarter, i dont think the Epic Games Store exclusivity significantly impacted a game that already sold to its fanbase 5 years ago.
For that to change anything would assume Wingefors wasn't aware of the particulars, which, given his position, seems exceedingly unlikely. The message underlying his comment is clear: he feels Deep Silver bet on the wrong horse. The game wasn't a disaster, of course, especially given Epic's bag of cash, but I do wonder if Wingefore's comment indicates he'll be keeping a closer eye on the viability of Koch Media's operational independence.
It probably lost some sales cause of that, but it's far from the reason the game didn't sell well. It's just a niche game, that much was already clear from the first two games. There's a reason Sega didn't let Yu Suzuki make a third game.
I imagine that whatever sales they may have lost from EGS exclusivity was covered by money they got for making it exclusive anyway. It's not like the game would have been a huge success had it launched on Steam.
Other games sold pretty well on the Epic Store.
The problem with Shenmue is, that it is Shenmue. It always was a niche game and 3
didn't learn from game like Yakuza
What...? Shenmue III is like both SI &SII in that they are products of their time. SI & SII aren't mass market products either. Neither back then or now. Plus, those were AAA games like you said. SIII is an indie game with AA resources aiming for the same kind of experience,so of course it's not going to feel as polished. If the scope was smaller it would also feel like a smaller game. The time it takes has nothing to do with how it compares to AAA games.
I hear ya, but its obvious Shenmue isnt a mass appeal product. Everyone knows that. Yet it was Deep Silvers main revenue driver last quarter. Sounds like it sold well, but they may have had AAA projections which is naive.
Dunno what to make of it all tbh
OP
OP
I don't think they had AAA projections at all, Embracer Group has very low expectations and they were quite happy with how Remnant and Darksiders Genesis performed.
Probably they invested a lot on Shemue III and it didn't pay off, they were not expecting to sell something like 1 million of copies at all.
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Have people read THQ's financial report? Shenmue III is not the usual case of "Shenmue not selling much it's obvious". Shenmue III 50k players on PS4 including KS backers and even second-hand copies and account sharing. Wonder how many people actually bought the game on PS4 then. 10k? I don't see how EGS would fair any better. I don't see any kind of legs either. Thats atrocious. To my knowledge both Shenmue I and II passed a million units.
It is not like the way they handled the pc version and the way the game was sold isn't a chunk of the problem. Not at all.
First thing is first, why the hell is there a season pass for a Shenmue game?
First thing is first, why the hell is there a season pass for a Shenmue game?
Sorry, Shenmue III isn't an indie game.
It has a publisher (Deep Silver)
It's studio is like 45 people
It had an external studio for 3D models
AA production ? Sure. Indie ? That might have been the case at the begining.
And no, Shenmue III isn't a product of its time. Shenmue I-II weren't either, but that's because they were ahead of their time. In fact, I'd say some elements, mainly cutscenes direction and gameplay integration inside cutscenes were ahead of Shenmue III. Or more like, S3 was a step back in that regard.
Pissing off your audience by making the game EGS exclusive when it was already niche doesn't seem very bright.
Financially fine
He's just reiterated on stream
"niche product and that's the challenge but financially its done fine."
Says to me they would consider supporting the series going forward but with the right risk. Also the fact he said he loves it does help
Ambiguous but I'll take it
"niche product and that's the challenge but financially its done fine."
Says to me they would consider supporting the series going forward but with the right risk. Also the fact he said he loves it does help
Ambiguous but I'll take it
Tell me more about how the epic game store is the problem, that forsaking our lord and saviour steam cast them in to the bowels of the game industry and that's why it sold mediocre numbers on all platforms.
The game devs themselves aren't responsible for that move. Blame Deep Silver, who pocketed the funds rather than putting them towards YsNet to improve the game.
Looks like it. The report info and this quote should be added to the op/title to give the full picture.
Assuming it's getting decent remake treatment, I would be shocked if it doesn't sell more than Shenmue 3 tbh.
At the end of the day I would love to see the number of PC backers that canceled their KS over that decision.
Pissing off your audience is a problem when the game has zero marketing and needs good word of mouth to have any chance of being a success.
lol this game was never going to have an audience outside of existing fans.
It needs an xbox and switch port and then hopefully they can bring out a sequel as a digital only title. Shenmue 3 was more or less a miracle, i mean i was 18 when shenmue 2 had come out and lived another 18 years for the sequel. It really should never be taken for granted. I would back a sequel simply because i would love to see the series finished. I don't think there will be more than 2 more games as we now know for sure that it won't make millions and cannot be stretched out and milked. Whilst unlikely, it could just be finished off in one game with a lot of cutscenes. I doubt yu suzuki would want to just leave it at that.
Thanks for updating the thread.
Here's a link to the report
https://embracer.com/investors/reports-presentations/
Shenmue 3 quote
"Shenmue III was the principal Deep Silver revenue driver in the quarter, followed by another new release of Let's Sing 2020. Moreover, Metro Exodus continued to give a significant con-tribution to Deep Silver's revenue in the quarter"
If that could be added to the op aswell, then we'll have all the information released added to a single post for everyone to view
Here's a link to the report
https://embracer.com/investors/reports-presentations/
Shenmue 3 quote
"Shenmue III was the principal Deep Silver revenue driver in the quarter, followed by another new release of Let's Sing 2020. Moreover, Metro Exodus continued to give a significant con-tribution to Deep Silver's revenue in the quarter"
If that could be added to the op aswell, then we'll have all the information released added to a single post for everyone to view
Dozens and dozens of niche games sold gangbusters on Steam last year. being niche is no excuse for poor sales if the only difference was the store it was sold on.
You're right. Releasing on Steam doesn't mean automatic success. But for some titles, an EGS only release is a death spell.
Not that I think S3 would've done well. And considering the game failed to generate a positive word of mouth after release...
Are those gangbusters games sitting with like a 60ish metacritic, 50 dollar price tag, and relatively putrid word of mouth?
Shenmue III is probably another timed exclusive, just like Metro, Satisfactory and Borderlands. This is just me guessing, but I wouldn't be surprised if Shenmue III will come to Steam next November. Looking at how Metro is doing on Steam now, it probably won't hurt them in the long run to have it for one year only on EGS.
I am guessing that the EGS offer was simply too good to turn down for a game which likely didn't have huge sales expectations. In any case, the game will likely end up coming to Steam sooner or later, and should be sold with all DLC included, so it can still improve numbers.
Of course it's timed.
Metro is still a long running PC oriented series that pushes graphics cards and is generally well regarded as a game. Shenmue will get some a bump, but will probably be miniscule compared to what Metro did (especially releasing in a more crowded month like November).
Borderlands and Satisfactory will do very well on Steam though.