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[too much eslim]

I'm playing yakuza 0, and it's my first yakuza game. Considering I believe there are at least 6 yakuza games why wasn't Shenmue 3 made earlier? Everything about it is a Shenmue template. So what gives?

Did Sega just not like the franchise to continue it or was there a negative stigma to the series. I don't know what the other yakuza games played like, but if it's any similar they could have easily finished the Shenmue franchise earlier.

 

[TGO]

I always thought that but people say they are different.
I guess having the two would have been too much so Yakuza won.

 

[Vawn]

They didn't like how much money they made with relation to how much they cost to make.

 

[Punished Miku]

It just wasn't profitable, at all. Sega tried. It wasn't their fault.

Shenmue 3 also looks like it sold poorly, and I doubt even the remaster of 1 and 2 sold all that well. Even then, they put in Shenmue cameos in some of their racing games and do fun little nods here and there.

In contrast, Yakuza always sells well enough in Japan, and is even picking up steam in the west now.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

I always thought that but people say they are different.
I guess having the two would have been too much so Yakuza won.

Shenmue was a QTE laden RPG with some fighting... Yakuza had better fighting as far as I recall (I played one on the PS3 a long time ago, not very much, but it left a better impression on me than Shenmue did).

I think the only similarity is that they both are heavy on some aspects of Asian culture.

 

[Spokker]

It's expensive to produce and doesn't have a mainstream following.

Remember that the Internet is not real life. Just because there's tons of demand online doesn't mean it will translate to sales.

Shenmue 3 ended up having low sales, proving skeptics correct. I loved the original Shenmue and Shenmue II. But all things must pass and Shenmue III did not interest me at all. When I played Shenmue on Gamepass, I felt warm nostalgic feelings for the graphics and music, but knew right away I wasn't going to enjoy the gameplay as much as I did when I was a college student with free time.

 

[Whitesnake]

Shenmue sold poorly and wasn’t that great.

Why try to resuscitate a franchise nobody played when you can use what you learned to make something new and good?

That’s Yakuza. Shenmue does not have room to exist in a post-Yakuza world.

 

[too much eslim]

It just wasn't profitable, at all. Sega tried. It wasn't their fault.

Shenmue 3 also looks like it sold poorly, and I doubt even the remaster of 1 and 2 sold all that well. Even then, they put in Shenmue cameos in some of their racing games and do fun little nods here and there.

In contrast, Yakuza always sells well enough in Japan, and is even picking up steam in the west now.

I'm sure it would have sold better if it wasn't exclusive. Made no sense for the first two games to be playable on the Xbox just for the third one not to show up.

 

[Rest]

Shenmue cost a lot of money and didn't sell a lot of copies. SEGA release Shenmue II and no one cared. Why would they keep releasing games in the series?

 

[a multicultural team of v]

You have to remember that Yakuza was almost dead in the US after 3 and 4. It took a miracle for 5 to get translated, and it didn't become "mainstream" until 0.

Yakuza 1 also sold like shit in the US from what I remember, and they definitely dumped good money into it because it was dubbed (with Mark Hamill as Majima lmao).

I think the only reason Yakuza has been able to survive is that they probably have modest budgets. If Yakuza 1 had a Shenmue 1 level budget it would be a dead series too.

 

[Fbh]

Shemue was really expensive to make and didn't sell that well.
Most Yakuza games (specially the new ones) tend to be low budget projects.

Also, while the Yakuza franchise definitely took inspiration from Shenmue, Yakuza games are actually fun.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Actually Yakuza of ps2 was a huge Buget project to their time.

I think The real scene of Mafia and Japanese culture is the best thing of Yakuza franchise

 

[BigBooper]

They are very different.

 

[ShadowWolf712]

There's a big difference between Yakuza and Shenmue though. Pacing, story, characters, combat, etc.

Shenmue's biggest problem, imo, is its insistence on being one long tale instead of more digestible single-game stories with an overarching plot. Would have been far more consumer-friendly that way. Doesn't help a lot of folks say they feel like nothing really happens to advance the plot in 3.

 

[Caffeine]

it was a lot of things including the decline of the dreamcast itself. why reinvest in some old series when you have something superior that was inspired by the groundwork shenmue created with yakuza.