Article at IGN. LINK

"I'm looking for some sailors." SEGA visionary Yu Suzuki's Shenmue saga was supposed to rescue the Saturn and turn Ryo into a household name amongst gamers. Then it supposed to rescue the Dreamcast. Finally, by the time the game launched in 2000, it was just hoped Shenmue would somehow sell well enough to recover the game's frighteningly bloated development budget. It is estimated SEGA sunk $70 million into Shenmue. To get that money back, SEGA needed to sell a copy to every single Dreamcast owner... and then convince them to buy another one just as a keepsake. While Shenmue did impress the hardcore SEGA base and a contingent of critics, it just never clicked. Sales stalled out at 1.2 million. The sequel on the Xbox fared far worse and the Shenmue storyline came to an abrupt end with little hope of ever finding out what exactly happened to Ryo. Nobody faults the ambition behind the game -- developers should reach for the stars. But Shenmue is a classic example making sure your masterpiece is something that more than the converted will play.

Thoughts? I personally dont like the game (boring gameplay, shitty Japanese story), but does anyone actually debate that it wasnt a flop?

Game was awesome... on Dreamcast... when it was released.

Nitro


Game was awesome... on Dreamcast... when it was released.

Awesome is subjective.

I think it wa because there was nothing else quite like it. It was released about a year before GTA3 so with the open-ish environments and sense of scale it was unlike anything we'd ever played before.

The story was a washy Japanese mess... but fine in the grand scheme of things because of the way in which it was delivered. The cutscenes, graphics and attention to detail were all astounding. Gameplay was fairly weak but no more so than the MGS series... and the high level of environmental interaction helped mask the fact that all you were really doing was running around talking to people.

The sequel wasn't anywhere near as good though.

It sucked.

How were the environments open? They weren't.  And GTA3 isn't half as big as many computer RPGs & MMOs before it, you were just a noob amazed by something you thought was new.