Phil Spencer [new Xbox boss]: The biggest request is to bring back Shenmue

[Team Andromeda]

It still sickens me that a masterpiece like Panzer Dragoon Orta sold so badly. It also sickens me that although the game debuted with sales of 20,000 it's first week in Japan which was great for an XBOX game

To be fair Panzer Dragoon Orta sold ok for a 3D shooter in that day and age 200,000 to 300,000 copies isn't too bad for a 3D shooter . It was more of a shame to see games like JSRF and SEGA GT 2002 just bomb at retail.

The xbox port was acceptable, but the problem was it was just a straight port. Literally nothing of any real value was added to it. And since you couldn't even import your Shenmue 1 character, that means it was actually inferior from the standpoint of a dreamcast owner that loved/played the first

Yep that was a huge part of the problem . It looked like a DC game running on the XBox and you weren't going to get many people to pay full price for that .

[EclecticGroove]

Orta was, and still is, awesome, the same goes for JSRF... But I don't think the Xbox was the market for either. I mean, I know a bunch of people bought the system because there were a lot of Sega games on it, and the console was, from a design standpoint, like the DC had grown up (minus the VMU's)... but I can't help but think both games would have done better on either of the other two consoles, or at least multi-plat.

Shenmue 2 on the xbox however, was stillborn from the start... it just wasn't going to happen without a significant amount of work (and money) being sunk into it to make it fit better. I have little doubt it would have sold quite well had it been released in the DC's heyday when people were not dismissing it in favor of the PS2.

[SegaSonic91]

I do remember buying an XBOX because it was basically SEGA's new console for development. It may have been a temporary thing but my thinking at the time was that they were going to develop exclusively for the XBOX which is of course where the Chihiro arcade hardware came from. I wish the lost Chihiro games had made it out in some form or another. I remember playing Virtua Cop 3 in Las Vegas in 2004 and waiting for an XBOX version that never came. In fact, I never even saw that game in Japan. I really liked it when I played it too. I still wish MS had just teamed up with SEGA for the XBOX, now there's a nice dream.

As for Shenmue 2, I remember it being plagued with really shoddy graphics that looked worse, more muddy, than the XBOX (edit; duh, I mean DC version!) as well as even more slowdown. I was going to buy it when it was released but I could not play it with those voices. I suffered through "US Shenmue" on the DC because I was lost playing the Jp version. Having the PAL (and Jp) version with English subs gave me no reason to buy the XBOX version. If there was a Japanese version, I would have bought it. I played through the Japanese version if the first game a few years ago. It's always surreal for me playing games I previously played when I could not understand what was being said or going on and then replaying understanding them fully.

[midnightrider]

^As someone that actually had it, people say that about the voice acting, and I think they really missed out, because it seemed improved from the original. At least, Ryo didn't sound as wooden to me, anyway.

[EclecticGroove]

It wasn't bad. But it wasn't great either.

As a Dreamcast game, I think it is pretty good.

As an xBox game... it could have been a hell of a lot better. Going from a game like, say, Halo (a launch xBox game) to Shenmue 2 (released almost a year later on the same system) is pretty jarring. The controls are not as good (still designed around a single analog stick), and the visuals are obviously dated.

No one looking at it for the first time would be impressed by it in any way. They would have to actually sit down and play it to appreciate it at all... and generally, the only people who would have given it a chance are fans of it.

And if they were enough on their own, it still would have only been a subset of them due to splitting the platforms (Japan and the EU regions got it on the DC).

[SegaSonic91]

Completely agree. I also think that the lack of the original game to people that never owned a DC was another problem. It would be as bad as Mass Effect 2 on the PS3. Without experiencing the original, the second is no where near as good. I can't imagine being a Wii U owner and buying 3 without playing 2&3, there's no point! Although, my best friend bought ME3 for the PS3 and played that first. He loved it and could not understand why I hated the ending, but that's another rant altogether! LOL! He even ended up buying a 360 to play the original. Shenmue is obviously far more dependent on the original than the ME trilogy.

An ongoing story is no good without the original. The original is where you grow to love the characters which is part of what makes a sequel good.

[Iron Lizard]

I keep reading the title of thread as "Phil Spector Next Xbox Boss" I want an Xbox game that I get to fight Phil Spector in.

[KitsuneNight]

i keep reading it as phil spector too

[Team Andromeda]

Orta was, and still is, awesome, the same goes for JSRF..

The think is a game a like Orta wouldn't have sold much better on a system like the PS or Saturn. 3D shooters were selling in mega numbers at the end of the late 90's no matter the console . So Orta numbers weren't that bad. Games like JSRF, SEGA GT and GV were massive flops though .

Completely agree. I also think that the lack of the original game to people that never owned a DC was another problem

Yep

[EclecticGroove]

The think is a game a like Orta wouldn't have sold much better on a system like the PS or Saturn. 3D shooters were selling in mega numbers at the end of the late 90's no matter the console . So Orta numbers weren't that bad. Games like JSRF, SEGA GT and GV were massive flops though .

Eh, on the PS2 orta would have had a larger EU and JP market. Those tend to have much better numbers with games of that type. JSRF may have similarly done better as well. The problem, or course, would be what the technical differences would have made of the game.

[chinitosoccer]

Shenmue is a big part of what killed Sega, a massive waste of money.

It should be mentioned in the same breath as E.T. 2600.

+1

I don't want a new Shenmue either, Phil Spencer is a troll.