How Yakuza Became More Popular Than Shenmue

Sega released Shenmue for the Sega Dreamcast in 1999. Despite the positive reception from critics, the game did not live up to expectations, especially considering the costs of development. Because of that, Sega decided to abandon the series after the release of Shenmue II. In 2005, Sega released a similar game in Yakuza for the Playstation 2. Unlike Shenmue, the Yakuza series went on to become big sellers in Japan. The following reasons help explain how Yakuza became more popular than Shenmue.

Systems
The first Shenmue was released exclusively for the Sega Dreamcast. Although it was a fan favorite, Sega's last video game system only sold about 10 million units worldwide. Shenmue II appeared on both the Dreamcast and Xbox, which only sold 24 million units worldwide. Because the user bases were so low, the Shenmue series had a hard time becoming popular.

On the other hand, the Yakuza series started life on the Playstation 2, which is the best-selling system of all time at 145 million units sold worldwide. It then moved on to the Playstation 3 (currently 38 million units) and PSP (60 million units). As a result of selling to a much bigger user base, the Yakuza series became more popular than Shenmue.

Gameplay
Although Shenmue and Yakuza have quite a few similarities in terms of the open-world gameplay filled with many activities, the two series are also quite different.

Shenmue is more of an adventure game where you wander around the city looking for clues to where you go next. The action usually takes a back seat to the exploration aspects. Meanwhile, you will hardly get lost in the Yakuza series thanks to the various waypoints. The games focus more on the intense combat.

Traditionally, action games sell better than adventure titles. So it is no surprise to see Yakuza end up being more popular than Shenmue.

Setting
The settings and stories for Shenmue and Yakuza also played a big part in their fortunes. Shenmue takes place in the 1980s, not exactly the most exciting time period for a video game. On the other end of the spectrum, Yakuza is set in the 1990s, which is a more glamorous and exciting time. Not to mention that many gamers can identified more with the 1990s than the 1980s.

The story was also a big advantage for Yakuza. Sega originally designed the tale of Shenmue to be spread across multiple titles. Because of this, it would have been hard for newcomers to get into the series. For Yakuza, Sega made a self-contained story for each new title.

As a result of a much more compressed story in addition to several other reasons listed above, Yakuza 3 became more popular than Shenmue.