RDR2 is basically Cowboy Shenmue with more graphical prowress and it sold gangbusters. A shenmue game giving it a run for it's money can easily do the same or better numbers no? Shenmue 1 & 2 were victims of circumstances and people were not conditioned for a game that was ahead of its time back in 1999-2000.
Yeah but its about Cowboys in the wild west with guns, shooting, gore, riding, driving, prostitution ...
Just the setting alone attracts way more players. A 500 mil game from the Last of US, Batman Arkham or GTA devs
will always sell more than Shenmue. It doesnt mean that a 500 mil Shenmue 4 would be a worse game,
it would be a extremely high quality game,
its just that the hype and interest for a Rockstar game will always outperform Shenmue.
RDR 2 sold around 30 mil copies until now, GTA 5 sold over 100 mil copies,
Uncharted 4 sold around 15 mil, God of War 4 around 11 mil,
Shenmue will never ever get these kind of numbers even if its the highest polished product of all time.
The interest for the Shenmue setting isnt big enough and it doesnt help that its a story game with 5 or 6 parts.
And again, Sega or Deep Silver cant provide a budget like this. They dont have that money.
If you give Suzuki a 60 - 700 mil dollar budget, you will risk everything. If that game fails, the IP is completely dead and
then we are in a worse situation than 18 years ago.