There is no doubt that the original Shenmue is one of the greatest achievements of the video game industry. Released back in 1999 for the Sega Dreamcast, many of today's largest AAA franchises owe an incredible amount to the innovations seen in Shenmue. Taking place in the city of Yokosuka, Shenmue's vast, sprawling environments offered totally non-linear progression through its impressively realised plot. With a day and night system, dynamic weather, voiced characters, and a massively interactive world, Shenmue was a true pioneer of open-world games. So with great gameplay, mind-blowing (for the time) graphics, and an amazing world to explore, why was Shenmue doomed? Unfortunately, like too many failures, it came down to poor financing decisions. Shenmue's features came at a cost, and the game had the largest budget of any game at the time, costing Sega an announced $70 million. Because of this, in order to turn a profit, Shenmue would have needed to be purchased by every Dreamcast twice. By a lesser game's standards, the sales weren't too bad. Unfortunately, the inflated budget meant that Shenmue was destined to fail no matter what. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf-MK4599A8
