3. Shenmue
Shenmue has the distinct honour of being a critically praised game that sold well, but was overshadowed by the mammoth production budget and development time which in turn labels it a commercial failure as it never managed to turn a profit. Originally planned as an RPG spin off from Virtua Fighter, Shenmue was a hugely ambitious open world adventure game, with randomly generated weather conditions created by Sega and its darling developer Yu Suzuki. The game was originally planned as a trilogy and for the Saturn. Shenmue made its way to the Dreamcast and only managed two instalments, with a third being much sought after to finish up the story after the cliff-hanger at the end of Shenmue II. The development cost of both games has been said to be $70million, which would have required every Dreamcast owner to purchase two copies in order for Sega and the team to turn a profit, according to one math fan on IGN. Despite the monetary shortcomings, Shenmue and the sequel were praised throughout the gaming community and regularly hold a spot in every best game of all times list by numerous gaming aficionados. Yu Suzuki has since informed the media that the $70million budget was embellished and the actual cost to produce both games, with marketing, was only $47million. If like me you have played both games in the series then I would like to call Suzuki a liar and stick with the original rumour of $70million, as the detail at the time was astounding that not many games can touch, even to this day. If you dont have access to play these masterful games, then you can always watch the film to catch up on the story, which are just the cut scenes sewn together. That would be quite stupid of you to do, though, so do me a favour and play the game instead. While many fans and critics yearn for the third to make an appearance, maybe in the next generation of consoles, you can always catch a glimpse of the protagonist Ryo in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. Probably not the third game people wanted to see Ryo in, but his forklift comes with him.