By fans? Yes. By SEGA? I dunno. Were they?

By fans yes but if Sega was smart they'd just use those easy money.

Shenmue

Shenmue on the Dreamcast is more notorious for its overambitious budget than its poor sales figures. At the time of release in 1999, the game had the record for the most expensive production costs (over US$70 million),^[90] and its five-year production time. In comparison, the games' total sale was 1.2 million copies.^[91] Shenmue, however, was a critical hit, earning an average review score of 89%.^[92] The game was supposed to be the initial installment of a trilogy. The second installment was eventually released in 2001, but by this time the Dreamcast was floundering, so the game only saw a release in Japan and Europe. Sega eventually released it for American audiences for the Xbox, but the poor performance of both titles combined with restructuring have made Sega reluctant to complete the trilogy for fear of failure to return on the investment.^[93]

Considering the high production costs, Shenmue experienced disappointing sales. According to IGN, the game, which cost an unprecedented $70 million to make,^[40] would have had to be purchased twice by every single Dreamcast owner in order for Sega to turn a profit. The $70 million investment presumably included the budget for the resources for additional sequels. The Sega Saturn version included the plot of both the first and second games at the very least, and although the full extent may never be known, a significant portion of the budget quoted for Shenmue was used on resources for future chapters, and the characters, plot and environments/gameplay of at least the entire second game existed in rough form before the first game was released.^[6][41] The game was the 4th best selling title on the Dreamcast and one of the six titles to sell over a million units worldwide.^[42] Shenmue is consistently listed as one of several key Dreamcast titles (most of them Sega productions) that ensured the console enjoyed solid sales during the Christmas season of 2000.^{[citation needed]}

At the Game Developer's Conference in 2011 Yu Suzuki stated that the $70 million cost for the development of Shenmue was actually an embellishment and that it only cost $47 million to develop and market.^[43]

source wiki

but again if this is not enough the game released on dreamcast and sold more that a million units the second follow the same trend but after sega failure on the dreamcast they did not publish the game on North America and Microsoft publish it as an Xbox Exclusive on America. The sales were so bad that they did not publish the game on Japan on their console.

this numbers do not include the dreamcast sales on PAL territories which were the most on the Shenmue franchise plus the American imports influated the numbers by thousands.

So am I well informed or should I go back to re educate myself on the Shenmue case. Ok now go back to your cave.