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New Yu Suzuki Interview on Shenmue (Budget preventing sequel from being made)

C

ChaosXVI

Member
This would be the ultimate "Throw money into a hole to please a niche", and the only company I could see doing it is Nintendo, but it's really anyone's ball for the taking. Nintendo and SEGA already have a pretty solid history thanks to multiple Sonic exclusives (not just the recent bad ones) along with Nintendo of course putting out Bayonetta...

That said, I really doubt it ever happens.
 
I

ilium

Member
I really REALLY loved shenmue back in the day and would love to play a HD collection. And shenmue III even more.
But we have to realize it's never going to happen. I think many people overestimate the interest in the Franchise. A kickstarter would fail. I mean, how much money would they need for a game like this? 100mio?
Yeah, not going to happen.

Also, shenmue V? Wtf...
 
wapplew

wapplew

Member
How bout make something smaller first? Some episodic game maybe? Shenmue 3 prolog episode 1-5?
Earn your budget better than sitting around.
 
A

Apex_Predator

Neo Member
Please do it, please! I still gotta get my DC fixed so that I can finish up Shenmue and Grandia II and then import my save to Shenmue II.
 
S

Shinriji

Member
Robert at Zeboyd Games said:
You really think that a Shenmue sequel could get 2-4 times as much as a sequel to what many consider to be the greatest PC RPG of all-time? Now that the Kickstarter frenzy has been dying down? Yeah, I don't think that's happening. Especially since Shenmue's genre (open world Action/Adventure) is currently one of the most popular genres in gaming so the only people who are really interested in another Shenmue game are the diehard fans.
Click to expand...

A kickstarter of a major AAA IP like Shenmue is really unprecedent, it's really hard to judge, so it can go either way. But if Mighty No. 9 reached 3,5M, I really believe that a well-crafted KS, with 60 days, slacker backers, crazy tiers, ambitious stretch goals and with massive media backing of the platform holders (like Sony did with Amplitude KS), Shenmue 3 could reach more than 10 millions.
 
G

GuiltyBystander

Banned
orioto said:
I still find pretty weird and illogical that Sony can give millions to David Cage for something that was nowhere near certain to be a sucess (at the time), nor even being finished one day.. But Shenmue, a Kung Fu open world game with a die hard fanbase, and a solid action engine.. No no no that would make no sense.
Click to expand...

Shenmue was a financial flop and one of the reasons SEGA went out of the console hardware business. Shenmue is also completely irrelivant in todays market, only a very vocal minority is interested in a new game.

And btw, Heavy Rain costed Sony 20 million dollars to make, compare that to Shenmue a game from 1999 which costed 65 million dollars to make.
 
B

batteryLeakage

Neo Member
I'm guessing that a lot of people will disagree with me, but I think future Shenmue games should simplify the living-world element considerably. I didn't pay any attention to the schedules of the majority of NPC's and generally only talked to the important ones anyway (Ryo's friends, shopkeepers, etc). I don't need unique NPC's with their own voice work to tell me that they are busy and to leave them alone. I also don't need to be able to buy and hold an assortment of random knick-knacks and foodstuffs. Changes like that wouldn't remove too much of what makes Shenmue Shenmue, not for me at least. And anything that slashes the budget to something more obtainable and allows the series to be continued is a good thing.
 
E

E-phonk

Banned
Hey nintendo!
Fund Shenmue I HD for 2015.
Fund Shenmue II HD for 2016
Get Shenmue III for your next console in 2017-2018!
 
I

illmatic22

Banned
orioto said:
I still find pretty weird and illogical that Sony can give millions to David Cage for something that was nowhere near certain to be a sucess (at the time), nor even being finished one day.. But Shenmue, a Kung Fu open world game with a die hard fanbase, and a solid action engine.. No no no that would make no sense.
Click to expand...
Because Shenmue was easily a bigger financial failure than Heavy Rain or Beyond.
 
T

Tain

Member
MaschinenZimmer said:
Shenmue was never about the story for me. Sure, the story is kinda interesting but I played Shenmue for the great atmosphere. My favorite part of the game was in Shenmue 2: walking aimlessly through Kowloon City and playing a game of Lucky Hit here and there.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Which is why I kinda roll my eyes when I hear people asking for a low-budget version.
 
S

shinobi602

Member
illmatic22 said:
Because Shenmue was easily a bigger financial failure than Heavy Rain or Beyond.
Click to expand...
That was due to dragging development across multiple generations and gross mismanagement among other things. It'd be nowhere near as high a cost in today's dollars as it was back then. With a good team and a good publisher, it can easily be done.
 
R

Robert at Zeboyd Games

Banned
Shinriji said:
A kickstarter of a major AAA IP like Shenmue is really unprecedent, it's really hard to judge, so it can go either way. But if Mighty No. 9 reached 3,5M, I really believe that a well-crafted KS, with 60 days, slacker backers, crazy tiers, ambitious stretch goals and with massive media backing of the platform holders (like Sony did with Amplitude KS), Shenmue 3 could reach more than 10 millions.
Click to expand...

Actually, I'd say it's the other way around - Mega Man is a drastically more popular IP than Shenmue so if a new MM-style game from the creator of MM only got $3.5 mil, Shenmue 3 would be lucky to get that much.

And besides, $10 million is a drop in the bucket to the kind of budget this game would need.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
DannyDanger said:
Why don't any of these interviews ever ask which console he would like to put Shenmue 3 on?
Click to expand...

Trying to kickstart a niche console exclusive is a terrible idea, especially early in a generation.

Multiplatform + PC would be the safest bet and attract the most backers and/or publishers.
 
Bog

Bog

Junior Ace
Unless it's a mistranslation, he seems convinced it's happening some day.

But that seems to be a lot so I'm going to try to finish it within the next 2 games.
Click to expand...

Going to?
 
L

liquidtmd

Banned
I appreciate the 'artistic vision' et al, but sometimes in business there's this strange concept of 'working within a budget and what you have'.

Use the Shenmue II engine. Reuse some models. The people who are interested in Shenmue frankly will enjoy it or at least make do with just living in the world again. Bundle it in a marketing push with a remastered 1 and 2 leading up to it. Shenmue III isn't never going to attract significant new numbers to the franchise frankly unless it undergoes a reboot of sorts, which will probably alienate the hardcore you're counting on as your bread and butter.

This 'we can't do it because we need X budget' is just an excuse that could easily be overcome if the hunger was there on behalf of the developers / publisher attached. To which it isn't. I love Suzuki and I know this was a passion project of sorts but its dead jim.

+1 to the graphic novel / digital graphic novel continuation / finale
 
K

Krejlooc

Banned
GuiltyBystander said:
And btw, Heavy Rain costed Sony 20 million dollars to make, compare that to Shenmue a game from 1999 which costed 65 million dollars to make.
Click to expand...

Shenmue had been in development since 1997 and that $40 million budget (your claim is adjusted for inflation, which is... silly) produced 4 entirely complete games, of which only 2 actually got released.

And it cost more to produce in 1999 precisely because the development cost covered not only the game, but the creation of the engine and entire toolsets twice, something that wouldn't have to be done today.
 
C

Corto

Member
Kickstarter is not an option for a game of this scale/budget. It needs to be a publisher deal. A publisher with deep pockets and not afraid to use them. A release of a HD Shenmue Collection would be great to test the waters and if successful like Valkyria Chronicles PC port could be leveraged by Yu to entice publishers to foot the bill. So Sega has to give a hand too, making the Shenmue Collection a reality.
 
SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Going for a Shenmue V would just end up in another Xenosaga scenario, probably, where the original vision is compromised and cut short.

Shenmue III needs to happen though.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
shinobi602 said:
That was due to dragging development across multiple generations and gross mismanagement among other things. It'd be nowhere near as high a cost in today's dollars as it was back then. With a good team and a good publisher, it can easily be done.
Click to expand...

An HD open world game is going to cost you easily in the range of $30-$50 million dollars.
 
B

batteryLeakage

Neo Member
MaschinenZimmer said:
Shenmue was never about the story for me. Sure, the story is kinda interesting but I played Shenmue for the great atmosphere. My favorite part of the game was in Shenmue 2: walking aimlessly through Kowloon City and playing a game of Lucky Hit here and there.
Click to expand...

The atmosphere is why this game will never be made unfortunately. It would cost way too much to produce. I think that story-based Shenmue 3 with the fat-trimmed might be possible but total-immersion reactive living world Shenmue 3 is never going to happen. I'd be willing to see some living-world elements cut away as most were superfluous anyway in my opinion.
 
butman

butman

Member
Now is when i hate this pic:

1388516907-shen-3.jpg
 
S

Springy

Member
If only Notch were as passionate a Shenmue fan as anybody in this thread I'd be playing Shenmue 3 right this second.
 
P

Piccoro

Member
openrob said:
For those interested, I do not know if this means anything but SEGA have just co-developed thier own Crowdfunding platform called Crowdrive (website here) that will initially "focus on anime projects, but it will expand to include video game projects in May 2015"

May be an opportunity to crowdfund there?

https://www.techinasia.com/goopa-an...tv-sega-networks-gaming-crowdfunding-funding/
Click to expand...

This is interesting. I see a lot of Japanese devs and artists turn to crowd-funding recently...
 
S

Spaghetti

Member
OrbitalBeard said:
I can't imagine Sony would ever fund this. MS published Shenmue II on Xbox, so they'd be the most likely candidate, but Nintendo has partnered with Sega a lot recently, so I could see them stepping up as well.

More than likely though, a new Shenmue game (or games) is never going to happen.
Click to expand...
i take issue with the bolded seeing how publishing S2 wasn't an act of charity or anything and more just peter moore pretty much buying his way into an xbox job with sega games

but sure, let microsoft make it. they love throwing money at stuff, might as well let yu suzuki close out his career.
 
D

Dremark

Banned
orioto said:
I still find pretty weird and illogical that Sony can give millions to David Cage for something that was nowhere near certain to be a sucess (at the time), nor even being finished one day.. But Shenmue, a Kung Fu open world game with a die hard fanbase, and a solid action engine.. No no no that would make no sense.
Click to expand...

Quantric Dream, like them or not are actually really good at staying on budget and unless I'm mistaken Shenmue 1 and 2 both flopped. I'm sure it didn't help it was on smaller platforms and it probably has a better shot today with it's cult following and it basically has to be a multiplatform game (Which also ups it's cost).

It would be a nice thing to see but from a business standpoint funding the game really doesn't make any sense. I would really like to see it but I can't fault anyone for not wanting to throw the cash down.
 
guggnichso

guggnichso

Banned
Nintendo would never throw the amount of money he wants on this game. Platinum games are cheap, efficient and brilliant. Suzuki is not at all cheap and not very efficient...
 
S

Snakeyes

Member
Smokescreen. Cerny and Yu Suzuki are pretty close, so I wouldn't be surprised if discussions for a sequel funded by Sony were already underway.
 
U

Ushay

Member
Did he just say Shenmue 4 & 5? Hnnnngggggg

God fucking damnit, can Phil or Yoshida-san PLEASE do something, anyone. It's obviously going to need either kickstarter or first party funding.

The biggest issue is that the standrads for games have increased so much that the game will need a nice meaty budget if it's going to wow us like it did back then. The best way imo is to get funding for a remake of the first 2 games. Do them from the ground up with new additions, see how the games sell and take it from there.
 
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