im not saying it's not smart for Sony, it is very much.
but Kickstarter is, or is supposed to be, a very A -> B transparent sort of ordeal. this aint.
see this feels a lot like when humble bundle started selling other types of bundles on their site. People got an idea that humble bundle stood for only this certain thing and then got mad when they did other things as well.
Kickstarter is merely a platform where you can help fund other people's projects if you feel they are worth backing. There is a guarantee that they can't just take your money and run and have to deliver their rewards but there is not remotely a guarantee of transparency.
if Hideo Kojima decided he wanted to do a kickstarter, made the page and all that was on the page was a video of him going "I want to make a game with kittens that fire rockets" and then set up tiers $10 digital version of kitten game, $100 Kitten doll plus $10 rewards and hit enter without any other information at all (aside from brief spots that need to be filled in with basic info) he could. Now if it was an unknown person the project would just be ignored because nothing was known, but with Kojima's name on it it would be possible this kickstarter without any real information could be funded and it would be fine as long as he releases a game where kittens fire rockets.
To be fair with this kickstarter it's mostly filled with buzz words, There isn't any real promise of scope of the game, just statements like "Our ambition is to deliver a Shenmue experience that will draw in newcomers to the series and reward diehard fans with its deep story and rich gameplay." and "We are balancing our ambitions for a grand sequel with the pragmatic realities of developing a game of this scale. " which could easily mean that the game doesn't have a huge budget and is aiming to be a high budget PSN game that would normally retail at $15-$20 instead of a full budget AAA title.
Given the people behind the kickstarter it should approach closer to a full budget sequel people are hoping, especially after adding 10 mil or so from kickstarter, but I mean this one is hardly transparent compared to others that go in great detail about the scope of the game, and clearly post what their goals for the game are.
Just saying people expect transparency because that is what most of the big funded projects are because people have more faith in projects they can see a clear path of being made instead of things shrouded in mystery, but that is by no means the purpose of kickstarter.
It's obvious why they did it. This is a game that will require a lot of money to pull off. The goal is high, but realistically it;s better if it gathers at least 2-3 times more. And there's no better way to promote start of kickstarter then duringa conference watched by millions of people.
So what people are complaining is Shenmue 3's KS getting more money than it would otherwise.
the goal is high? heh heh how about we put this in perspective
$47 million (equivalent to $67 million in 2015). -budget of Shenmue 1
2 Million isn't remotely near that and games haven't exactly gotten cheaper now. Who ever is backing them outside of kickstarter is likely putting up a lot of money. it would have been nice if they did it like bloodstained and said straight out the kickstarter was only 10% of the budget to prove there is demand.