• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

SHENMUE 3 kickstarter (PC/PS4) - FINAL DAY - NEW KS RECORD GO GO GO!

Status
Not open for further replies.

Trojan X

Banned
I 'do' opening (and closing) videos and presentations for medium-large-ish events for a living. That's probably why i keep ranting and cringing about that video. There's just so much wrong about it
I was just inspired to volounteer with that, but a) would require tons of filming abroad b) i am sure Suzuki has a staff of much better professionals on the job and offering help would sound like an insult :)

We are in the same profession, my friend. I also make trailers, short movies and so on for med and large corporations. Definitely agree with you about the cringe so I really would love to work on this and blow everyone away. Heck, let me make the Shenmue 1 and 2 movies too for the one that was actually used in the Shenmue Theatre (it was shown in a movie theatre in Japan) and released on the Xbox needs heavy addressing. Plus, since I actually live in Japan (40mins from Tokyo) it would definitely be easier for me to do all this. Man, I need to knock on more doors but I don't want to insult anyone either. Oh well, business is business.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Shenmue sold over 1 million copies IIRC. Not sure about Shenmue II though.

What be nice if Shenmue 3 could hit something like the Yakuza pulls in. 400-600k a title. That way SEGA might be fine with a yearly release that slowly builds upon the previous entry.
 

Spaghetti

Member
Do you know how well SA2 HD sold across PSN/XBL/Steam?
243,838 according to steam spy

jet set radio did 176,982

and nights did 237,895

i'm really surprised to see jsr as the lowest on there, but those are respectable sales for all of them on steam

starting to think "the oft repeated but never confirmed" myth about the heritage collection ports stopping because of low sales is bullshit.
 

Aki-at

Member
Yeah, that Kickstarter alone should push them to release 1 and 2 in HD. They'd be crazy not too. But it's Sega so who knows...

SEGA actually would like to rely on their legacy franchises more, but they're like the kid who has the most potential in the class but with the lowest self-confidence. When things don't go their way they blame themselves (The product) instead of what actually went wrong ie. SEGA America does not know how to market anything.

Man it still annoys me SEGA Japan gave more in their marketing in their region for both Binary Domain and Vanquish than SEGA America did despite both games being suitable for Western audience. Like dammit.

Do you know how well SA2 HD sold across PSN/XBL/Steam?

No idea about a figure, just know the ports sold below what SEGA was expecting. I think Aaron Webber is coming on our podcast so I'll see if George can poke it out him.

Steamspy has Sonic Adventure 2
at 240,000.

This wasn't what was stopping the Sonic remasters though. Those did fairly well.

What were the rough sales figures for Shenmue 1 and 2?

Are we talking in the thousands or low millions?

There was this forum, long ago, that had numbers for almost all of SEGA's releases in the sixth generation so I can't rely verify it. But they put down Shenmue II US sales on Xbox at 179,000 so we have that.

Shit man looking at some of the numbers for other SEGA games there was super depressing.
 

Spaghetti

Member
I wished there was an explanation to what that system is on the site so people can be more excited and pressured about its importance.
i think i've just got an idea what the rapport system is.

yu suzuki said some time ago the conversations with shenhua would act as a personality test of sorts. i think that might be what the rapport system is.
 

Aki-at

Member
243,838 according to steam spy

jet set radio did 176,982

and nights did 237,895

i'm really surprised to see jsr as the lowest on there, but those are respectable sales for all of them on steam

starting to think "the oft repeated but never confirmed" myth about the heritage collection ports stopping because of low sales is bullshit.

Initial sales, got to remember most of those numbers came from sales not from the original price point. NiGHTS and JSR in particular were often £1.49 on Steam.

It's probably why we're getting 3DS remakes still, games stick to their original price and sell decently enough.
 
What be nice if Shenmue 3 could hit something like the Yakuza pulls in. 400-600k a title. That way SEGA might be fine with a yearly release that slowly builds upon the previous entry.
Only about 10 million Dreamcasts were sold. For PS4 the install base is already 22+ millions. When Shenmue III gets released probably 40-50 million people will have a PS4.
This game will sell more than 1 million copies easily (I think it'll be way more).
 
I wished there was an explanation to what that system is on the site so people can be more excited and pressured about its importance.

Agreed. The only obvious one is the subtitles (and the expanded mini-games, I suppose). Even the Shemmue 1/2 cinema shorts being flashbacks were not explained until Yu Suzuki's PlayStation Blog post.

I am happy to fund any extra milestone no matter what it is, but I know many people want more stretch goals and more information about them. I hope the Shenmue 3 social team can kick things into high gear very soon. They need to be doing interviews (written, video, podcast, etc.), posting more updates, etc. I know that they are seemingly doing one-a-day Kickstarter updates, which is fine for maybe the middle 15 days of the campaign, but not the beginning and end.

BTW, I think it finally just hit me that Shenmue 3 is truly a reality. It took a while to settle in, and I think I am more emotional now than when it was announced because I was so shocked at the time.
 

Spaghetti

Member
Initial sales, got to remember most of those numbers came from sales not from the original price point. NiGHTS and JSR in particular were often £1.49 on Steam.

It's probably why we're getting 3DS remakes still, games stick to their original price and sell decently enough.
possibly, but it's still a long-form of revenue

digital sales are generally evergreen and still sell whether they're discounted or not, sega has to know this. one title alone won't make a giant profit month on month, but if you've got 5-10 titles out there still selling it'll justify the cost of increasing that portfolio
 

Aki-at

Member
possibly, but it's still a long-form of revenue

digital sales are generally evergreen and still sell whether they're discounted or not, sega has to know this. one title alone won't make a giant profit month on month, but if you've got 5-10 titles out there still selling it'll justify the cost of increasing that portfolio

Whilst I completely agree with this, SEGA isn't a small company so what they see worthwhile will be different from what we see worthwhile. It would come down to assessing their opportunity cost and seeing if funds are spent better elsewhere, wither this is a new game, a port of a more high profile (Sonic) game or DLC (For titles like Total War or Miku.) that can generate a good ROI for them. Probably if they had a subscription based service they could justify these ports a bit better too but that's a whole new can of worms right there.

(Personally I think the porting agenda is back on after SEGA stopped leaking money recently and stuff like Valkyria Chronicles and 3DS remakes beat/matched sales expectations. Stuff like Valkyria Chronicles port was on SEGA's agenda before even the PC port campaign took off.)
 

Aspiring

Member
So somebody tell me, I just upgraded my pledge to the $175 tier. It says it includes the $120. But it keeps stacking so I will also receive an art book but than a toy capsule t short and game as well as name in credits?
 

BrunoM

Member
Let’s all be happy with people's reactions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcUoRij3B2I&list=PLh6HquSTij2qLciXVWfvfZv0x9aFEBV1-

Go to 10:24secs, someone took a phone recording from the conference floor. The crowd are going NUTS!!
All I know its that when I heard that first note and saw that first pedal my heart dropped I was watching it at the Toronto live theater and yeah I was done it was all I could've asked for

Half hour after leaving dundas square I had dropped 300 bucks on it

That last vid Trojan x its from one of the movie theaters things not the actual LA setting .. With that said still epic

Nothing beats the gametrailers reaction and probably mine had tears in my eyes lol and went crazy lol
 

Trojan X

Banned
All I know its that when I heard that first note and saw that first pedal my heart dropped I was watching it at the Toronto live theater and yeah I was done it was all I could've asked for

Half hour after leaving dundas square I had dropped 300 bucks on it

That last vid Trojan x its from one of the movie theaters things not the actual LA setting .. With that said still epic

Nothing beats the gametrailers reaction and probably mine had tears in my eyes lol and went crazy lol

lol. Fantastic. That experience was similar to mine. Soon as I heard the first note and the sakura petal, my heart stopped beating and I shouted out "no way??!?!" After that I patiently tried to absorb all the information whilst doing my best not to jump to any conclusions and hyperventilate. When the title "SHenmue III" appeared on the screen, my mind exploded causing me to shout out "OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I was losing it!! It was a tsunami of emotions that I never thought could occur after seeing the Final Fantasy 7 Remake (people need to remember that FF7r is NOT a Sony full exclusive) and The Last Guardian reveal. It was insane! A perfect day to be a gamer and it had nothing to do with what system it was on, it was all about those games existing, especially Shenmue III. After that, as I agreed with someone else on this forum, I went to my local store here in Japan, brought beers, cocktails and snacks, and celebrated with my lady over the insane news.... I got near drunk at 11:30am, dude. I never drunk so early before and I am not even a drinker. After celebrating, I took out my Japanese Dreamcast along with my copy of Shenmue 1 and 2 to take some pictures. All to mark that today was an epic glorious day for gaming. I waited over 14yrs for this day, I can wait another two for the game. よかった。
 

Pachael

Member
Let’s all be happy with people's reactions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcUoRij3B2I&list=PLh6HquSTij2qLciXVWfvfZv0x9aFEBV1-

Go to 10:24secs, someone took a phone recording from the conference floor. The crowd are going NUTS!!

Thanks to Szeth from the other Gametrailers thread, he's put together the reaction video for the triumvirate at the Sony conference.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=168502733&postcount=1702

Shamelessly re posting for the new page.

So I put this video together today. I guess it's my tribute to GT for making this the best E3. It's basically a highlight reel of them watching the Sony conference (with conference audio). Has the 3 big reactions, the aftermath and a couple of old clips from Bosman/Huber to set the tone. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZYUq-jzLUg

Watch it not only to see Huber's pre-E3 Shenmue talk, the initial reaction to the news, and how he became a sobbing mess for the rest of the show. I didn't watch it, but I understood why he was so emotional. Oh goodness gracious.
 

addik

Member
First off, I haven't played the two games before (though I really want to), this announcement still blew my mind, not because I badly wanted a Shenmue 3, but because I knew just how emotional Shenmue fans would be over this announcement and what it really means to them. Jesus Christ, 14 years thinking they have waited (or are waiting) in vain, and suddenly this drops down. Seeing Hubert cry in that GT videocast made my day twice already.

I'm not sure I would purchase Shenmue 3 without having played the first two games (remaster please, Sega/Sony/Yu), but I am definitely backing this project up just so that Shenmue fans can have the best possible experience when it comes. You guys have waited for 14 years and kept the hope alive, you deserve an amazing Shenmue 3.

Second, I am really curious just to how Sony is helping (or has helped this game). They say they wanted to fund this right away, but Yu Suzuki wanted to have a kickstarter, but had problems getting the license to make a third game. I wonder if:

a. Sony helped Yu secure rights to make a third game. I read somewhere that Yu now owns the IP, but then I saw an article clarifying that, saying that Shenmue still belongs to Sega and Yu only has the rights to make the third game. That French co-producer dropped some really scathing words against Sega about holding the rights for Shenmue and not letting anyone touch it. I wonder if Sony was able to convince Sega to change that and give Yu the rights to make a third game at the very least?

b. Sony was just going to help fund the game, but Yu wanted to do a kickstarter anyway because...

b.1. He wanted to see for himself (and maybe even Sony) just how much people wanted Shenmue 3 and if the franchise is still relevant today or...

b.2. He knew the franchise was still relevant despite Sega's insistence that it was not, and he knew the kickstarter would be a great success, so the kickstarter was just a giant middle finger personally sent by Yu to Sega (doubt it, but it's a fun theory).

Totally armchair speculations, but it would make up a good read one day.
 

Orlov

Member
They need to do something fast, it's losing momentum.

but I am definitely backing this project up just so that Shenmue fans can have the best possible experience when it comes. You guys have waited for 14 years and kept the hope alive, you deserve an amazing Shenmue 3.

Thanks, that means much to us ;)
 

eso76

Member
We are in the same profession, my friend. I also make trailers, short movies and so on for med and large corporations.[...] Man, I need to knock on more doors but I don't want to insult anyone either. Oh well, business is business.

whoa *shakeshand* that's nice !
I don't know, i think if i lived that close to Yu Suzuki's current (presumed) location i would probably try knocking.

Actually, no, that's not like me at all and i would never do it, but i would think i should.
 

Trojan X

Banned
They need to do something fast, it's losing momentum.


I believe a physical disk for the PS4 milestone will make a difference and we now also know that awareness is the problem. Those social guys they've hired need to start working now and delivering the good stuff to really spread the awareness, otherwise the game won't hit $6 million let alone the really much needed $15 million.
 

Aki-at

Member
a. Sony helped Yu secure rights to make a third game. I read somewhere that Yu now owns the IP, but then I saw an article clarifying that, saying that Shenmue still belongs to Sega and Yu only has the rights to make the third game. That French co-producer dropped some really scathing words against Sega about holding the rights for Shenmue and not letting anyone touch it. I wonder if Sony was able to convince Sega to change that and give Yu the rights to make a third game at the very least?

b. Sony was just going to help fund the game, but Yu wanted to do a kickstarter anyway because...

b.1. He wanted to see for himself (and maybe even Sony) just how much people wanted Shenmue 3 and if the franchise is still relevant today or...

b.2. He knew the franchise was still relevant despite Sega's insistence that it was not, and he knew the kickstarter would be a great success, so the kickstarter was just a giant middle finger personally sent by Yu to Sega (doubt it, but it's a fun theory).

Totally armchair speculations, but it would make up a good read one day.

A. SEGA still owns the IP and I doubt Sony could have them change their mind on it. Suzuki however has been granted the license. Suzuki even stated last year SEGA had no problems with him going ahead and making a third game so long as he can outline a budget and gather the majority of the funding they'd be happy for him to go with it.

B. Whilst Sony is helping marketing the game, the funding isn't coming solely through them, Adam Boyes said "some" funding would be given to the project. Wither this is direct cash or free tools to use is anyone's guess. With B.2 I think Yu is very much a company's man, very old school and Japanese loyalty to the company and all that. If he didn't have a good relationship with SEGA we wouldn't have gotten Shenmue 3. I think it helps that the management of SEGA is still the same people from the Dreamcast era, which is why even Mizuguchi got the license to make Rez relatively cheap, or for nothing.

Basically I still very much believe that supporting the Kickstarter is very much the best way to make sure Shenmue 3 is Shenmue 3, I'm not expecting much funding from many third party companies just yet. Support but not funding.
 

addik

Member
B. Whilst Sony is helping marketing the game, the funding isn't coming solely through them, Adam Boyes said "some" funding would be given to the project. Wither this is direct cash or free tools to use is anyone's guess. With B.2 I think Yu is very much a company's man, very old school and Japanese loyalty to the company and all that. If he didn't have a good relationship with SEGA we wouldn't have gotten Shenmue 3. I think it helps that the management of SEGA is still the same people from the Dreamcast era, which is why even Mizuguchi got the license to make Rez relatively cheap, or for nothing.

Basically I still very much believe that supporting the Kickstarter is very much the best way to make sure Shenmue 3 is Shenmue 3, I'm not expecting much funding from many third party companies just yet. Support but not funding.

Reading through the other thread now (which, for some odd reason, I thought was locked), and it totally makes sense now why they went with Kickstarter at the beginning.

Never thought Sega would actually be fine with giving Yu the license to make Shenmue 3 so easily as long as he finds the funding. At least everyone comes out happy this way.
 

Trojan X

Banned
Hooked my dream cast up last night, now it's time to finish shenmue 2. How long of a game is it?

I don't remember how long it takes to complete if you do everything straight, but my advice to you is take all the time in the world for you have plenty of time to spare. Don't rush it, max out Ryo and enjoy everything element and offering in the game before moving on in the story. That's my biggest and best advice to you for maximum experience and enjoyment. In fact, go back to Shenmue 1 if you can for Shenmue 3 most likely won't come until late 2017 or very early 2018 if we are lucky.
 

Aki-at

Member
Reading through the other thread now (which, for some odd reason, I thought was locked), and it totally makes sense now why they went with Kickstarter at the beginning.

Never thought Sega would actually be fine with giving Yu the license to make Shenmue 3 so easily as long as he finds the funding. At least everyone comes out happy this way.

They're not Konami :p

And with people like Oguchi and Nagoshi are part of the top brass of SEGA, I'd imagine they're very happy to give Suzuki anything other than money haha.

Keep in mind this isn't the first time either, SEGA gave Suzuki the license when he went and did the short lived Shenmue City mobile game.
 

Kazer

Member
They need to do something fast, it's losing momentum.

Yeah, they aren't doing a very great job of managing this KS. They should really look at how Bloodstained did it and step their game up.

They also need more reward tiers from 500-10k. There's no incentive right now to donate any higher than $500.
 
They need to do something fast, it's losing momentum.
It's not very smart planning to leave a massive crevasse between the $500 and $10,000 tiers.

Additional $750, $2,000, and $3,500 tiers would've been a better way to go.

Now all the big money tiers are gone, and it's only small jumps from here until they introduce meaningful rewards. While it's important to have a large number of backers and not just a few backers with enviously disposable income, it's those big jumps from the monied minority that fuels the excitement that gets the pleb backers' attention to jump on board.
 

Burt

Member
Yeah, they aren't doing a very great job of managing this KS. They should really look at how Bloodstained did it and step their game up.

They also need more reward tiers from 500-10k. There's no incentive right now to donate any higher than $500.

There's essentially nothing they can do to change the funding curve that nearly every successful-out-the-gate Kickstarter experiences.

For everything that Bloodstained did, it had possibly the most typical, symmetrical funding curve I've ever seen on a Kickstarter.

Shenmue is going to look like it bottomed out particularly hard particularly fast, but that's because it also had literally the highest exposure of any Kickstarter announcement ever. I agree that they could use more tiers, but in all honesty they're fine. Short of a complete fuck up in the next 4 weeks, there's really not much that's going to affect the final total more than a couple hundred thousand in either direction, which while not negligible, isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things with a project this size.
 

dci260

Member
It's not very smart planning to leave a massive crevasse between the $500 and $10,000 tiers.

Additional $750, $2,000, and $3,500 tiers would've been a better way to go.

Now all the big money tiers are gone, and it's only small jumps from here until they introduce meaningful rewards. While it's important to have a large number of backers and not just a few backers with enviously disposable income, it's those big jumps from the monied minority that fuels the excitement that gets the pleb backers' attention to jump on board.

Yea, they definitely need to add more tiers to the funding beyond $500. It will give people the incentive to increase their pledges and will possibly bring more attention to the KS. Also, they really should add a PS4 Physical tier because that alone will drive up the funds.

Even still, at the rate it's going it will likely hit AT LEAST $4mil by the end of the month. (That expanded village looks like a high possibility!) :)
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
They should have "Better voice acting" Goal.
Graphics and animation could do with a lot of work too, it really does look like SHENMUE thou and I don't know if thats a good thing.....
Don't get me wrong I don't wanna be THAT guy as I'm really looking forward to playing it, but gotta be honest.
 

Bashtee

Member
To be honest, the Kickstarter page looks a bit dull for the estimated project size and the Kickstarter video wasn't so hot either. Bloodstained was way better organized, especially with the community achievements. I also hope they add more tiers, but they are probably working on that right now. They kind of got hit with all that money right into their faces.
 

dci260

Member
They should have "Better voice acting" Goal.
Graphics and animation could do with a lot of work too, it really does look like SHENMUE thou and I don't know if thats a good thing.....
Don't get me wrong as I'm really looking forward to playing it, but gotta be honest.

Hopefully it's just a placeholder since it's very early along, but I've gotta agree on the voices. I think the female is tolerable and has a similar essence from the previous games, charming but poor dub basically, but the exact same back to back "Yea's" was pretty bad.
 

Burt

Member
Good points about adding higher tiers, where's the best place to contact them for suggestions?

The "Contact Me" on the right side next to the company name is probably your best bet. Most people running campaigns keep an eye on those messages 24/7 and do their best to respond.
 

Tailzo

Member
First off, I haven't played the two games before (though I really want to), this announcement still blew my mind, not because I badly wanted a Shenmue 3, but because I knew just how emotional Shenmue fans would be over this announcement and what it really means to them. Jesus Christ, 14 years thinking they have waited (or are waiting) in vain, and suddenly this drops down. Seeing Hubert cry in that GT videocast made my day twice already.

I'm not sure I would purchase Shenmue 3 without having played the first two games (remaster please, Sega/Sony/Yu), but I am definitely backing this project up just so that Shenmue fans can have the best possible experience when it comes. You guys have waited for 14 years and kept the hope alive, you deserve an amazing Shenmue 3.

Second, I am really curious just to how Sony is helping (or has helped this game). They say they wanted to fund this right away, but Yu Suzuki wanted to have a kickstarter, but had problems getting the license to make a third game. I wonder if:

a. Sony helped Yu secure rights to make a third game. I read somewhere that Yu now owns the IP, but then I saw an article clarifying that, saying that Shenmue still belongs to Sega and Yu only has the rights to make the third game. That French co-producer dropped some really scathing words against Sega about holding the rights for Shenmue and not letting anyone touch it. I wonder if Sony was able to convince Sega to change that and give Yu the rights to make a third game at the very least?

b. Sony was just going to help fund the game, but Yu wanted to do a kickstarter anyway because...

b.1. He wanted to see for himself (and maybe even Sony) just how much people wanted Shenmue 3 and if the franchise is still relevant today or...

b.2. He knew the franchise was still relevant despite Sega's insistence that it was not, and he knew the kickstarter would be a great success, so the kickstarter was just a giant middle finger personally sent by Yu to Sega (doubt it, but it's a fun theory).

Totally armchair speculations, but it would make up a good read one day.

Thank you for backing :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom