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[Durante]

Would you happen to have graphs for MN9 or BS? I would believe those are more comparable (successive KS record breakers).

I believe that Bard's Tale IV is in fact a lot more comparable. How front-loaded a kickstarter is greatly depends on how quickly it can reach its potential audience. Bard's Tale did so very quickly because it's inXile's third KS, so they already have everything in place to reach people quickly. Shenmue 3 did so because it was announced on a massively watched stream.

That said, pretty much all kickstarters stall after a huge start and before the final days, just the magnitude of the stalling differs.

 

[DangerMouse]

I do hope this statement will finally appease the detractors and that the kickstarter can get back to the excitement so many of us have for it. And while dissapointed a little about the inability for a physical ps4 award, that hasn't dampened my excitement. Made my pledge and happy about it. Hope more will too.

Same here.

 

[Pez]

No way in hell is this thing reaching $10 million. Hope Suzuki can make a compelling argument to the investors outside of Kickstarter so they can makeit open world.

 

[openrob]

there is probably a segment of the gaming community that feel that Sony (or any other major publisher) shouldn't be asking for money from the public via crowdfunding for something that they are developing or co-developing. Certain people have been fearing this the moment Kickstarter became a thing. It became a running joke over the last couple of years ("When is Activision going to kickstart a new Tony Hawk lol!"). This just gave those people ammunition.

When will people understand that Sony IS NOT doing a Kickstarter.They ARE NOT developing, or even co-developing SHENMUE 3.

Not to single you out, but if you even vaguely believe that, you are wrong.


It is entirely YS Net's game. And that is why they need all the money they can get.

 

[Sjefen]

Hope this brings some people minds to rest and start looking forward to an potentially amazing game. A side note: I don´t think Sony will ever advertise another Kickstarter again at E3 press conference or other conferences.

 

[Dremark]

Its PC only, right? I barely know about that game, not that I'm an expert or anything.

Do many high-profile, multi-platform games stall like this? Would you happen to have graphs for MN9 or BS? I would believe those are more comparable (successive KS record breakers).

There is a site called Kicktraq you can pull up graphs for any project on.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

When will people understand that Sony IS NOT doing a Kickstarter.They ARE NOT developing, or even co-developing SHENMUE 3.

Not to single you out, but if you even vaguely believe that, you are wrong.


It is entirely YS Net's game. And that is why they need all the money they can get.

I don't believe that, hell personally I wouldn't even care if a major publisher used Kickstarter beyond finding it tacky (which is sort of how I felt at the time of the press conference), but I think that Sony announcing a KS during their event was going to invite the people that did feel strongly about it to come out of the woodwork, especially if the entirety of Sony's involvement was not immediately known.

 

[Gamezone]

No physical PS4 version means no pledge. I'd really like to support the game but if I can't get it in the format I want I can't justify it.

I guess it's alright considering I dropped cash on Bloodstained though.

There will probably be a physical disc for PS4, just not at this Kickstarter. Why don`t people get that?

 

[DustyVonEric]

The problem is that, on GAF in particular, the only reason that the FUD was continuing is because the "side" defending everything didn't really have any answers just blind hope and FUD of its own.

The information being presented was confusing at best and it was being defended so vehemently by your "side" that any valid questions or criticism were just being rebuffed with accusations of concern trolling, console wars and a real sense of fingers in the ears, head in the sand and "I WANT MY SHENMUE NO MATTER WHAT AND YOU'RE RUINING IT FOR ME."

And all the time you didn't have the answers either There's no way that you're ever going to dispel FUD with that.

This may well be a project that will cause people to throw money at it regardless of what's actually known or presented but you can't expect everyone to exhibit the same enthusiasm/naivety (delete as appropriate) and need to have their questions answered. Yu Suzuki and Sony's response in the past week has finally answered most of those questions and if they'd bothered to make that information public on day one we wouldn't have even had this mess.

Smh. Suzuki's statements in the OP are same things that's been said for days now, and here you are acting like some new truth has finally been revealed. You're wrong. Boyes, Shu, Suzuki, Sony's 3rd party relations team, random devs not even involved with the project on twitter were saying this at E3. Boyes on stage was saying its Yu Suzuki's thing, and then Sony went to expand upon that multiple times during E3. Boyes went on to explain it in more detail after. The 3rd party relations team went on to explain everything on GB's E3 Bombcast, including why Sony isn't funding fully (would become 1st party), what they're helping with, why KS. Shu said the exact same thing a day or two later, and people like you act like its Shu finally coming clean (when Boyes and the 3rd party guys explained to us days prior). This comes out, and it's the same shit those who were actually following the situation heard before, and here are people again acting like its new info and Sony should have been more forthright.

Just because people aren't listening for whatever reason doesn't mean it's not getting said. Or when a positive message is stated by gamers, that it has to be by blind faith fanboys with no real answers. We've just chosen to listen.

The one fault I find in the KS is not clearly laying out the stretch goals of $10 million from the beginning. Hopefully Evil, Shady, S👿ny will kick some money towards the development side too (as is ok for other KS', just not Sony for reasons) and help us get a fully fleshed out game.

Now continue to let your outrage cloud your judgement and the reality of the situation. The reality that been explained umpteenth times but you'll just choose to ignore for more reasons.

 

[Loudninja]

I do hope this statement will finally appease the detractors and that the kickstarter can get back to the excitement so many of us have for it. And while dissapointed a little about the inability for a physical ps4 award, that hasn't dampened my excitement. Made my pledge and happy about it. Hope more will too.

This statement as been said like 4 or 5 times by different people now.

I still dont get how can anyone at this point still be confused. :/

 

[DidntKnowJack]

I don't believe that, hell personally I wouldn't even care if a major publisher used Kickstarter beyond finding it tacky (which is sort of how I felt at the time of the press conference), but I think that Sony announcing a KS during their event was going to invite the people that did feel strongly about it to come out of the woodwork, especially if the entirety of Sony's involvement was not immediately known.

You know what, you believe what you want to believe. This is what I've been saying since the inception of this thread. Explanations could be given for every aspect of this KS, but it still wouldn't be enough for those "concerned." This is folly.

 

[Theonik]

You know guys, for all the negativity we can in fact hit $10m. We simply must believe. It is our collective hype that made this happen in the first place. Being down over some created goal isn't going to get us closer to it! So get to pledging. Show the people who doubt the project what for.

There will probably be a physical disc for PS4, just not at this Kickstarter. Why don`t people get that?

It's not that people don't get it. They just want that copy so will not pledge and buy it at launch. It is reasonable. Of course it's going to harm the campaign but it is what it is. There will probably not be a physical disk on PS4 at launch though. If they were planning to have one it would be extremely naive to withhold it like this.

 

[travisbickle]

People are so paranoid about big publishers that they fear their involvement in a system (kickstarter) that's there to allow independent developers circumnavigate contracts with big pubs.

It's not like Sony (or any other publisher) had intentions of financially supporting the development of Shenmue 3 but were waiting for a way to syphon a few million dollars of public support.

 

[Dremark]

There will probably be a physical disc for PS4, just not at this Kickstarter. Why don`t people get that?

If you read my other posts you'll see I'm fully expecting there to be.

You know guys, for all the negativity we can in fact hit $10m. We simply must believe. It is our collective hype that made this happen in the first place. Being down over some created goal isn't going to get us closer to it! So get to pledging. Show the people who doubt the project what for.

It's not that people don't get it. They just want that copy so will not pledge and buy it at launch. It is reasonable. Of course it's going to harm the campaign but it is what it is. There will probably not be a physical disk on PS4 at launch though. If they were planning to have one it would be extremely naive to withhold it like this.

I will be surprised if it hits 10M but I think it's possible. Gotta raise awareness as much as possible. The impression I'm under is that they want all the money to go to ys net and if they do a physical release attached to the Kickstarter at least some of the money goes to Sony (Even more if they are the publisher for that version).

I'll be expecting a physical disc at launch but even if I knew for a fact it wasn't coming my decision wouldn't change.

 

[xaszatm]

This kickstarter really could have used a proper campaign. That's probably what's hurting it more than any press release. That being said, this kickstarter will easily bypass $5 million though I'm not seeing $10 million being reached, though.

 

[Theonik]

I will be surprised if it hits 10M but I think it's possible. Gotta raise awareness as much as possible. The impression I'm under is that they want all the money to go to ys net and if they do a physical release attached to the Kickstarter at least some of the money goes to Sony (Even more if they are the publisher for that version).

I'll be expecting a physical disc at launch but even if I knew for a fact it wasn't coming my decision wouldn't change.

I think it would be naive for Sony to expect a Kickstarter is going to seriously affect sales of a retail product. There is an overlap in the audience and certainly the diehard fans will be on the KS, though they are also the same people that might consider getting a second copy, so certainly 60k people on KS doesn't amount to 60k lost sales in the first place, but I would also argue, that if these people were the only ones buying this, then it would be unsustainable for a publisher to invest, so certainly you must expect you will sell several copies to the large number of people (as has been proven by KS again and again) that are not willing to back and are willing to support the game at launch.

However the sales potential of the title at launch is hampered by lower funding since the game has less things to sell in the end. Think of what Koch media did with Bloodstained. They are making tons of money on KS, they are releasing KS copies to backers, but through that finding they are ending up with a better product that will sell more than a product that hadn't hit all those stretchgoals. Successful KS campaigns are also able to keep some kind of fan momentum and hype after their end.

Of course I might be wrong and Sony just doesn't get it. Which I suppose wouldn't surprise me. All these things are very novel in the game industry. The PR nightmare surrounding this KS which should be completely avoidable and the mistrust it caused is proof of this as well.

I hope you do get your PS4 retail copy at launch, maybe this way I get the copy of the game I actually want to go with my $510 copy. I wish I could get you to contribute so that we get a better game but it is what it is.

 

[Bluth54]

I think it would be naive for Sony to expect a Kickstarter is going to seriously affect sales of a retail product. There is an overlap in the audience and certainly the diehard fans will be on the KS, though they are also the same people that might consider getting a second copy, so certainly 60k people on KS doesn't amount to 60k lost sales in the first place, but I would also argue, that if these people were the only ones buying this, then it would be unsustainable for a publisher to invest, so certainly you must expect you will sell several copies to the large number of people (as has been proven by KS again and again) that are not willing to back and are willing to support the game at launch.

Yeah you are totally right, Kickstarter isn't going to affect the total sales of the game that much, you can use Steam Spy to look at the sales of Kickstarted games, for example if you look at Pillars of Eternity, which has been out a few months it has sales of just over 400,000 and it had around 77,000 backers.

The people who pay for a kickstarter are the hardcore fans who really follow gaming and want the game to succeed. Most buyers aren't going to use Kickstarter.

 

[Ishan]

This would have been simpler and avoided way more controversy with a

All ks funds go to dev . We have external partners helping with marketing and publishing . And for all the ppl saying they can't divulge details if so how could bloodstained divulge they get 90% of the funding outside ks ??? If you can explain that to me I'll be satisfied .

Additionally this has been a badly managed ks from a pr perspective and I'm sure console wars have played a part too but it has been badly managed period . Now let's all accept that and move on . You want shenmue you're getting it . Want 5 mill well probably get it . Want 10 mill drum up support somehow instead of blaming sites and pr . We have more than 20'days left . The huber reaction by itself is a big enthusiasm generator . Shenmue fans you like it so much make it happen .

I didn't crib when cs 1.6 didn't get remade or when source sucked . I sucked it up and waited for cs go . And when cs go sucked we all told valve off till cs go reached near 1.6 levels . Stop blaming sites . Cs didn't have mainstream sites support it had the community behind it . You guys should do the same .

Edit : and if you can't realize the shenmue community drive isn't strong enough and end of story . Videogames are a business unless one of you can front up the remaining millions well and good if not let's just put this to your community and then to bed without all the incessant complaining on both sides

Cs has a community . We made csgo what it is and convinced valve what it can be . Why can't you as the shenmue community suck it up and do the same

 

[Theonik]

Yeah you are totally right, Kickstarter isn't going to affect the total sales of the game that much, you can use Steam Spy to look at the sales of Kickstarted games, for example if you look at Pillars of Eternity, which has been out a few months it has sales of just over 400,000 and it had around 77,000 backers.

The people who pay for a kickstarter are the hardcore fans who really follow gaming and want the game to succeed. Most buyers aren't going to use Kickstarter.

Of course, Shenmue III is slightly different being a direct sequel to a story driven experience so maybe the avenues of expanding the game's audience are more limited. If that's the case though,

Spoiler

which sequels have proven that it is a problem that can easily be tackled especially in games which unlike movies or other entertainment media are iterative in nature and therefore are not rare to have sequels selling better than their parent game

, it is reasonable to expect them not to have the confidence to risk a retail release with such unknowns. But that means there will either be none, or one far later down the line if the project succeeds.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I don't know, was it? Maybe Yu will let us know next week sometime.

So this is just baseless speculation/doubt inducing rumourmongering, right? You were stating it as if it were a fact .

 

[Panajev2001a]

Smh. Suzuki's statements in the OP are same things that's been said for days now, and here you are acting like some new truth has finally been revealed. You're wrong. Boyes, Shu, Suzuki, Sony's 3rd party relations team, random devs not even involved with the project on twitter were saying this at E3. Boyes on stage was saying its Yu Suzuki's thing, and then Sony went to expand upon that multiple times during E3. Boyes went on to explain it in more detail after. The 3rd party relations team went on to explain everything on GB's E3 Bombcast, including why Sony isn't funding fully (would become 1st party), what they're helping with, why KS. Shu said the exact same thing a day or two later, and people like you act like its Shu finally coming clean (when Boyes and the 3rd party guys explained to us days prior). This comes out, and it's the same shit those who were actually following the situation heard before, and here are people again acting like its new info and Sony should have been more forthright.

Just because people aren't listening for whatever reason doesn't mean it's not getting said. Or when a positive message is stated by gamers, that it has to be by blind faith fanboys with no real answers. We've just chosen to listen.

The one fault I find in the KS is not clearly laying out the stretch goals of $10 million from the beginning. Hopefully Evil, Shady, S👿ny will kick some money towards the development side too (as is ok for other KS', just not Sony for reasons) and help us get a fully fleshed out game.

Now continue to let your outrage cloud your judgement and the reality of the situation. The reality that been explained umpteenth times but you'll just choose to ignore for more reasons.

Good recap .

 

[Surta]

but I think that Sony announcing a KS during their event was going to invite the people that did feel strongly about it to come out of the woodwork, especially if the entirety of Sony's involvement was not immediately known.

The announcement right there on the stage made it clear that it's "very much their [Suzuki's] project" and in the same breath mentioned that they are announcing it here on stage because "PlayStation fans have been very, very, very vocal about it". The latter is of course a reference to the #buildingthelist campaign run by Sony's 3rd party team. Shenmue was the most requested title there.
Also, it's been known for over a year that Suzuki was looking into using Kickstarter for Shenmue 3. If the journos had done a modicum of research, they would have found all those facts easily. Instead, they jumped to wild conclusions.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I don't believe that, hell personally I wouldn't even care if a major publisher used Kickstarter beyond finding it tacky (which is sort of how I felt at the time of the press conference), but I think that Sony announcing a KS during their event was going to invite the people that did feel strongly about it to come out of the woodwork, especially if the entirety of Sony's involvement was not immediately known.

So, essentially stupid Cerny, Boyes, and Yoshida for trying to facilitate this KS and not thinking about the hate from console warriors and shady game journalists...?

 

[Harmen]

I pray this will get to the 10 million then. I expect it to be something like 6 though.

And god, I hate these baseless agressive "moral" narratives with the most negative assumptions possible gamers produce sometimes.

And I actually do hope Sony pours in some money to reach that 10, but that seems out of the question now.

Smh. Suzuki's statements in the OP are same things that's been said for days now, and here you are acting like some new truth has finally been revealed. You're wrong. Boyes, Shu, Suzuki, Sony's 3rd party relations team, random devs not even involved with the project on twitter were saying this at E3. Boyes on stage was saying its Yu Suzuki's thing, and then Sony went to expand upon that multiple times during E3. Boyes went on to explain it in more detail after. The 3rd party relations team went on to explain everything on GB's E3 Bombcast, including why Sony isn't funding fully (would become 1st party), what they're helping with, why KS. Shu said the exact same thing a day or two later, and people like you act like its Shu finally coming clean (when Boyes and the 3rd party guys explained to us days prior). This comes out, and it's the same shit those who were actually following the situation heard before, and here are people again acting like its new info and Sony should have been more forthright.

Just because people aren't listening for whatever reason doesn't mean it's not getting said. Or when a positive message is stated by gamers, that it has to be by blind faith fanboys with no real answers. We've just chosen to listen.

The one fault I find in the KS is not clearly laying out the stretch goals of $10 million from the beginning. Hopefully Evil, Shady, S��ny will kick some money towards the development side too (as is ok for other KS', just not Sony for reasons) and help us get a fully fleshed out game.

Now continue to let your outrage cloud your judgement and the reality of the situation. The reality that been explained umpteenth times but you'll just choose to ignore for more reasons.

Great post.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Sorry, but that's a dumb thing to say.
The announcement right there on the stage made it clear that it's "very much their [Suzuki's] project" and in the same breath mentioned that they are announcing it here on stage because PlayStation fans have been "very, very, very vocal about it". The latter is of course a reference to the #buildingthelist campaign run by Sony's 3rd party team. Shenmue was the most requested title there.
Also, it's been known for over a year that Suzuki was looking into using Kickstarter for Shenmue 3. If the journos had done a modicum of research, they would have found all those facts easily. Instead, they jumped to wild conclusions.

It is so much easier to just blame Sony... Something.. Something... Untrustworthy... Something... .

 

[Bluth54]

Of course, Shenmue III is slightly different being a direct sequel to a story driven experience so maybe the avenues of expanding the game's audience are more limited. If that's the case though,

Spoiler

which sequels have proven that it is a problem that can easily be tackled especially in games which unlike movies or other entertainment media are iterative in nature and therefore are not rare to have sequels selling better than their parent game

, it is reasonable to expect them not to have the confidence to risk a retail release with such unknowns. But that means there will either be none, or one far later down the line if the project succeeds.

That's true, I hadn't thought about the fact that Shenmue 3 will be a direct sequel (and more story based) vs other many other kickstarters that are original games or spiritual successors. Even kickstarter sequels like Divinity Original Sin and Wasteland 2 could easily be picked up by people who hadn't played the previous game in the series, which would probably be harder to do with Shenmue.

I suppose Sega releasing an HD port of Shenmue 1 and 2 for PS4 and PC would be one of the best things they could do for the sales of Shenmue 3. Even though it wouldn't be out in time for the kickstarter if people play the game and like it they would probably buy Shenmue 3 when it comes out.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I still don't see why people blame the slowdown on any articles. Kickstarters are already insanely frontloaded in general, and obviously a KS announced during a livestream watched by 100s of thousands of people will be even more frontloaded.

Here's another KS currently running:

Was there a "FUD campaign" against Bard's Tale which I missed?

Saying that the slowdown is to be blamed entirely on those issues is quite a strawman though. Of course, it is also baseless speculation to say it would have done MUCH better without such groundless negativity/hype deflating articles, but considering WHEN it happened, it is reasonable to say that the lack of those articles (not even mentioning those articles being hype building articles like we see plenty of for AAA games) should have produced stronger funding results.

 

[Kysen]

10mil for an open world game is a pipe dream, talk about unrealistic.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Yes, that's also what I believe happened.

... So with that said, can you say that the string of hype deflating unsubstantiated rumours written in article forms that also came just about that time window did not hurt the KS with a straight face ? Not saying they killed the project, but I do not think it would be fair that they did trivial damage either.

 

[GavinGT]

10mil for an open world game is a pipe dream, talk about unrealistic.

This isn't GTA V we're talking about. Shenmue I was open world even though the entire game world was probably about the size of ten football fields. Rather than sheer size, it's about being able to explore everything in a detail-rich environment.

 

[Panajev2001a]

This is something I don't understand and I've seen it so many times in shenmue threads. People who have successful kickstarters are obligated to give their backers the product or they may get sued. Are people purposefully being ignorant or what?

To be fair, following the motif of this thread, we should put their motives in doubt, be very suspicious about their comments... They must prove to us they are not hype deflating astroturfers. The onus is on then to prove they are not, isn't it ?

 

[Dremark]

I think it would be naive for Sony to expect a Kickstarter is going to seriously affect sales of a retail product. There is an overlap in the audience and certainly the diehard fans will be on the KS, though they are also the same people that might consider getting a second copy, so certainly 60k people on KS doesn't amount to 60k lost sales in the first place, but I would also argue, that if these people were the only ones buying this, then it would be unsustainable for a publisher to invest, so certainly you must expect you will sell several copies to the large number of people (as has been proven by KS again and again) that are not willing to back and are willing to support the game at launch.

However the sales potential of the title at launch is hampered by lower funding since the game has less things to sell in the end. Think of what Koch media did with Bloodstained. They are making tons of money on KS, they are releasing KS copies to backers, but through that finding they are ending up with a better product that will sell more than a product that hadn't hit all those stretchgoals. Successful KS campaigns are also able to keep some kind of fan momentum and hype after their end.

Of course I might be wrong and Sony just doesn't get it. Which I suppose wouldn't surprise me. All these things are very novel in the game industry. The PR nightmare surrounding this KS which should be completely avoidable and the mistrust it caused is proof of this as well.

I hope you do get your PS4 retail copy at launch, maybe this way I get the copy of the game I actually want to go with my $510 copy. I wish I could get you to contribute so that we get a better game but it is what it is.

I think it's more of matter of where the money goes than lost sales.

I totally understand where you're coming from, I was in a similar position in the Bloodstained thread talking with people who decided to wait it out for various reasons. Hopefully this hits what it has to in order to be the best game it can be.

10mil for an open world game is a pipe dream, talk about unrealistic.

They have outside funding as well.

 

[ranmafan]

This statement as been said like 4 or 5 times by different people now.

I still dont get how can anyone at this point still be confused. :/

I know what you mean, it's boggled my mind since day one too as I really don't get most of the so called video game "controversies" these days, but the fact is some people just never will understand or can't get the truth when it's said. People will be confused or believe what they want to believe, It happens. That's why myself and others have said today that hopefully Yu's word will help their confusion. If it doesn't I don't know what will. This whole thing has been way overblown in my opinion but sadly it is what it is and hopefully now it finally changes for everyone.

 

[Durante]

Saying that the slowdown is to be blamed entirely on those issues is quite a strawman though. Of course, it is also baseless speculation to say it would have done MUCH better without such groundless negativity/hype deflating articles, but considering WHEN it happened, it is reasonable to say that the lack of those articles (not even mentioning those articles being hype building articles like we see plenty of for AAA games) should have produced stronger funding results.

I feel like you're so emotionaly involved that you might be seeing something where there could well be nothing. "WHEN" it happened was exactly the point in time where every KS slows down, articles/controversy/whatever or not.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I feel like you're seeing something where there could well be nothing. "WHEN" it happened was exactly the point in time where every KS slows down, articles/controversy/whatever or not.

Fair enough, there could be nothing... there could be something .

 

[Dremark]

This isn't GTA V we're talking about. Shenmue I was open world even though the entire game world was probably about the size of ten football fields. Rather than sheer size, it's about being able to explore everything in a detail-rich environment.

If I remember correctly, in all fairness Shenmue was the most expensive game in history when it came out though.

That being said costs have dropped due to middleware and they have outside funding as well.

 

[Septic360]

Why is such a mega title like Shenmue being drip-fed via Kickstarter? Well its not really being drip fed because the whole gaming nation is donating their hemoglobin on this one but surely it would be better if Sony took the reigns and really funded it outright? Unless the studio really want to hold creative rights on this one maybe?

Sony seem to be taking the praise for doing relatively little in terms of the game's actual development.

Tbh, I don't mind because in the grand scheme of things, Shenmue 3 is ACTUALLY happening and I can say that without wearing a tinfoil hat on my head.

 

[Spaghetti]

Why is such a mega title like Shenmue being drip-fed via Kickstarter? Well its not really being drip fed because the whole gaming nation is donating their hemoglobin on this one but surely it would be better if Sony took the reigns and really funded it outright? Unless the studio really want to hold creative rights on this one maybe?

Sony seem to be taking the praise for doing relatively little in terms of the game's actual development.

Tbh, I don't mind because in the grand scheme of things, Shenmue 3 is ACTUALLY happening and I can say that without wearing a tinfoil hat on my head.

for one, sega still owns the IP. sony would never fund anything fully if they didn't won it. sega won't sell, but they've licenced it to yu suzuki because, well, they're hardly doing much with it.

 

[Surta]

If I remember correctly, in all fairness Shenmue was the most expensive game in history when it came out though.

That being said costs have dropped due to middleware and they have outside funding as well.

Yes, but what many people fail to realize when bringing up the original cost is that Shenmue was developed for the Sega Saturn. And it got quite far, not only covering Shenmue 1, but also what would later become Shenmue 2, perhaps even a bit more! Then the project was moved to the Dreamcast, and a lot of work had to be redone. Also, the team grew to a ridiculous size that nobody knew how to manage properly back then.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Dont care a bit about the Sony nonsense but uhh should Shenmue 3 really be open world?!? I do not think so.

 

[Erevador]

Dont care a bit about the Sony nonsense but uhh should Shenmue 3 really be open world?!? I do not think so.

I'm 99% sure that he just means open world in the way that previous Shenmue games were, as in large open areas where you could go in lots of buildings, talk to lots of people, and explore non-essential areas. Not Skyrim.

 

[GavinGT]

What I find interesting is that the $70 million price tag for Shenmue I was something Sega flaunted at the time of its release. It was supposed to get people excited, but it was a misleading figure in a lot of ways.

 

[Panajev2001a]

What I find interesting is that the $70 million price tag for Shenmue I was something Sega flaunted at the time of its release. It was supposed to get people excited, but it was a misleading figure in a lot of ways.

... brilliant strategy that backfired on the project, on its creator, and the series for many years afterwards.

 

[pixellated_man]

The lack of a physical ps4 version amongst the kickstarter stretch goals is deterring me to donate a lot of money. I am one of those people who prefers every game (besides cheap indie stuff) on disc, especially potentially great games which I would most likely keep in my collection. Of course, this game might not live up to it's heritage and turn out a disappointment and that's another reason why I always buy games on disc where there is the option. It gives me the opportunity to sell or exchange.
I will still donate some money - after all, the quality of the final product is dependent on funding. But I can see why some ps4 owners will feel less enthused to donate.

edit: of course this is not to say there won't be a ps4 physical disc published by (maybe) Sony. Just means I will have to pay again for the disc version.

 

[Erevador]

... brilliant strategy that backfired on the project, on its creator, and the series for many years afterwards.

The Dreamcast story is just a Shakespearean tragedy from beginning to end.

 

[Theonik]

... brilliant strategy that backfired on the project, on its creator, and the series for many years afterwards.

If the SEGA wasn't such a wreck and the Dreamcast hadn't went belly up as a result it wouldn't be a very strange strategy and in fact that kind of hype advertising has since been used a ton, mostly last gen. Sony was basically touting those huge expensive PS3 games that would go on to blow everyone's socks off cost all that unrealistic sums of money but were not coming out... You know maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all!

Spoiler

Perhaps this is why they stopped mentioning it because it seems consumers ended up becoming jaded and adverse to the real costs of game development in a pretty bizarre way as is evident in threads right here on GAF.

I think it's more of matter of where the money goes than lost sales.

It depends, it would of course be about lost sales at the end of the day Sony is looking to make money on those copies supposedly, and looking at the larger picture this direction is potentially a terrible financial decision. (they choose not to take a fairly low risk investment to make less money later)

 

[N.A]

Yu Suzuki doing a Twitch stream tomorrow: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3/posts/1274894

 

[Soi-Fong]

Yu Suzuki doing a Twitch stream tomorrow: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3/posts/1274894

Awesome Hoping Twitch puts this up on the front page tomorrow.

 

[GavinGT]

I'll be at work. Somebody please try to get a concrete answer about what he means by $10 million for a "truly open world", versus what the world will be like otherwise.

 

[Theonik]

I'll be at work. Somebody please try to get a concrete answer about what he means by $10 million for a "truly open world", versus what the world will be like otherwise.

Stop worrying about that and try to get to $10m. I mean it's the same as when Bloodstained was hyping what was in the basement what was beyond $4.5m what was in the basement.
Let's just get there. Coal in the burners and all that.