anyone not supporting it doesn't deserve to play the final product. I mean, the ones that refuse to support. I can understand being skeptical (time, budget, team developing) and those are realistic concerns. But, if you have extra money to spare, lay off fast food for a week and help support it if you have some interest in the game.

I have a save specifically for when I want to replay it because I consider it one of gamings biggest milestones and achievements.

Before, it always made me sad, but last night I did it for the first time with the knowledge we are getting Shenmue III, and it made me really, really happy. I was happy seeing all of these questions and stuff that I may actually get answers to. Shenhua talks about water buffalo, and life in Bailu, and the old lady who taught her how to sew, all this stuff that's hinted in 3 you think you'll never see ever. And we're fucking getting it. We're actually going to get it! \:D/ Every time I played this section of the game I had a sense of melancholy, but for the first time I could sit back and enjoy it in full without pressure that I will never get answers to my questions.

I highly suggest everyone else do the same. What an amazing experience! =D>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZm-HzCVzL4

Hello Shenmue Fans and soon to be Shenmue Fans!
Yu Suzuki will be doing a Twitch stream on Friday, June 26 at 7:00PM PDT (Saturday, June 27 2:00AM GMT).
There is lots of Shenmue to talk about, so look for the Twitch Channel link to be posted with the Update tomorrow.
Until then!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3/posts/1274894

Is he going to go through showing the old games and giving us a behind the scenes perspective do you think? Or do you think he might have some stuff to show of Shenmue 3?

Riku Rose wrote: Brilliant idea.

It actually is. Will be great exposure.

3AM UK time kinda sucks. I know it's the morning for Japan but it makes sense for Yu to do it of a night so more people in the west watch.

It's 3am? Ugh, even worse. At least it's not too late for the American audiences.
Definitely prime-time here on the West Coast in the US.

Looking forward to it! I think this is the best thing to happen to the campaign since the jacket. Hope it makes the front page of Twitch!

US prime time. Fair enough. I'm happy for our American friends. I'll pass on this one but maybe some one will record it. Next time, they might be able to do it at a little later time so the audience in Europe can watch it. :)

It will be instantly available as a VOD on twitch the second that the broadcast finishes. :)

I was thinking of an old YS interview and yeah, we know what rapport is.

He talks about it here:

JM: I play games to do things I can't do in real life. Do you think games have become too real? If you were to do Shenmue 3, for example, would you take the same approach and make it super realistic, or would you take a different approach?

YS: The concept for Shenmue 3 already exists, so... [Laughs] The world of Shenmue 1 and 2 expanded outward. So, for example, in the original games, of all the data used for dialogue in the game, the main characters' dialogue was about 20%. The remaining 80% was dialogue by characters other than the two main characters. But Shenmue 3 doesn't expand outward, but inward. A lot of the dialogue is used for the main character and especially dialogue with Shenhua. They talk about a lot of different, deeper things. For example, and I can't say too much, but here's an example.

This is not actually in the game, but as an example to give you an idea of what I mean by deeper dialogue, when Shenhua and Ryo are at home, Shenhua will ask Ryo if he would like to drink tea or coffee and the player will select one or the other. Or, Shenhua will ask Ryo a hypothetical question like: "There are four animals; a monkey, cat, dog and bird. You are crossing the river but you need to leave one behind. Which one will you leave behind?" And the player has to choose one. Shenhua will ask lots and lots of questions like these and the answers will get stored in the game and affect the outcome of the player's relationship with other characters. It's like a personality test. For example, the person who leaves behind the monkey is the type of person who leaves their wife.

TH: That's scary. [Laughs]

JM: So it's more organic, and very contextual. Personally, I would leave the bird behind. The bird can fly across the river.

YS: It's very deep. I think it will be very interesting if it happens.
http://www.1up.com/features/disappearance-suzuki-part-2

If you replay Shenmue II DISC 4 you can see this in its infancy. You have actual dialogue options in DISC 4, and Shenhua asks Ryo personal questions. It seems in 3, those questions get deeper, more personal, and affect how people react to you but it still sounds like a general continuation from what disc 4 already achieved.

At this point, it doesn't have to reach $10M, but the closest it is to $10M, the better. So we need to push the KS to it's limits.

For Christ's sake, could you please wait for the Kickstarter to finish, first? No offence here, but the panicking over here is starting to go over the top. Pour into the KS as much as you can, wait for it to finish. Await Ys Net's statement on it.

If, after July 18 you should still think we have made too little money, I reckon you will be warmly welcome to make your monthly contribution to Ys Net via Paypal.

Hi,

I don't think this has been posted on here yet but a UK gaming site called Gamecentral discussed Shenmue 3 with Jim Ryan. It's only been published today but looks like it was actually not long after the announcement as he's very evasive!

If you click on the link for the full interview he actually says FFVII and Shenmue have histories of successful publishing implying he's not concerned about their success whereas he is for Last Guardian which I found quite interesting.

GC: And speaking of Shemue III, were you implying that you were going to help fund the game yourselves as well? Because the original cost $70 million back in 2000, so $2 million today is clearly not going to go very far.

JR: No… I… don’t think there was any…

GC: You’re not helping out financially at all?

JR: No… well, there was no statement made about it. But that’s not to say that we’re not helping out.

GC: So if Yu Suzuki comes along and says he needs another $20 million in order to finish it, would you be open to that?

JR: That’s not what I’m saying.

GC: What kind of help are you contemplating then?

JR: All…

GC: If he came in begging on his knees saying, ‘Jim help me! The Tomato store needs more gashapon machines and I haven’t got the money to add them…’ Surely you wouldn’t turn him away?

JR: [laughs] I think last night should be taken at face value for what it was, which was an attempt to help the guy out – and obviously a game that’s hopefully gonna add value to our platform. But because there was no statement about us supporting it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the case.

GC: That’s fine. Okay, sorry I know I’m using up your valuable spare time. But great to speak to you, as always.

JR: I always like to find time for you, David.

Note: Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida recently clarified that Sony would ‘add funding and other support’ if Shenmue III’s Kickstarter was successful, which it has been. It seems obvious that Ryan knew this, but was hesitant of saying more unless their was an official statement.

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/06/25/ps4-boss-jim-ryan-e3-2015-interview-theres-always-a-lunatic-fringe-5266049/#ixzz3e648xaDv

Sounds like an interview I don't want to see, or read again.

Thief wrote: Either Ryo is gay or he isn't -- none of this PC everybody needs to be included crap.

Why not? What if you find out Shenhua is genderfluid or Lan Di is gay? It wouldn't effect the story at all. Big whoop! Try to be more open-minded, friend.

Peter wrote: Yea so basically this games gonna have none of that

with that attitude we wont. we need to get everyone involved with $30 on the third. please spread the word.

I am still baffled by languages consuming almost a fifth of the budgets finances. How about making the game to the best of its potential BEFORE adding in languages!! A lot of those countries speak English anyways!!

with that attitude we wont. we need to get everyone involved with $30 on the third. please spread the word.

It was a joke ffs. Away and have a Snickers.....

"11. Can you push Awesome Japan to cooperate with Shenmue Dojo on daily basis."

I think that might come across as rude.

The only thing I want to know is

"What size is the artbook?" I hope it's a full A4 artbook and not a little postbox sized one.

Alright then, if you want me to assume the mantle of Captain Obvious...


Man, I'm sorry, but that yellow makes this hard to read. Glad it's not like that in the editor. I thought I'd give my thoughts on these obvious ideas.

- YSNet should've spent more time on creating a short demo, not just Shenhua's poor attempt at a Blue Steel and jumping over a stream. Also, setting it in the cave would've been a bit more poignant. Give non-Shenmue fans a reason to pledge their hard-earned money, don't just expect them to.

I don't necessarily disagree, but you have no idea what kind of cost restraints they faced. With no money and little time, your expectation here (and elsewhere) might be a touch unrealistic. I could be wrong, but you should consider that everything they had might have been produced under very considerable constraints.

- To build on the previous point, the Kickstarter has done as well as it has solely based on the fact that it's Shenmue III. Finally. If Half-Life 3 or Timesplitters 3 also had to take to the site, then they also would've had non-fans donate money. It's an event, a milestone in gaming.

Agree 100%. Valve is a corporation with a couple billion in equity, and plenty of cash to spend. They would have done a great job, had a sweet demo, and some great marketing. Of course, they're a corporation with a couple billion in equity, so they wouldn't have to turn to kickstarter.

- Shenmue III was a big announcement, and it reached almost everyone who's into video games enough to know what E3 is. Awesome Japan should've realised this, and made plans to maintain momentum. The third will obviously lead to a temporary spike, and historical data points to the probability that it'll also see a big increase in the last few days, but they seem to be overly reliant on this.

You can't maintain momentum. Kickstarters spike, that's what they do. Pretty common with media. Jurrassic World's box office draw has been amazing, but its second weekend was like $100 million less than the first. The rabid fans contribute early, and there will be a spike right before it ends. You can't carry momentum all the way through. This, too, is an unrealistic expectation held by a fan. It would be awesome to see, but it's not a desire based on reality.


- One of the ways they could've done this was through a meta game. Don't expect fans to do the work for you. They should've approached it in a way that sees the fans constantly struggling to decide how much more they should pledge by adding a new tier or two every three to five days. Now, that may be the case of course, but their focus really needs to be on none-fans.

Pretty unrealistic, again, to expect non-fans to contribute significant amounts of money for a game they're going to have to wait 2.5 years for, when they don't even have a viable way to play the first 2. And don't say Emulators/buy a Dreamcast, how many non-fans are going to do that? If you think the number is large, I have a great bridge to sell you.

- It's great that they're trying to engage with the fans through polls, the Reddit AMA, etc., but why the hell are they not hammering out interviews with large media sites left, right and centre? They're already guaranteed our money, stop using us as a damn crutch, get out there and do some bleedin work!

They've been on Polygon, Engadget and some other pretty mainstream news sites. I guess they could do a bunch of different interviews that result in the same information being on those sites, but I don't think it would help very much. And I don't think they're going to get a "Daily Show" invite any time soon.

- I understand Suzuki setting the initial total at $2m. It's great that he said "no, I want them to have Shenmue III even if it's just a short game", but this should've been made clear from the very beginning. You had the stage at E3 ffs. Sony's stage. You had the biggest audience of next gen console gamers right in front of you. You should've bleedin said something!

Fair, and Yu seems to agree and has said as much. It was a mistake.

- The transparency issue. Almost everyone who knows of Shenmue knows about the whole fiasco behind the budget. This should've been addressed in the Kickstarter video. "We were given a huge budget to develop this game, as we had to create technology that didn't exist, we made it extremely detailed, individual footstep sounds, 3D scanners, meteorological data, it was split into two games, shit was more expensive back then, etc." Drive that point home, compare to how things have changed. Explain that Sony has advertising handled, so 100% of the Kickstarter funds make up the entirety of the game's actual production budget.

I never expected this to be an issue. Hindsight is 20/20, but they did say right from the start it was going to use the Unreal engine. Big time savings there. People just didn't realize that, and people love a good conspiracy story. With hindsight, they might have done something different here, but I bet you weren't thinking that on the first night, either.

- Simplified stretch goals. Why give the subtitles individual tiers? Just say "$3.5m gets all this", "$5m gets all that". The big leaps looks better value for money because of the sheer amount of content packed into each one.

Finally a point I actually agree with you on. Their stretch goals were dumb at first, and are only a little better now. That said, I still don't think it makes a difference. People were going to donate or they weren't. With good marketing now, there will be another spike at the end, and this will be the most well funded video game to date through Kickstarter. Hard to say they were bumbling fools that didn't know what they were doing if they make more money than anyone else had through the medium.

Back to the original point, I don't think it will/would impact money raised, but I was scratching my head at the goals, nonetheless.

- Replica jackets and mirrors should've definitely been in there from the start. Oh, you want both a Dragon and a Phoenix Mirror? Here's a new reward tier for that!

Well, they added them, so why be bitter now?

- For all the years Suzuki has had to design this game in his spare time (which apparently he has), he seems awfully unsure about a lot of things. This says to me that it's still in pre-production. He should've come into this with a very clear view on what he wants to include, and more importantly, how to implement it. Any other bells and whistles can be voted on by the backers, sure, but the core elements of the game? C'mon san.

I am not sure that he didn't, but he could communicate this a bit better, I agree. I mean, we're the kind-sorta investors, after all.

- Shenmue is an Eastern franchise. It's very Japanese. Whatever. That doesn't mean that you market it to a Western audience via an Eastern-based promotional company. The decision to do this is a massive oversight and terribly naïve.

Fair.

- Little to no presence. They appear on Kickstarter's most popular. Yu Suzuki and Shenmue III are on Twitter. The game has a website. These are all the places they're expected to be, and that's good, but why the hell haven't they branched out? Okay, sure, this one's a little tricky, but there should have been agreements made with both Sony and SEGA to throw in a little bit more of an extra presence. Facebook ads, banner ads, cross-promotion, etc. Right now it seems like only the fans, Corsi and Boyes are the only ones who give a shit.

ROI, the fans are the people that are going to pay. You could fork out TONS of money and lose it because if you aren't a fan, you aren't donating to the Kickstarter. Period. You're dreaming if you think otherwise

- The blatant potential of bad publicity... that was fulfilled. How the hell did they not see any of this coming? Kickstarter as a platform's been under a lot of scrutiny since before the campaign was launched. Why was nothing done to subvert this? Where were the contingency plans? The PR team's fucking useless.

Not sure they have a PR team, I doubt they could afford it. Or they wouldn't have to go to Kickstarter. And Sony wasn't about to drop a ton of money before they saw there was real potential here. So now they've stepped in, and there's cleanup being done. I still think you're benefiting from hindsight a touch here.

- Less of the corporate responses. Every reply to fan questions so far say nothing. Either answer properly or don't fucking answer at all.

Now you want it both ways. You want a PR team, but you don't want corporate responses. What do you think you get from a PR team?

Been a while since I've posted, but I'm back to combat what I see as EXTREMELY unrealistic expectations from what has been a loud, but TINY group for the last 14 years. Sega tried this shit, and it sold pretty well, but for a dying system. Then Microsoft put money in to it, and didn't get a good ROI. Now people think that it should be a AAA title 14 years later, with some demo made out of thin air, and a corporate marketing and PR team behind it. Gotta get real on this. It wasn't going to happen.

Related to that, your "I'd wait until 2020 for the 'right' game," is an odd mantra. We can't know the counter-factual, but I can promise you that, as you drift even further from the original's launch date, you aren't going to suddenly get MORE invested in it. I am pretty shocked we're getting anything. Wait until 2020 and the Kickstarter would probably do worse, and Sony probably wouldn't be marketing it, and some shell of a company would be developing it for a phone.

You have to remember that funds raised through Kickstarter are heavily taxed, and on top of that Kickstarter also takes a cut. Them reaching $10 million doesn't mean they have $10 million to work with.

So, over the years, my sporadic 'Shenmue 3' google search often yielded a hit from metro.co.uk. Their Games Inbox, which I think is posted twice daily, is a collection of reader submissions. Usually anything Shenmue related was rather negative in nature, and it definitely seemed like those who run the blog aren't fans either based on some of their responses and just the mere fact they frequently post about Shenmue and it's usually in a bad light. Anyway, I wrote in a response this morning after reading yet another downer post about Shenmue's kickstarter. Here's the post I responded to:

I don’t know If you’ve been following it day-to-day, but the Kickstarter for Shenmue III basically seems to have stalled. It may have broken records at first, but it’s been hovering around $3.5 million for days now and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Any chance of making it to $10 million seems to be out of the window and it’ll probably struggle to make $5 million.
I know that’s still a lot of money but I do wonder whether the popularity of the game was overstated a bit. It seems to me it’s more a meme and in-joke than anything else. I actually played the first one again recently and it is really pretty bad: awkward controls, terrible dialogue, pointlessly easy combat, and a story that goes nowhere.
That doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I do admire its ambition a lot, but I can’t imagine myself sitting down to actually play the whole thing again. I’m curious to hear from other readers that have also played it recently and what they honestly thought of it. To me it was a niche game back in the day and it’s probably going to be a niche game now too.
Iceman

And here's my response which was put in the evening edition:

Speaking on behalf of Shenmue fans everywhere: We get it it. You guys don’t like Shenmue.
In the past couple of years, typing Shenmue in the little Google searchbox to see if there was any buzz has usually yielded nothing more than an occasional outlandish rumour – or some Metro Games Inbox blurb about how overrated the game is.
Now that the sequel’s been announced, you’d think Metro would back off a little bit and let the game’s fans have their moment, but already I’ve seen a couple snippets about how hard it is to understand that people actually love this game.
Granted, no one’s trolling per se, and all opinions are valid, but still: give it a rest. All Kickstarters stall in the middle. It’ll get a rush at the end, and I’m confident it will reach a solid $5 million – a huge success, by all means. As a fan who has yet to make his pledge but certainly will be before the end of the campaign, I’m perfectly content with how this is panning out, and I look forward to see where it ends up.
The stretch goals are ambitious – but ambition is the first word that comes to mind when you consider Shenmue. Sure, I’d love to see this soar to $11 million, and though unlikely, after last Monday’s announcement I will say this: anything is possible. It’s been 10 days and I’m still basking in the glow of this unexpected announcement – and I haven’t played video games seriously since, well – Shenmue II on Xbox. This series very effectively dulled my appetite for gaming, because to me, it’s just that good.
So let us fans who have stuck this out for 15 years continue to bask – and perhaps Metro can stay quiet about their distaste for Shenmue for a while.
Michael Chenard


Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/06/26/games-inbox-mass-effect-andromeda-hopes-shenmue-debate-and-ghost-recon-wildlands-5268218/#ixzz3eCgXiSvl

I don't think I was too off-the-mark: Definitely seems like there's a disproportionate amount of anti-Shenmue rhetoric on this blog, although I don't really follow it, or gaming news at all, in general. Has anyone else ever noticed this? I do think there's no reason for the negativity when us starving Shenmue fans have a 30 day window for redemption.

Regardless, I encourage you all to send in your praises for Shenmue!

Being European I got Shenmue 2 (and it is better with subtitles), plus it allowed Shenmue 2 to expand it's audience on a new console. If it hadnt been re-released it would have been one of the last games on a dead system and would have been mostly ignored (or atleast more so). There was no guaranty that Sega would have released it on the xbox, PS2, Gamecube without his involvement.... We can't have our cake and eat it..

Yeah, that's always been my take on it. People just wanted someone to blame for Shenmue's fate and so they blame it on Peter Moore, when really it was just one of those things. SEGA was on the verge of dying before the merger (which was more like a takeover) with Sammy and Moore being a fan of Shenmue whilst also being former SEGA personnel wanted to bring Shenmue to a larger audience than what was on Dreamcast (which by the point of Shenmue 2's EU release, was definitely small). At the time, it would seem like a way to "save" Shenmue. Shenmue fans sure can be wiser after the fact, but at the time it seemed like the right fit for Shenmue. It would have been nice if SEGA still bartered a way to release 2 for those outside Europe on the Dreamcast too, but SEGA was probably pretty desperate at the time and just took whatever offer came their way. Even if Shenmue 2 did "bomb" on Xbox, it still reached a larger audience (some members on here will testify to that) than it would have being left on Dreamcast to die a "noble death" with the chances of Shenmue 3 ever being released even lower than what we have now.

The vilifying of Peter Moore is just silly to me, sorry.

We learned from the twitch stream that we will in fact b confronting the 4 bosses in shenmue 3. We know that each boss represents a cardinal pole ie north south east west. Do you think that these directions refer to the possible 4 entrances to the chi you men base in baisha?


Will we get the showdown with land di?


I think just in my opinion of course

Hopefully going to each one if a rewarding expeirence and have many missions and advancements without too much talking and back tracking. Hopefully more missons and a bit more fighting where it makes sense.

I think it would be great to fight Lan Di, even if you win there should be some cut scene where he simply thrashes you and you are still on your way to future revenge.



I think getting to a point in sh3 where ryo feels he is about to confront di and have his revenge is a good plot piece. Simply leaving ryo beat and broken down would also be a good story piece and a good movement for SH4

I feel that Lan di should really destroy ryo in a fight, sort of like that rocky stuff lol

I mean, he should almost basically kill him, break him, destroy him. Building your self back to strength to face him in the future would make for an epic game. I hope Yu has such a thing planned over the course of the story


Beat him phsyically but more importantly mentally. Make him question his quest, make him return home to work as a teacher or question his very being.

No offense intended, but that would be dumb and pretty much confirm Shenmue 3 as a commercial failure.

I can't see where that last line helps at all, why say it . I mean, it will only drive a negative feeling in others to have the same feeling. That's how people work, let's just try our best to reach the goals we want. Why not

It's plenty helpful. It's especially helpful for me so that I no longer get emotionally attached to a game that may or may not be shit. After a long line of years waiting - pretty much a decade in my case - I am coming to terms with the honest to God truth: that Shenmue is cursed. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. If the game turns out well, fine. That'll be nice. But at current trajectory, given every single bit of evidence thrown at the wall, it isn't. And I refuse - REFUSE - to be emotionally attached to a game I've been waiting a decade for that turns out to be shit.
So I assume that you will be leaving then, yes?

If that's what you want.

Right, but to be fair a few weeks back we'd have taken a damn 2D side scroller or a manga, now we're giving up before development even starts? I understand your frustration, I share it. But this is definitely going to be a marathon and we haven't even gotten out of the box yet, it's no time to give up. The leaving part over a disagreement with two people was especially silly though, no offense. Just relax, one way or another it can only go up from here, let's do what we do.

Hey y'all - I think it's time for some perspective for how successful this kickstarter has been, all things considered.

1) First off, against all odds we are finally getting Shenmue III! Holy shit, we've been waiting for this for 14 years! We've remained rabid fans for this entire time and many of you have been going nuts getting the word out, getting a social media presence, bombarding anyone you can to share your love of the game. This is easily the craziest gaming community (and I mean that in a good way, of course :-P). We were the fastest game to reach $1M and $2M!

2) The success of the kickstarter is even more impressive when you consider Shenmue III is only on two platforms. Mighty No. 9 is on ten platforms, and Bloodstained is on seven. That pretty significantly limits the amount of potential pledges you can get. If there was going to be an Xbone version of Shenmue III, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that pledges could be up around an extra 15-20% (meaning, we'd currently be at around $4.5M funding and 55K backers). Considering this, it's still very possible we end up getting more funding than Bloodstained to become the most funded kickstarter game ever. That's pretty fucking awesome!

3) The number of backers != total number of pre-orders or sales. The average gamer is not like "us". There are a bunch of people who are skeptical about kickstarter and really don't see the point of putting in $30 for a game two and a half years before release. I have a few friends who are Shenmue fans who were super pumped for the announcement but haven't yet backed the project, and probably won't, but they'll buy the game at release.

For me personally, this is the first game I backed on kickstarter. I'm a big Tim Schafer/Double Fine fan, but I didn't back their kickstarter and ended up buying Broken Age upon release. I didn't back Bloodstained or Mighty No. 9, but will probably get those when they come out, too. This will probably be the only game I back on kickstarter as well (unless Shenmue IV gets a kickstarter!).

4) I would argue that while the kickstarter announcement at E3 helped the overall numbers, it also made us reach a saturation point much sooner. I believe without the on stage announcement we would have overall similar numbers to what we have now (maybe slightly less, but not significantly), but the numbers would have increased more steadily. Remember, people are still able to remove their pledges, so even if they pledge during the super duper E3 hype, they're still able to view the project from a distance once the hype dies down, so they're not a victim of an impulse buy.

5) We're not even at the midway point of the Kickstarter. We still have the $30 on the 3rd campaign and are awaiting more reward tiers. Maybe we get a PS4 physical release and a Paypal option. It's fine if we don't hit $10M - they'll figure something out. The success of this campaign could help ease investor risk, so it's possible the money is covered elsewhere (a post KS paypal option probably covers the rest, honestly). I don't think, in the grand scheme of things, an expertly run kickstarter campaign makes a huge difference (and let's not turn this into a topic about "that"). Let's continue to do our best spread the word. Remember that Bloodstained received $1.5M in pledges the last two days, so don't be too discouraged that things have died down a bit (also see point #4 again!)

So considering all these points, I would argue that in the end I'll consider this to be the most successful video game kickstarter - even if we fall just short of Bloodstained (though I'm still optimistic we'll hit around $6M).

Positive vibes - let's get sweaty!

Good to see ya back Bellator
And gawd yes, let's try and be positive here, people. Yes, the KS could be being handled a lot better, but we've still got a little while to go yet...

I agree. The thing is the PR is vital to this and they started with a bang by opening infront of millions of viewers live at Sony's E3 conference, what happened afterwards was a completely unworthy follow up to such a fantastic start.

Bloodstained brought in a lot of outside the community gamers by making the Kickstarter a fantastic experience, making backers feel how unique and historical that moment was. This KS gives us very dry updates and has not done a good job on making the stretch goals exciting or hyped, for the most part people just feel discouraged that they're out of reach.

To get this out of the way, I agree that Awesome Japan is doing a poor job, but what's a realistic expectation for how much extra funding a flawlessly run kickstarter campaign can generate for Shenmue III? I don't know the answer (and to be fair, no one else does), but I just can't see newcomers putting in anything above the $5-30 tiers, and I think it's even more realistic that they'll wait until the games release since they haven't played S1 and S2. Do people think a well run campaign would get us to $11M by the end of the kickstarter?

I think the best option, as mentioned by many before, is to have a paypal option post-kickstarter (and it's really the only option to reach that amount of crowd-sourced funding). There are a bunch of fans who will contribute monthly, it will allow newcomers the time to catch up on S1 and 2 (especially if there's ever a re-release), and progress and previews of the game can be shown to newcomers, which might get them to donate to the development of the game.

I maybe haven't been as negative as others but find quite a few things not very positive either. You mentioned a few things that I had also been thinking about.


2) The success of the kickstarter is even more impressive when you consider Shenmue III is only on two platforms.
Yeah, and the game is also from a period when gaming wasn't as mainstream so sales weren't as they are now. It pissed me off when I saw comments about Shenmue's awful sales. What they didn't think about is that games selling over 1 million were seen as best-selling games. Even huge games like MGS3 and God of War were in a 2-4 million range on PS2. The Platinum series for example started from 400 000 copies sold.

3)The number of backers != total number of pre-orders or sales.
Yeah, Divinity : Original Sin had around 20 000 backers and sold 500 000 from what I read. This being an old school turn based RPG.

4)I would argue that while the kickstarter announcement at E3 helped the overall numbers, it also made us reach a saturation point much sooner.
Likely. And the fanbase is maybe more invested compared to other a few other franchises on Kickstarter leading to this peak.

5)It's fine if we don't hit $10M - they'll figure something out. The success of this campaign could help ease investor risk, so it's possible the money is covered elsewhere (a post KS paypal option probably covers the rest, honestly).
I was also thinking that they maybe could figure something out during development. Be it Paypal or maybe some more support from Sony or other investors if they're close to a huge milestone. As Jeff pointed out, it's possible that they get funding depending on the Kickstarter amount.

All in all, what bugs me is not the fact that it's bad in itself but that there might be more potential.
PS Hi Bellator.

2 words - Yu Suzuki.

That's who's hands this project is in. With the original members of the Shenmue series to date. This will look like a Shenmue game. Feel like a Shenmue game. Sound like a Shenmue game. Have environments like a Shenmue game.

I don't give a shit what the final amount is, the money will come from somewhere. The litmus test of the Kickstarter has been successful, with all sorts of records set once again by the franchise. We are all gonna set Shenmue 3, with boxes of Shenmue goodies delivered to our door to boot. Id day it's a safe assumption that Sega will want to grab the easy money and release Shenmue and Shenmue HD in 2016. I'd hazard a guess it's already been green lit. Why wouldn't it?? Sega have money there waiting to be given to them!

It's a fucking fantastic time to be a Shenmue fan, the best time ever! From Kikizo articles, to darkness. From "we'll see" and "I think Sega will let me make it". From photos of Suzuki looking tired and dejected, to photos of forklifts and him walking onto the Sony stage to the fanfare of Sedge Tree. Fuck "we only made 8.5k", and "ooohhh well Bloodstained....". Fuck some goober acting a pillock on camera for an hour!

Sorry for the language but rant over!

It's Shenmue 3!!!!!

I'm going to withdraw my pledge. Awesome Japan 1 and 2 were amazing games. But I am getting the vibe Awesome Japan 3 just won't be good at all.

And I haven't even pledged yet.

To be fair, at least Awesome Japan are quite good when it comes to responding to user messages. I've sent a couple of questions and received answers relatively quickly. And they also seem willing to listen to our advice and feedback. Good job with the questions.

On an unrelated note, is it respectful to call Yu Suzuki "Mr.Suzuki" instead of "Suzuki-San"? (I know very little about Japanese culture so hopefully I'm not coming off as too ignorant)

When I read that, I pictured him answering them in the exact same style as he presented the Twitch videos...

You and me both. :)

But, still, this guy has a lot of weight on his shoulders. While he could certainly do something about his behavior on the Twitch video, I wouldn't want to be where he is.

Thanks. Great job. Kudos to Joel Tess for replying. =D>

The line about "how much voicing there will be" is remarkable indeed. I wonder if it means the game will not be fully voiced this time but maybe have voice acting for cutscenes only. Kind of Yakuza-style. Well, it would be a step down of course, but I guess I could live with it. It worked fine with Yakuza.

Or does it mean they will either drop the English or the Japanese dub? Personally, I'd be fine without the English dub, but I'm not sure if it's gonna backfire sales-wise in the long run.

I made attempts at contacting the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter team regarding the explanation of stretch goals, new rewards, VO choice and budget, redoing the video campaign, the reason for the choice of multiple playable characters and how to reel in the general gaming community when most never even heard of the first two games.

My plead yielded the following reply:


Hello,

Very sorry for not getting back sooner! Ok, here we go:
Stretch Goals - Thank you! We are working on it! Trying to be more specific with the SGs and will try to get the explanations moved over. Mr. Suzuki does not want to get too deep without giving all the story away!
Mirrors - Trying!
Video - Still very early development, so there is not much game footage yet. As for scene requests... I think we will have to leave that up to Mr. Suzuki. Again can't give away the story!
At the current stage of funding, it is still hard to know how much voicing there will be. There have been lots of comments for language switching and Mr. Suzuki is aware of the situation.
Why multiple characters? Mr. Suzuki has stated this is one of the things that he really wants to do with Shenmue 3. Will definitely let him know though!
Why care about Shenmue 3? Got it. You are very right. Top priority now getting the message across. We will have the page updated soon.
More rewards? Yes working on them now. Thank you for the ideas!

Thank you very much, please keep your ideas coming, because they will keep us going forward.

Joel &
the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Team


PS. I did not question the integrity of the work done by his team, because I believe it's counter-productive and unnecessary at this point.

I made attempts at contacting the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter team regarding the explanation of stretch goals, new rewards, VO choice and budget, redoing the video campaign, the reason for the choice of multiple playable characters and how to reel in the general gaming community when most never even heard of the first two games.

My plead yielded the following reply:


Hello,

Very sorry for not getting back sooner! Ok, here we go:
Stretch Goals - Thank you! We are working on it! Trying to be more specific with the SGs and will try to get the explanations moved over. Mr. Suzuki does not want to get too deep without giving all the story away!
Mirrors - Trying!
Video - Still very early development, so there is not much game footage yet. As for scene requests... I think we will have to leave that up to Mr. Suzuki. Again can't give away the story!
At the current stage of funding, it is still hard to know how much voicing there will be. There have been lots of comments for language switching and Mr. Suzuki is aware of the situation.
Why multiple characters? Mr. Suzuki has stated this is one of the things that he really wants to do with Shenmue 3. Will definitely let him know though!
Why care about Shenmue 3? Got it. You are very right. Top priority now getting the message across. We will have the page updated soon.
More rewards? Yes working on them now. Thank you for the ideas!

Thank you very much, please keep your ideas coming, because they will keep us going forward.

Joel &
the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Team


PS. I did not question the integrity of the work done by his team, because I believe it's counter-productive and unnecessary at this point.

I wish I had his energy, he seems like a very happy person. Maybe a bit awkward but that's okay. Public relations is a tough field with a discerning clientele... I'm very surprised to see someone so accommodating in the business. Usually you have to own a Cessna to get a comprehensive response. I wouldn't make too much fun of him; he could probably falcon punch a guy in the kidneys. Maybe.

To be fair, at least Awesome Japan are quite good when it comes to responding to user messages.

Horseshit. I emailed them on Kickstarter, after no response, sent them an email to their website, after no response I sent them a tweet to their Twitter account and....... no response.

I think there's close to 50,000 people who feel the same way. Most of the questions are pretty redundant so it'll probably be in the updates. But if you're asking about that Victorian velvet and lace codpiece for Ryo at the $11M tier, then by all means carry on.

Its not meant to. It's meant to be a bonus for those who have pledged and keep them informed of how the progress is going and if development is on track.

I for one enjoy these updates. Speak for yourself.

Neither "big" nor "today."

Hey, OP, you should write headlines for IGN.

Even if small, it's effecting the campaign in some way. People love to think they're on the inside of information, the ignorant believe in conspiracy theorist ramblings that 2+2=5, throw them a bone and they'll go after it. The second the mainstream gets a hold of information like this, they think they know better and see it as another major corporation trying to screw them. Again, even if small, every bit counts and this is definitely a negative that we don't need. The point that it's still occurring is baffling.

I am so sick and tired of seeing people moan saying, 'Wah I'm not gonna pledge cos I wanted it on Xbox!'

Yeah, if Shenmue 3 isn't a good enough reason to buy a console, then I don't know what is.
Hell, I'd buy a PS4 for this, even if this was the only game on it.

Wait America didn't get Shenmue II on the Dreamcast? Eh!?

That does seem strange. What's worse is the Dreamcast was a dying console and while the original Xbox was a success it didn't sell nearly enough as the Playstation 2. If only SEGA released it on the Playstation 2, imagine that, it would have sold a lot more and generally the Playstation crowd are usually more receptive of these types of titles.

SEGA really messed up the chances this franchise had.

Yeah I imagine the game running at laughable resolutions, plenty of jaggies and with N64's texture quality, thank god it never released on that system.

WTF that girl is 16 ??

Thank allah that the goverment can't read my mind (yet).

Why is the site Shenmue.link and not Shenmue.com????
Because Shenmue.com belongs to SEGA. Only one way to take this domain - buy it from SEGA.

Why is there no physical PS4 edition?????
Because they need a lot of paper work to do it. And dont forget about fees for SONY and third-party companies.

This is obviously due to the poor campaigning from Awesome Japan, the disgraceful and disgusting clickbait gaming journalism and partly SONY.
Its really hard to promote campaigin, because a lot of ppl who was intersted already backed. They showed Kickstarter on E3 stage. So almost all gamers knows about SIII, and who wonted already backed.

Its become apparent that The kickstarter has stalled significantly.

I see this alot, and I really wonder what expectations people actually have?
continuous growth at 100k per day minimum? a nice smooth graph climb to 11million?

Do people not realise that shenmue is a small fanbase and MANY external influences exist that affect a kickstarter?

Most people that played shenmue are prolly 30 fucking years or older now, they might not even know kickstarter EXISTS let alone know there is shenmue3 going on.