Shenmue Dojo

Dear Members,

As many of you know, last week was a week that will go down in history for our community. After 14 years of waiting and hoping, it was revealed by Yu Suzuki himself that he is finally in a position to move forward with the creation of Shenmue 3, albeit with a bit of a caveat. Through the announcement of a Kickstarter campaign, Suzuki-San as asked us the fans to help bring his dream, as well as ours, to life by backing and supporting a campaign to help fund the development of the project. While there are various entities supporting this project, Suzuki-san himself has stated that that the fate of Shenmue 3 now rests in our hands and that our actions as a community will dictate the capabilities his team will have in creating the game and to ideally meet its full creative potential.

If you have not already done so, please visit the campaign website and take some time to consider the extent to which you would be willing and able to support this project; note that there are a range of pledge levels with corresponding reward tiers for every single level of backing. As the campaign progresses, there will also be added levels of support to coincide with stretch funding goals as they are introduced. All of the funds that are pledged will be allocated to and utilized SOLELY by YSNET to develop the game.

Contrary to a lot of the dubiously sourced misinformation that has been circulating in recent days, Sony will NOT be funding the entire budget for the game nor will they subsidizing the development costs for YSNET. While Sony will provide various technical investments in conjunction with marketing and promotional support, this project will remain firmly in the directorial hands of Yu Suzuki and his staff. While it is true that there are a number of backers for Shenmue 3, we at this time do not know the scope of how these other entities are involved with the project. All that we can establish for now is that we as a community are in fact the primary patrons for the development of the game and that the responsibility of making Shenmue 3 the strongest game it can be ultimately resides with us.

Over the next few weeks leading up to the conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign, we will be introducing two specific social-media based initiatives to promote the backing of the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter and the series as a whole. The first initiative, #30onthe3rd, is a continuation of our monthly tweetathon #SaveShenmue but with a twist. On 7/3/2015, we encourage everyone to who is able to increase their pledge amount by $30 and post a corresponding tweet as a sign of solidarity within the community. The 2nd initiative, #10MillionToShenmue3, is a hashtag campaign to be disseminated across all social media platforms to highlight the need for additional funding for Shenmue 3 in order have it be the project that Yu Suzuki has dreamed of creating. In a recent interview, Suzuki-san stated that at a $10 million funding level Shenmue 3 would feature a truly open world that would follow in the lineage of the previous installments.

The time has finally come for us in the Shenmue community to support the series that has given us so much over years. We are now in a position where we can directly impact and influence the creation of Shenmue 3 and give Suzuki-san our direct input While the task at hand may seem daunting, if we come together and collaborate our efforts we will attain the game that we have wanted and deserved for so long. Thank you all very much for your support and we would not be in the position we are in now if it was not for your perseverance and dedication for the series against all odds. We have truly made it.

Keep friends,

The Shenmue Dojo Staff

Wow thanks for that text...very well written and brilliant. I will sure as hell put more money soon and on the 3rd of July as well.

Nevertheless, I would like to say that the communication strategy regarding Shenmue 3's Kickstarter is very stupid. They first led us to believe that 2 millions were enough to create the game. Wasn't that what you all thought when the Kickstarter campaign started last week? That all we needed to do was to reach the fucking 2 millions and that everything else, by a way or another, will be taken care of? It definitely wasn't written black on white that the 2 millions were not enough to offer a complete game to the fans.

That's misrepresentation.

Then, when you put the number of 2 millions into fans's head what do you think will happen? People will finance the project in order to reach that 2 millions goal. And as you can see the total amount is at 3.5 millions now...not too far from 2.5...If instead they would have stipulate "higher is your participation better is the game" with no numbers at all I'm sure that the amount would be more than 3.5 millions by now.

Look at all the problems it creates. They were not professional and they now ask for more money. But a lot of folks already contributed and probably won't want to put more money. Their strategy was pretty lame and now compromises the quality of Shenmue 3.

To be honest I'm not really sure about the 10 million being spat out to non shenmue fans. It looks like even if they back the game it won't get made or it will be unfinished.

Some guys just know shenmue for being "that expensive game" or not even that, telling them that the game needs almost 3 times of what is now at would not feel very appealing to them.

DomLou wrote: If instead they would have stipulate "higher is your participation better is the game" with no numbers at all I'm sure that the amount would be more than 3.5 millions by now.

My thoughts exactly.

Yama, you should definitely contact Team Yu, ShenmueMaster and all other sites in order to organize a massive contribution on July 3rd.

shredingskin wrote:

DomLou wrote: If instead they would have stipulate "higher is your participation better is the game" with no numbers at all I'm sure that the amount would be more than 3.5 millions by now.

My thoughts exactly.

That's not how Kickstarter works. A "kickstart" gets a project going in a certain direction. We've done that. There will be a Shenmue III. Now we've got to keep the project moving and make the most of it we can.

The $2 million was a "something is better than nothing" target. People saying that number should have been higher have an "all or nothing" philosophy which frankly was not working for Shenmue fans after 14 years. We wanted at least something, anything.

You can tell us to take our something and be happy with it, but don't tell us we're being dishonest or wrong or unprofessional, and certainly don't tell us Sony is already fully funding tens of millions of dollars into this game to make it open world like the original but that's not even close to true.

DomLou wrote:Nevertheless, I would like to say that the communication strategy regarding Shenmue 3's Kickstarter is very stupid. They first led us to believe that 2 millions were enough to create the game. Wasn't that what you all thought when the Kickstarter campaign started last week? That all we needed to do was to reach the fucking 2 millions and that everything else, by a way or another, will be taken care of? It definitely wasn't written black on white that the 2 millions were not enough to offer a complete game to the fans.

That's misrepresentation.

As a Sega fan who has been watching events unfold ever since Shenmue 3 was announced at E3 I have to step-in here, it's wrong and ultimately self-sabotaging for any supporter of this project to claim misrepresentation. When all is said and done Shenmue 3 is going to exist, this is a fact, the result of successfully meeting the 2 million minimum funding goal. So, we should all be right pleased at this success, to already achieve what Shenmue's detractors said was impossible even a week ago. Now it's simply a matter of making Shenmue 3 the best game that it can possible be.

To that end, I think that that it was perfectly reasonable for Yu Suzuki to take about wanting hit 10 million as his dream stretch-funding goal. Because Yu Suzuki is an ambitious man, always striving to make the greatest games possible given the limitations of available resources, even since his earliest days at Sega when he made classics like Out Run and After Burner. Honestly, I admire Yu Suzuki's ambition and I trust that he will make Shenmue 3 the best game possible with whatever amount of money we can provide for the project.

Yu Suzuki wants 10 million? That's awesome! I want to do everything in my power to make that goal possible, for the sake of Shenmue 3 and the legacy of the Dreamcast. I've personally put forward $600 for the Kickstarter project, which is as much as my finances will allow this month; although I will see if I can contribute even more towards the end of the campaign. Regardless, I know that whatever happens in the next few weeks the future of the Shenmue franchise is already in safe hands. I think that 5 million+ is quite an achievable goal and already more than enough to make the Shenmue 3 we have all been waiting for.

Of course, this Kickstarter is far from over. With a little perseverance and all-out push in the last couple days, that 10 million might still be reachable after all. Last week we already achieved the seemingly impossible when Shenmue 3 was announced. We can do so again in 24 days’ time.

Thank you for this. Thank you so much.

I will do all in my power to make this a reality.

Phong wrote:

shredingskin wrote:

DomLou wrote: If instead they would have stipulate "higher is your participation better is the game" with no numbers at all I'm sure that the amount would be more than 3.5 millions by now.

My thoughts exactly.

That's not how Kickstarter works. A "kickstart" gets a project going in a certain direction. We've done that. There will be a Shenmue III. Now we've got to keep the project moving and make the most of it we can.

The kickstarter should be marketing the game and creating hype so more people back, it's a different approach to say "every step is a step to a better Shenmue" than to say "we actually need 10 million" (specially to non fans).

The same goes with the stretchgoals I think, we were so happy that it reached 2 million, and then they go with a list to 5 million (pretty much the biggest kickstarter made), the stretches should have been managed more slowly, like we are accomplishing things. Now we have 500k till the next stretchgoal (at a time that the last day was 44k). And even the same day it was announced they said that there'll be more (we all know that, but you can create more anticipation with closer stretchegoals and revealing them at the right time).

shredingskin wrote: The kickstarter should be marketing the game and creating hype so more people back, it's a different approach to say "every step is a step to a better Shenmue" than to say "we actually need 10 million" (specially to non fans).

This week is no different to when Shenmue 3 was announced. The purpose of the Kickstater has always been to generate as much money as possible for Shenmue 3. It's just now we have 10 million as the ultimate stretch goal, something we can all strive for even as the minimum funding goal has already been achieved.

Humbled!

I'll be doing the $30 on the 3rd (I will actually be donating more than $30, I'm looking to try and up it by $100 to a total of $730 for now) and am already tweeting/hashtagging everything Shenmue Kickstarter related like mad!

Thank you so much, Yama!

Beautiful post, Yama Will be doing everything I can.

Great message Yama. This is a very important time for us all.

#SaveShenmue and #10MillionToShenmue3 are very important, but #30onthe3rd is our most imperative goal.

If you haven't pledged yet, do atleast $30. You want the game anyways right? This is your pre-order and then some.

If you already pledged and want a better game, give another $30 if you can so we have an organized unified push that sends a clear message to everyone, all while reinvigorating the middle lull period of this kickstarter.

This is Shenmue 3.
Let's make it worth the wait.

it maybe a good idea to change/modify the main background of the dojo to display the next most prominent campaign - ie. kickstarter logo with '$30 on the 3rd' hashtag . this prominent display is then a constant reminder to people browsing the dojo, and forums.

would also be nice if this kickstarter logo or hashtag directly links to the kickstarter page.

nicely written, yama, thank you! it's so awesome to wake up, everyday, to a world in which shenmue III has become reality. i'm soooo, so happy about this. i'll definitely add another 30-60 dollars on the third, and then some more towards the end of the kickstarter, depending on how much money i'll have left for the rest of july by then. still hoping for a paypal option to be able to keep contributing on a monthly basis.

if you haven't pledged yet, please do so. this is our one chance, and we have waited 14 long years. we need everyone that's able to help.

SHENMUE 3!!

What are the chances of getting Awesome Japan to adopt our $30 on the 3rd? They really need to push that in one of their updates. The Dojo really needs to get(if it doesn't already have) the contact info of a warm body in Awesome Japan in the event we need to get in touch with them. They should really be working in conjunction with the Dojo, 500k and the other main fangroups.

We need each other.