What do you think we will see in this month's update

[Valascaziel]

I wouldn't peg it at 100%, but it is highly likely they will show something at E3.

I expect reasonably large presence for Shenmue III, FFVII:Remake and most likely the world reveal of the Resident Evil 2 Remake.

Perhaps the lack of updates is so they have enough time to get far enough along for a powerhouse trailer for E3 2017. Isn't the development team for Shenmue III relatively small?

[Sappharad]

I wouldn't peg it at 100%, but it is highly likely they will show something at E3.

I expect reasonably large presence for Shenmue III

Not going to happen. I don't know what you mean by large, but if by large you mean small, then maybe but I still think it's unlikely. Having a large presence at any event requires money, and if you've ever been to one of those events you know they sometimes has massive booths that cost tens of thousands of dollars to set up.

At the moment, Shenmue 3 probably has very little money set aside for promotional purposes. Per the kickstarter, NONE of the money from fans is going towards promoting the game. All of it, after fees, is for rewards and game development. Any money going towards promoting the game will end up being spent by Sony or Shibuya productions.

Consider some of the other "building the list" games that Sony's third party productions helped promote. They all got mentioned during Sony press conferences, but outside of that there was very little promotion done. The biggest title that came out of their efforts in the past was Yakuza 5, which didn't get much promotion from Sega. It wasn't until Atlus took over the localization and promotion for Yakuza 0 that they actually started marketing that series properly.

What I'm saying is that you might see something from Sony during their E3 presser, but there's not much evidence to suggest anything big will happen. But I'd love to hear some good arguments to the contrary.

[The_Intruder]

I am refreshing the Kickstarter page like about every 5m to see if we get an update even a small one on the game
progress can make me happy. If we don't get one by the 3rd then I will think we won't get an update for the month of March either.

[Spaghetti]

It's already later in the day than when the December 15th update dropped, but that probably doesn't mean much considering that was tied in to the Slacker Backer website updating at noon JST.

There's like another 5ish business hours left, but it could come later than that if someone is pulling overtime at AJ.

Buuuuuuut... realistically, I don't think we're getting an update for February. I'm not certain it'll be a long-haul silence all the way to E3 just yet, but anything could happen from here.

Maybe it'll be a tri-monthly thing? March, June, September, December. It could just be when YSnet can spare the time and resources. The only realistic expectation we can have is that there will be an update in the Summer when backer surveys go out.

[Valascaziel]

It's already later in the day than when the December 15th update dropped, but that probably doesn't mean much considering that was tied in to the Slacker Backer website updating at noon JST.

There's like another 5ish business hours left, but it could come later than that if someone is pulling overtime at AJ.

Buuuuuuut... realistically, I don't think we're getting an update for February. I'm not certain it'll be a long-haul silence all the way to E3 just yet, but anything could happen from here.

Maybe it'll be a tri-monthly thing? March, June, September, December. It could just be when YSnet can spare the time and resources. The only realistic expectation we can have is that there will be an update in the Summer when backer surveys go out.

I am okay with this, in retrospect. I am sure, if there is no update, the KS Comments section will be in full meltdown shortly. I don't think we're at the "zomg Shenmue in trouble" fake news articles coming, though

Realistically, there is a LOT riding on the first major screenshots or video release. Fans have been waiting 15 years, so they can ill afford a "Mighty No. 9" where it failed to impress at first major reveal.

It really has to satisfy fans from the get-go. Yu knows this and will probably play all cards close til he feels he can meet fans' expectations.

[Spaghetti]

It'd be very surprising if negative press comes of this, considering most crowdfunding campaigns can go dark for 4+ months on end. It's a credit to YSnet and Awesome Japan for being able to keep up with a monthly schedule for over a year and a half, really.

We just have to accept that there's a careful strategy at play here. If Shenmue III were a publisher funded game in a traditional PR cycle, I doubt it'd have even been revealed yet.

My one frustration is the lack of notice on the KS about a change in update schedule. Something small would probably go a long way to dampening the garbage fire that is the KS comments section, but who knows with Karim acting like some lunatic pied piper stoking dumbass conspiracy theories.

[Hazuki00]

They sometimes have updated the kickstarter page even more later than this hour, even at noon european time so there is still a chance.

Although I look fordward to the next update I wouln't mind not seeing any update until E3 If this help them to get the game in time for this year release.

[Kiske]

I just got an update from Kickstarter. At first I thought it was for Shenmue 3... it wasn't.

It was "Slaps & Beans", the Bud Spencer & Terence Hill tribute game.

[Snakiest]

1 hour to midnight here in Japan. I think we will see nothing in this month's update.

[delvec19]

Usually it's out by now. I doubt we see anything once again.

[Kiske]

Usually it's out by now. I doubt we see anything once again.

The bright side of this* lack of update is that now that they have kind of broken the monthly update routine, we can expect it at any time, whenever they feel ready to show something to the backers.


























*

phpBB [video]

[Sonoshee]

I still stand by my opinion that, this year, no monthly updates are a good thing.

YSNet are extremely busy and freeing up any resources right now to throw out a small monthly update would only hurt development.

At this point I'm inclined to say that the next update we get, whenever that will be, will be a big one (new trailer, character models etc) .

I think patience should be something we're all used to by now

[Kiske]

Comment by "Shenmue Backer" on the Kickstarter page.

@Tom thanks for that. Im glad at least backers were told that, and were not becoming needy on monthly updates when at the end of it all, Yu-san and the team are working around the clock on Shenmue 3.

That said, despite that promise from Yu-san, its worth remembering that sometimes a promise may need to be broken for the greater good. I know its hard not having updates, but we just need to be a little more patient. Its now crunch time, and when I say Yu-san is trying to get this game out on time (December '17) then trust me he is. The team isn't huge either but the results they have achieved have been staggering and despite not showing them publically, the game looks and feels amazing despite being just under a year from shipping. So much so, that I feel sorry for anyone from the team looking at this comments section and seeing the disrespect that's displayed, all because information is being kept in house and not made public E3 should be the place when we see what Shenmue 3 really looks like. If people can wait to then, that's when faith will be rewarded.

Is this Saint from the Dojo?

[iyapol]

No February update? I wouldn't say I'm worried, because I'm not. Yet! But I can understand why some fans would start getting a little bit anxious, and I think I might join them if we don't hear anything by the end of March!

YS has promised a substantial update in 'early 2017'. But saying that, YS also promised development updates 'at least once a month'...

Let's wait and see what March brings.

[Anonymous81]

I agree with Sonoshee.

While not guaranteed of course, this long with narry a PEEP to me suggests something big in the offing. Presumably for E3, as having something ready for E3 can send a small team into full on crunch mode as I'm sure many will attest. But it could just as easily be that they're just putting their nose to the grindstone because they want to do all they can to hit their release date.

Of course, it could also be that disaster has struck, all the servers got erased in a freak EMP event and they're scrambling to recover. :p (I'm kidding, obviously. But I think it's either something catastrophic (imo, hint: it isn't,) or, far more likely, they'e VERY busy on something BIG. Because they know radio silence isn't ideal, and wouldn't do it without a reason.)

Before I didn't think that was the case, but the longer they go, the more I anticipate something major. Not getting my hopes up too much or anything, but I think the actual game is being born now as we speak.