mue 26 wrote:^
There is no way I would give Sega money for free, though. Would you really be willing to give such a profitable corporation like Sega your money, just to help them out? I honestly don't think I would. Double Fine is a small indie studio who I would be glad to support but Sega can forget it. So I hope they don't even bother sounding interested.
So even with 1000 donators you'd just have like a 30 grand
Trust me if Yu Suzuki (or even Sega) were on board this would see a hell of a lot more than 1000 donators. I think an official donation fund for Shenmue 3 would easily sail past the two million dollar mark. There are a lot of people who love Shenmue out there and would be willing to donate (including the Japanese fans), I think if it was official, half the games industry would probably donate something (unless they had the same reasoning about Sega that I do).The Shenmue 3 game itself is one of the most wanted unmade games, but it still would be unlikely to raise enough to entirely fund itself.
You'd be right to say giving Sega free money would be silly (to put it lightly). Chances are they wouldn't even accept it due to ego, their own mountain of cash, and their unwillingness to stoke the expectations for something that is not entirely risk-free (S3). What happens if such a high-tier company (and they are somewhat high-tier despite those clunker games they come out with now) accepts cash from fans to make S3...it's barely enough to fund their beer bills...they come out with S3 some time later (using mostly their money) and the intro screen is a thank you to those fans that donated...then the game is shit either because of ridiculously high expectations of donators (their hard earned cash and 'compassion') and critics (who will always side with the fans) or the game is actually pure shit or just mediocre. No major company in their right mind would do that.
Your other paragraph I disagree with for its main points:
Suzuki/Sega would only get on board if they were 100% sure they were going to make S3 and knowing full well how they were going to fund it themselves and therefore, the donations would not be used at all and would be refunded back to the fans (I repeat, there is no way in hell Sega keeps donation money from devout fans let alone accepting 'donations' from other companies). There's nothing like a fan-fund to increase media attention so they let it keep going until it proves detrimental to them (bad publicity). This is the only way they attach themselves to this fund in some official way (and by official, I mean giving every donator a thank you t-shirt...and that's it).
-No way Suzuki or Sega accept money from fans (unless as some form of lighthearted trickery explained above). It's an ultimate slap in the face (you're not only questioning their ability to fund it themselves, you're also going to be 'slapped' by a game that may not meet your expectations) and entirely against Japanese culture (which someone else alluded to before...can't find the post...but is VERY important here).
-No way other companies give them money for free without strings attached.
-No way that this fund can even come close to funding any significant amount for S3's development (personal opinion based on the idea that S3 SHOULD be a blockbuster-type title with a multi-million dollar budget).
-No way Suzuki/Sega set themselves up like that if the game turns out like crap. Too much risk to their somewhat dwindling reputation).
-There's bad mojo all over this besides the idea of it being a good gesture. There are consequences to such things and no major company would be in the right mind to affiliate themselves or even motivate such a thing (let alone a Japanese company).