December 2017 is fastly approaching!

[Hazuki00]

Speaking of delays, I have just read in Twitter some user asking Cedric if Shenmue 3 is still set for release in december and he confirmed it again.

[Spaghetti]

Nice to see they still think it's possible.

Unlike with something such as PSX, I'd expect he's kept more in the loop on this issue, seeing as Shibuya Productions has marketing/distribution duties for the PC version.

Of course, the forum mantra of "plans could change" applies as always.

[ShenGCH]

Nice to see they still think it's possible.

Unlike with something such as PSX, I'd expect he's kept more in the loop on this issue, seeing as Shibuya Productions has marketing/distribution duties for the PC version.

Of course, the forum mantra of "plans could change" applies as always.

Exactly. December is eight months away, so they have no idea whether they'll be done by then. It's too early to announce a delay, too; isn't that usually done two or three months before a proposed launch?

[Spaghetti]

Exactly. December is eight months away, so they have no idea whether they'll be done by then. It's too early to announce a delay, too; isn't that usually done two or three months before a proposed launch?

It really depends on the circumstances, and the game itself. There are dozens of things that could influence when those decisions are made.

But you're right, it really is still too early to announce a delay considering the game could be in Alpha up until August/September and still make a December release. There's still maybe over 4 months until the last possible chance to release in December 2017 slips through their fingers.

E3 will roughly be where the speculation ends, even if Shenmue III doesn't show up. By the end of Summer I expect we'll have our answers.

[Himuro]

Can't wait for the next footage so we can pore through all the details!

[SMDzero]

I hope we get a solid update on April 30th and then they skip the May update only to show us a massive Shenmue 3 trailer at E3

[Hazuki00]

...Considering the game could be in Alpha up until August/September and still make a December release. There's still maybe over 4 months until the last possible chance to release in December 2017 slips through their fingers.

I do not know too much about this ... How long does it take to put a game on retailers since it's done?
When could it be the last month of game production?
If it were only a downloadable game, I guess Yu and his team could take more time to work on the game, but it will also be a physical release, so at least a month to print the DVD and distribute it to the retailers, right?

And I forgot the debugging time, so it leaves less than.. 7 months of full production?

[Jibby]

To be fair, we haven't really seen that much of Shenmue III's development. We're judging how far along development the game is by a few office vlogs using placeholder material. In the grand scheme of things, we've barely seen anything so I don't think we're really in a position to be declaring how far along development is, or how well it's progressing.

It's like Peter said, they're playing their cards close to their chest. He's said multiple times that what he saw looked good enough to be trailer material and that footage was 3 months old when he saw it.

I don't think we have the full picture here. We're not YS.NET and unlike the developers there, we haven't seen and worked with the game every day for over a year. So let's not make assumptions on their behalf. We just need to wait and see. I feel that good things are not far away.

[Spaghetti]

I do not know too much about this ... How long does it take to put a game on retailers since it's done?
When could it be the last month of game production?
If it were only a downloadable game, I guess Yu and his team could take more time to work on the game, but it will also be a physical release, so at least a month to print the DVD and distribute it to the retailers, right?

And I forgot the debugging time, so it leaves less than.. 7 months of full production?

About a month, yeah.

So the timeline for release in December looks something like this, I imagine;

- Now until August/September, continued development in Alpha.
- August/September until late November, code and asset freeze, debugging and tweaking in Beta, other QA.
- Late November until release (let's say 29th of December to match the original Shenmue), game goes "gold", sent to console manufacturer for review and approval, disks are printed and shipped, game released.

It's tight, but not impossible.

[Hazuki00]

I do not know too much about this ... How long does it take to put a game on retailers since it's done?
When could it be the last month of game production?
If it were only a downloadable game, I guess Yu and his team could take more time to work on the game, but it will also be a physical release, so at least a month to print the DVD and distribute it to the retailers, right?

And I forgot the debugging time, so it leaves less than.. 7 months of full production?

About a month, yeah.

So the timeline for release in December looks something like this, I imagine;

- Now until August/September, continued development in Alpha.
- August/September until late November, code and asset freeze, debugging and tweaking in Beta, other QA.
- Late November until release (let's say 29th of December to match the original Shenmue), game goes "gold", sent to console manufacturer for review and approval, disks are printed and shipped, game released.

It's tight, but not impossible.

It is so tight, it'd leave little room for debugging and so. Maybe with the paradigm Yu is using they can as soon as they finish a task so they don't need to wait to finish the game to debug it.

[Spaghetti]

It is so tight, it'd leave little room for debugging and so. Maybe with the paradigm Yu is using they can as soon as they finish a task so they don't need to wait to finish the game to debug it.

They would begin debugging once they hit code freeze/Beta. The length of the Beta stage and debugging depends on the size and scope of the game, so there's no real consensus on how long it takes on average, but 2-3 months is not unheard of.

Usually bugs are being identified and documented from even the pre-Alpha stage of development too, so debug teams are armed with a "hit list" going into the process to quickly eliminate known problems. Unknown problems and new bugs being created by squashing old ones is why debug phase doesn't always go as smoothly as it should, however...

Also, if they're using Agile methodology throughout production, they're likely using a driver/passenger system with the programmers. Basically one programmer writes code, the other reviews it while it's being written on a second monitor, and they switch every couple hours or so. It's apparently pretty effective at identifying and removing bugs on the fly.

We'll have to wait and see how it turns out. Like Peter has said before, it's not totally out of the question for Yu to go the extra mile and delay the game until he's satisfied, even if shipping this December is possible.

[Hazuki00]

It is so tight, it'd leave little room for debugging and so. Maybe with the paradigm Yu is using they can as soon as they finish a task so they don't need to wait to finish the game to debug it.

They would begin debugging once they hit code freeze/Beta. The length of the Beta stage and debugging depends on the size and scope of the game, so there's no real consensus on how long it takes on average, but 2-3 months is not unheard of.

Usually bugs are being identified and documented from even the pre-Alpha stage of development too, so debug teams are armed with a "hit list" going into the process to quickly eliminate known problems. Unknown problems and new bugs being created by squashing old ones is why debug phase doesn't always go as smoothly as it should, however...

Also, if they're using Agile methodology throughout production, they're likely using a driver/passenger system with the programmers. Basically one programmer writes code, the other reviews it while it's being written on a second monitor, and they switch every couple hours or so. It's apparently pretty effective at identifying and removing bugs on the fly.

We'll have to wait and see how it turns out. Like Peter has said before, it's not totally out of the question for Yu to go the extra mile and delay the game until he's satisfied, even if shipping this December is possible.

I don't mind them taking more time to polish the game, we've been waiting for this more than fifteen years so what's a few more months?

What "worries" me is that I think december is the best month of the year to launch the game. It's when most of the people buys games as a present for christmas. It's a shame to lose this opportunity but I don't want them to hurry the production to meet this date, difficult decision!

What I'm sure it's that Suzuki will release the game when it's done under his standards.

[FlagshipFighter]

I wish Sega would lend more support to Shenmue III than they are right now. What gets lost in discussion is that III will not finish the series, and I really hope that Shenmue IV does not have to go through Kickstarter to get developed.

I'm concerned that Shenmue III will look like "generic ABC unreal engine" game instead of a game that looks like a Sega game. When you look at Yakuza, you can immediately tell that it's a Sega game without even knowing what it is. But from what I've read from Peter and others who have seen the game there's no need for concern.

[Spaghetti]

I don't mind them taking more time to polish the game, we've been waiting for this more than fifteen years so what's a few more months?

What "worries" me is that I think december is the best month of the year to launch the game. It's when most of the people buys games as a present for christmas. It's a shame to lose this opportunity but I don't want them to hurry the production to meet this date, difficult decision!

What I'm sure it's that Suzuki will release the game when it's done under his standards.

I dunno if launching in December is that crucial. This year has shown that games - niche Japanese games in particular - can be Million + sellers launching in February, March, April, etc. I hope Shibuya Productions/YSnet are paying attention to this trend, because it might allow for Shenmue III to launch with relatively little competition.

I wish Sega would lend more support to Shenmue III than they are right now. What gets lost in discussion is that III will not finish the series, and I really hope that Shenmue IV does not have to go through Kickstarter to get developed.

I'm concerned that Shenmue III will look like "generic ABC unreal engine" game instead of a game that looks like a Sega game. When you look at Yakuza, you can immediately tell that it's a Sega game without even knowing what it is. But from what I've read from Peter and others who have seen the game there's no need for concern.

SEGA have done enough by licencing the IP. It's very exceptional for something like that to happen, let alone a licencing deal that allows for a crowdfunding campaign. It's really only through the virtue of SEGA not giving a fuck about Shenmue, Yu Suzuki being who he is, and the remaining friends he has in the upper ranks of SEGA that this could happen.

Maybe SEGA will step up to the plate if Shenmue III is successful enough, but even then if it does well enough YSnet and Shibuya Productions may be able to produce the game without the need for any assistance outside publishing duties.

As for Unreal Engine:

Unreal Engine 3 had a common complaint of making games look similar because of a fairly inflexible shader and materials system. Unreal Engine 4 is the total opposite of that and allows for massive flexibility in how a game presents visually. There is no Unreal "look" with UE4, just developers who don't/can't invest their time and budget into customising the visuals.

Since screens and video started coming out of the game in development, we've seen that YSnet is working towards tailoring the engine to fit their vision. Chromatic Aberration was either removed or massively toned down, the colours are brighter with higher contrast, the skyboxes look vibrant and colourful, shaders have been tweaked, specular maps have been adjusted from default, etc - and they're still working towards a final visual look.

Don't get too obsessed with whether the game has an "Unreal look" or a "SEGA look", because you're always going to see the one that fits your preexisting beliefs. It's called confirmation bias.

Funny anecdote: when Yakuza 6 was revealed, the prevailing opinion on GAF was that they were using UE4. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Hazuki00]

I wish all the best for Shenmue 3 and sell tons of copies in order to not use again Kickstarter. That said, if the game doesn't do as well as it needs in order to not use Kickstarter again, I hope they use it again, this saga must conclude in game form without having to wait another fifteen years game. And i think that it will be éxitous using this again, they could obtain at least the same or more amount than they have attained this time, we all would pay for a new Kickstarter without any doubt.