Some of you are the ones who make me cringe. Awesome Japan asked nearly all the most prominent questions.
Yea the dude in red conducted himself immaturely - but when all is said and done he did his job. You guys need to put your energy into raising funds and stop all this whiny bullshit.

the dude in red is now legend status. Most of us have been waiting for this q&a half our lifetime and all you guys could do is fucking talk about the interviewer its pathetic.

That's exactly what I said. People care more about rewards than they do about some clown in a chat room. The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter has still managed to become one of the most successful Kickstarters of all time in spite of Awesome Japan. The Sony announcement was a masterstroke, and they're lucky they got it.
Yeah, the surprise announcement of Shenmue 3 at Sony's conference, back to back with FFVII, is going to be remembered as one of the greatest moments in E3's history. Even if the Kickstarter campaign itself has had its share of problem nobody can take away the glory of that moment, when Shenmue 3 was finally revealed.

In the years ahead we just need to make sure that people remember Shenmue 3 itself, the game once it's released; along with the wonder of Shenmue 3’s announcement. Any mistakes made along the way by Awesome Japan can simply remain buried in the past, unremarked upon and safely forgotten.

Practically all the new tiers have been filled up with only a few left within the $2000....even if it sucked they surged up quickly at least another $60,000 so it worked. Now lets get more rewards rolling because CLEARLY they are working.

People are being too harsh. Yes, it was unprofessional, but no, it hasn't and won't hurt the Kickstarter and it doesn't make the project look bad. I understand that it's Shenmue III and it's really important, but we need to stop looking for excuses and justifications for the slowing down of the KS - it's only natural.
Last night we found out some new information and got some new reward tiers which in result caused a funding boost. I don't see how anyone can think that is a bad thing. Perhaps they could have answered some more questions but it's still better than nothing.

Plus, Red Shirt was lovable.

One shot at Shenmue 3, and the budget is determined by this guy? Really puts a damper on everything when you have to wonder what could have been had a competent firm handled this campaign. It's hard to put into words how discontent I am over this. Shenmue 3 is announced and these guys have found a way to curb my elation. Unacceptable.

YS Net, please fire these clowns and hire a team that can still create enough hype to make this KS campaign as successful as it should be.
This. Literally anyone will do. Just grab someone off the streets.

Suzuki retweets fan stuff sometimes, so he must read his mentions occasionally, is it worth contacting him over this?

While Awesome Japan needs to be replaced, I fear with just under 3-weeks left in the campaign firing them and having another company come in and pick up the pieces might be more disastrous, however if things continue the way they have we might not have anything to lose. Hopefully new, non-limited finding tiers will go up this weekend and they will start putting in the same effort as the fans to get this KS campaign marketed and out there.

But yes, I think you should contact Ys Net and voice your opinion on this matter. I'm sure they are already aware of the fan's dissatisfaction with the campaign, but it wouldn't hurt.

I seriously called all of these animated gifs being made. The guy was really acting bizarre; I'm wondering what his situation with YsNet or the rest of Awesome Japan is after that stream.

Looking at it from a glass half full perspective though, at the very least all of the questions asked were relevant, even though we already knew the answers to some of them. I kind of wish more of the stretch goals were explained, but I really hope in the coming weeks, AJ steps their game up with the Q&A's, along with their kickstarter management.

I know someone put his twitter up, but lets try not to blast Joel Tess's twitter with insults. It might give you a good chuckle, but in the end it's ultimately counterproductive to running the campaign, and it makes us all look bad. Two fumbles don't make a right.

By the way though, what was up with the Fanta thing at the beginning? Are they a sponsor or something? I found that part to be very odd.

Sony's involvement was more than welcome for the sake of the campaign. The problem is that whenever bad publicity is on, Awesome Japan doesn't do much to try to address the issue on the spot.

I feel bad for Yu Suzuki, as Awesome Japan is his only avenue of communication and he can only depend on them to make this work.

It's unlikely to me that it's possible to change teams now (they could hire external help though if budget allows Yu to do so), otherwise we will just continue to do what we must do.

It was no kidding when Yu Suzuki said that the future of Shenmue 3 was in our hands, literally. :rotflmao:

I didn't really find any fault with the Twitch stream at all. I think maybe the red shirted man was nervous about having to answer to thousands of fans live, so it's understandable that he seemed a bit awkward. I honestly would be too. The blue shirted gentleman was patient and concise. All in all, Yu Suzuki was very polite and didn't seem at all bothered about the handling of his Q & A, so that's what's important to me.

In retrospect, some people may say that it could have been more polished, but I also find that in business it makes things easier to work with people who have similar rapport and do not make their colleagues or fan base uncomfortable. I wouldn't have enjoyed it if it were someone who didn't understand the gaming industry and were very stiff and parochial. I just chalk it up to a bad case of nerves for these folks.

As far as the questions go, I think perhaps they were addressing the topics that were being asked ad nauseum and were not clarified before. I'm really excited about Corey Marshall and the possibility of all the original voice-over actors. And it would make me very happy to see the HD releases, if possible. I give Yu Suzuki top marks for trying to make his fans happy... he genuinely cares about what we think and do. It's just a shame that some people cannot reciprocate the same respect for him and his team.

Moreover, in my opinion adding more rewards tiers at the going percentage rate (20-25%) could possibly be detrimental to the production cost, considering that the focus would be put toward producing merchandise rather than the actual game even at the ~72% budget schematic. I worry about that, as I see Suzuki and his team scrambling for more ideas in terms of rewards--- each product is going at a considerable markup to cover the ~25% budget set aside for it. But I also understand the consumer model and know that people would like to be aptly rewarded for their investments.

I truly appreciate Suzuki's incredible display of diplomacy and repose. I think between the immense burden of acquiring the rights, putting together a suitable development + financing + public relations team, and pleasing the prospective buyer, he appears verily composed.

Thanks mjq jazz bar for favouriting my tweet to Michael Huber suggesting he do a Skype Interview with Suzuki

https://twitter.com/resnate/status/614845858916474881

I really love how Corey Marshall is so involved with the Shenmue community. It's great!

I think Sega's worry is if they start promoting the Kickstarter, people will ask them the same questions Sony are being asked now, i.e. why aren't they fully funding this?

Well, we asked them that for 14 years and they gave zero shits.

In a perfect world this project would be funded by 3 parties. Backers, Sony, SEGA.

Awesome Japan have done a truly terrible job.

Firstly the campaign started at too low of a goal. If it had been, say, a 5m target, then we would have 5m+ raised right now. As soon as it hit 2m on the second day, all the urgency was gone. All the publicity was gone. The target had been reached and Shenmue III will be a reality. Yet a week later we find out that 10m is the real goal to aim towards, but who really cares other than us guys? Shenmue III is funded and the story is done and dusted for all the major press...

I'm not going to go into detail about all of the problems with the actual Kickstarter. We all know the video, poor rewards, lack of communication, lack of promotion, lack of description, lack of clarity regarding Sony's involvement etc. have held the project back massively. I actually had a decent level of optimism when I saw that they were doing a Reddit AMA and later a Twitch stream. 'Hey, they're actually promoting via relevant avenues!' I thought. But the AMA got off to a false start and the Twitch 'interview'...oh God...

And then when you realize that these guys, who are managing one of the biggest Kickstarters we're ever going to see, are taking the weekends off... Well all optimism has gone for the KS to reach a target we want. It is quite alarming how naive and incompetent they have been.

When we're sitting down to play Shenmue III and notice all those stretch goals we missed out on, all we'll be thinking is: "fuck you Awesome Japan."

Like... all they needed to do is literally just have 1 person to handle the page, 1 person to handle the rewards, and 1 translator for when Yu Suzuki needs to send a message to the community.

Make like a daily update talking about a different character every day (be it friend or foe, or just one of the funny characters) with some art or hd game screens and a brief presentation. In the last days of the campaign a random guy opens the page and sees a sweet presentation of the Shenmue world, messages from Yu Suzuki explaining the stretch goals, and a crap load of reward tiers he can choose from. Random guy is gonna pledge and tell a friend to check out the page, bingo.

But no, we get fucking 3 idiots that can't even reharse a stream before going live, can't act professionally, and can't even setup a backers only poll without screwing up. And there's still typos in the page, check the description for the 60$ reward, "exlusive".

:((((((

I know they are a pretty easy target. Hell, I am with you on a lot of points and do have my own feelings on the matter also.

But there's always a bigger picture here, and we have a reputation to uphold in regards to being here for Shenmue and Yu Suzuki as a community. We have ran Friday night into the ground and I have no doubts Awesome Japan will have been made aware of the feedback from everyone. But continuing to be negative about it will only keep the fire lit, and make it grow.

My advice is to bury it. We have had a classic moan about it, but nows the time to let them at least try and learn from it. We have just under 3 weeks left so let's see what happens.

Moving on... the kickstarter is picking up a little, I see. Nearly 3 grand in 12 hours. Not quite the 500K some were predicting around here, but better than nothing I suppose. At this rate we're on track to raise another 114K by the end of the campaign. Sweet!

Cedric is a good guy. He will respond and do all he can. But he also will tell it how it is.

People will get their pay checks next week and we have #30onthe3rd next Friday too. Don't get all panicky just yet.

What upsets me most are the people who will only pledge or raise their pledge for better rewards. Considering Yu threw us a life line to get this game made yet they are pushing for rewards for their money sickens me. The only reward you need is Shenmue 3. F*ck everything else.

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.

Not one line of code has yet been written and you're already giving up on it. Shenmue isn't cursed, its a great videogame series that sold poorly but has a small dedicated fanbase.

If it was easy to make it rain and gather funds for Shenmue 3, we wouldn't have to wait 14 years for it. As it stands, Shenmue 3 is a reality and will end KS with around $5M plus Sony and Shibuya funds.

After KS, paypal will be open and we will see what we can do. Shenmue is no Castlevania or Megaman and will still outfund them.

Logged back in after many years.

Only saw this great news today. I am sure many die hard shenmue fans who like me are not really gamers and don't follow E3 will still discover this little gem and contribute appropriately to their favorite game.

elmatto wrote: Well I wish I had your guys enthusiasm.
If i'm wrong I'll be elated.

https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status ... 8877327360

Biscay, in English wrote: Taking Charge.

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've already pledged $300 but today I won $1,000 on a scratch ticket!! I'm gonna pledge a lot of it on the third. Maybe $700 to bring my total contribution to $1000!! Today is a good day

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.

It could be anything. It's not a big update, it's an interesting one.

Thank Christ I finish work today for 3 days. Gonna be up all night with the GT Shenmue II stream anyways, so gonna be F5'ing the absolute shit outta the KS page.

Hmm, after reading the update, it seems as though all of the tiers above $1k get this reward included, which is a little disappointing to hear since i've got one of the $1k grab bag rewards at the moment, and obviously this ends up being the only premium tier not to include this as a reward then. So for me to get the Corey Marshall voice message, I would either need to spend an additional $1k, and end up with 2 lots of the $500 rewards :( or swap from one tier to the other.
Yea you're right James but then if they gave it to the people on the 1k grab bag reward also there wouldn't be any justification in making it a 1k rewards itself without would it...

Does seem a bit silly though- message them maybe and say can those in the 1k grab bag tier not be given the option of maybe increasing to 1.2k or something to get the Corey message also.

We all know how slow the Kickstarter is going and how it could be improved and whatnot. Sorry but we've had this too many times in the last 10 days or so and there isn't really anything new that can be said about it.

I've already posted this in the Kickstater's comments but it's an interesting bit of trivia that's worth mentioning here as well. I just thought I'd remind everyone of this page: https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/most-funded

It's a list of the all-time most funded campaigns on Kickstarter. With 23 days to go Shenmue 3 already ranks as the 13th most funded campaign of all time. A great achievement by all who are supporting this campaign.

To put things further in perspective, Shenmue 3 is close to overtaking most of the remaining video game Kickstarters. At 3.9 million we beat Mighty No. 9. At 4 million we beat Project Eternity. At 4.2 million we beat Torment: Tides of Numenera. Then Shenmue 3 becomes the 2nd most funded video game Kickstarter ever.

These aren't far off goals, overtaking these three games is well within reach. Just another $600,000 to go. So, spread the word, these symbolic victories might just generate more positive press for Shenmue 3.

Well, thanks to today's boost Shenmue 3 has just passed Mighty No. 9. to become the 4th most funded video game Kickstarter ever.

Next target - Project Eternity.

Crying.... yep. Just like i was when Shenmue 3 was announced.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/PeterC2005/Shenmue%203%20dinner_zpsnssnyjmg.png

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/PeterC2005/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2015-07-03-17-11-23_zpsfisfrbbt.png

I'M GOING TO MEET YU SUZUKI IN MONACO!! FUCK!!

It's limited to 5 people lol. People need to calm down. Its probably going to be some no named NPC that you see once, or don't even notice in a Shenmue 1 like 70 man battle royal in the base that Yu said we are going to infiltrate. Yu isn't going to do something that will ruin his vision guys, have some faith please :P

Woo! =D>

- $4 million reached - stretch goal: Baisha Village Expanded & 5x Mini Games
(isn't that between $75-100,000 today?)

http://i.imgur.com/Vys7shW.png

Recap:

- 5 new reward tiers
- PS4 physical copy added
- 30onthe3rd boost

What an awesome, solid day for Shenmue!
(I also noticed AwesomeJapan added an apology for last weeks Twitch mess).

...But no time to breathe:

- Next step is $5 million, we need that character system that Yu really wants implemented
- Paypal option (still 14 days to go, hopefully they'll add this after the KS is over)
- Like always, keep pushing #SaveShenmue and #10milliontoShenmue3 every day

Let's not even give that website the dignity of a post on this forum.

Have you seen the state of the bloke who wrote that article? ...and he has the cheek to start discussing appearances?! Spare me!!

Do not give this moron the time of day.. Do not visit that website and let's forget he ever posted such an utterly pointless article; it's as utterly trivial as he is.

Shenmue III is real. I would not care if there was a 10 minute goatse.

I think this was the best day this community has ever seen. What a display of discipline, effort, and enthusiasm.

1. 335,960 dollars in one day.
2. 1276 new backers in one day.
3. Twice as many Kickstarter comments as any previous day.
4. Love from Kavinsky.
5. Peter's dreams of meeting Suzuki came true.
6. Kotaku tried to go negative, but their own news editor called the writer out for it in the comments. Upbeat rebuttals dominated the comment section. The tide of public opinion has turned.
7. Apologies from Awesome Japan and much better handling of everything today. Cedric Biscay heard us, and continues to engage with the community.
8. Great new tiers. Limited ones are selling out. Physical PS4 copy was a game-changer.
9. Unprecedented noise made on Twitter.
10. On the verge (only about 10,000 left, will make by mid-morning on the west coast) of overtaking Torment as the 2nd most funded Kickstarter game ever made.
11. Great Q&A with Yu.
12. Have had bunch of people saying to me on GAF today that even though they haven't played Shenmue, the fan passion has inspired them to pledge for the game.

You are all incredible. This is an amazing moment.

Such wonderful news, I know I haven't been here long but I can tell just how passionate you are for the series and it sounds like you really deserve it Peter It's sounds like you have a journey ahead of you and I'm sure it will be magical

http://i.imgur.com/PZDaNhg.jpg

Hey everyone, my brother and I decided to contribute $20,000 for the making of Shenmue III. We spent many hours thinking about whether this is a good or bad decision. We spent $10,000 in 2012 to get our school off the ground and that went a long way. Because of our initial $10,000 pledge, the school received an amazing amount of attention in China, social media and gaming websites. I'll reiterate, We are not wealthy! This was a hard decision. We could have given $20,000 directly to building the school and it's programs but we feel that this pledge will lead to more exposure and support than what we could do through other mediums.

For those who don't know our school yet. We are called The "V.E.T. Program" (Volunteer English Teacher). You can find us on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/VolunteerEnglishTeacher?fref=ts&ref=br_tf We teach children and young adults English to help in their educational and career pursuits. Many of these kids come from small villages in the Guilin area and may not have an opportunity to learn elsewhere. You can go to the "about" section on the Facebook page to learn more.

We really need help in reaching our goals. We would love for you to like us on Facebook. We will eventually look outside ourselves and setup a way for donations to be made but we didn't want to distract from the Kick Starter or be overbearing donation hunters.

We decided to make the second $10,000 pledge a character in the game. We don't want to be a character attacking Ryo though. We are going to try and ask Yu Suzuki to let us have one of our Volunteer Chinese teaching assistants be a character in one of the villages. They deserve to be recognized for their hard work. They are volunteers and many of them come from poor rice farms.

We are also hoping that since we will be listed in the credits as a special sponsor that it can have our school with a logo and a website rather than our names.

I don't think any of this would be asking too much. I think it would help get attention to the school. We would love any assistance in helping us achieve this. We also would love to have Yu Suzuki come to the school some day but we won't don't want to be greedy.

Please, help our little school!
http://i.imgur.com/GS7Iwrq.jpg

I just donated my 60$ for the ps4 copy; and i noticed in the comments that 2 backers were trolling 10k each, and sirs here is my humble question:
WHY IN THE HOLY FUCK you pledge if you plan on pulling right at the same time it just for your fun? I know there is always mischiebous little rascals and its natural in the internet, but man this really hits the line! :evil: :evil:
What do you think?

If it were me, I would have changed it slightly that it would have just been a hotel guest book, with a picture, the persons name, and also a comments box.

That way you could pack how many people you wanted in there, and have a page reference of all the guests, say, in alphabetical order for ease of reference.

I think that's a fantastic idea. You should forward it to YSnet because it may give Yu the idea.

Honestly my feeling is why wouldn't they?? We keep complaining that they weren't handling the kickstarter right, that they're not raising enough money and not making smart decisions; and then they add a pledge that sells out in 24h and decide to add more to it and we complain again....
It's smart business and I'm sure they can find a way to put 60 more pictures in the station, put them in the stalls for all I care :rotflmao:

Exposure is not conference. This includes medias, newspapers, hype, social networks etc.

in which case Bloodstained had more coverage, since their KS's campaign was ran correctly. not entirely sure what point your trying to make when Shenmue isn't far off backers wise... if 50,000 + isn't enough, neither is 64,867.. which we know.. is enough, since millions would gobble up a new Castlevania.

I'm sure many people have heard of the Shenmue kickstarter, but how many have actually played Shenmue?

I know I wouldn't back a game that has such a strong emphasis on the story, missing the first two installments and being unable to play them for a reasonable price. Just as I wouldn't read a book starting at chapter 7 or a movie 45 minutes in.

I also think it must be quite a hassle for Japanese fans to navigate through a non-Japanese website in order to donate. I may be wrong, but I have a strong feeling that for most it's just too hard. So basically 50,000 fans showing up from mainly Europe/USA after all these years is amazing.

I'm surprised how well the KS is doing considering all of this and the amateurish work AJ is delivering.

One has to be delusional to think Shenmue III KS results are somehow "disappointing".

Its a 14 years old abandoned niche IP, making his way to be the most funded KS game ever versus giants like Castlevania and Megaman.

Think I'll buy one.
<-----May as well put my beautiful mug everywhere all over Shenmue.