Wow. Despite the fact that we truly have achieved a great victory, the amount and kinds of continuing and ongoing activities that we must now dedicate ourselves to as a united community are surely dizzying:
1) That some people think that Sony's intervention in helping to fund *some* of Shenmue 3 because the Kickstarter is a success is some kind of non-transparent shadow dealing that devalues the real money backers pledge is truly laughable.
Just as Adam Boyes sincerely explains in this video (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRGlVDi ... be&t=1m40s), Shenmue is virtually a "religion...an [emotional] cultural heritage [piece] in videogame history" that no one single person or company can own. This is precisely why Sony did not - rather, *could* not - just outright buy out Shenmue 3 as a Sony project - because as we all know, something that is lauded emotionally by many doesn't always mean the same in terms of the magnitude of the actual profit return.
Case in point. Rather than try and persuade the higher ups at Sony for how ever many months or years until some kind of 25 million dollar+ budget could be set aside for Shenmue 3, Suzuki and Sony did the most ethical thing possible - use Kickstarter.
Because Shenmue is loved by many fans and not owned by just any one person, why not let the fans prove the case to those would be profit supporters for the Shenmue 3 project? This Kickstarter, and the higher the amount of money that we can pledge as fans is outright *necessary* to truthfully show and prove to any and all larger supporters (like Sony, and hell, even Sega) that any resources they might plan on contributing to the project would be justified and fruitful.
After all, can you imagine what would happen if we didn't all act to make the Kickstarter for Shenmue 3 a success, or if the Kickstarter was never even announced? No Shenmue 3 - that's what. We all have the see the greater picture. The Kickstarter was merely a catalyst to a much bigger game that we all find ourselves involved in now.
2) Unfortunately, the reality of game making is certainly centered around profits and budgets. Do any of us really think that Suzuki, and we, his fans, would ever be able to fund a viable and competent Shenmue 3 just by ourselves and whatever we could raise on Kickstarter? That Sony is planning on throwing its weight behind the development of Shenmue 3 shouldn't come as a shock. Neither should it be reason for us to stop contributing to the Kickstarter.
The more money, the better. That's all it comes down to. If we can hit all the stretch goals on Kickstarter and get Suzuki a fan pledge budget of 4, 8, maybe even 10 million dollars in addition to whatever other funding he'll get - that *will* make an impact. Sure, that's a lot of pressure to make a great game with so many resources thrown at it. But we can't get cold feet now. We can't just have complained for 14 years. We have to follow through with the project to its very end now. We're strapped in till the end.
3) December 2017 is a long way from now. Two more years of megaton E3s and other gaming conventions from now, in fact. The more money we pledge now and the more resources other companies like Sony contribute to Shenmue 3, who is to say that we won't get a special physical retail limited edition of the game for PS4? Or possibly even a polished mirror Jade/pearl green limited edition PS4 to boot?
And what about Sega? Now as we lead up to Shenmue 3's release, we can't falter in campaigning for HD updates of Shenmue 1 and 2. We have the most ammunition for this cause now than we've ever had before. Now that the Shenmue IP is back in the mainstream conversation and everyone is talking about it, Sega can't wriggle around non-committally about it like it usually does anymore.
My apologies, but I can't seem but think we're all actually doing all of this for Yu Suzuki himself. You know it must have taken immense courage on his part to finally commit to this project. Part of him must have known that the Kickstarter would have been a guaranteed success - but that he would be enveloped by incredible pressure to deliver as soon as he decided to go forward with all this.
So lets do it. Lets make the next two to three years the greatest years of Mr. Suzuki's creative career - let's afford him the budget and resources to make the one true game work that he's always dreamed of making, and let's put on the pressure for Sega to release his prior works in Shenmue 1 and 2 HD as part of that ongoing celebration.
We've worked long and hard for this - that much is true. So let's make all of this one of the greatest times of our lives. Cheers.