I believe we're actually in good shape. Yes things aren't ideal and we would all love to be doing even better than we are of course (that just shows how passionate we are, and how much we all love this game and this saga.) But let's focus on the positive: We've achieved becoming the second most funded video game on
Kickstarter of all time. At our current pace, even without a final spike we'll end at 4.8 million, but
with a final spike - even a modest one of 800K in split over the last two days - we'll exceed 5.6 million, becoming THE highest funded Kickstarter video game of all time. A title that may never be surpassed potentially.
The average pledged amount for this campaign is more than $80. That never happens. This shows that by and large, those who have pledged are incredibly committed to the game. 30 on the 3rd actually worked. We all stood together and increased our pledges. Even taking away the estimated impact of the announcement of the physical PS4 copy, we raised an estimated additional 60K that day just from people standing together and raising their pledges. (Something I hope we see repeated beginning July 15th with #TheFInalBlow - see
http://30onthe3rd.com/finalblow/ for details!)
Pledges are increasing in pace currently. Yesterday we beat the previous day's pledges, and today we're on track to beat yesterday's if they continue at their current clip. So we could already actually being seeing the "tip of the spear" that will become a larger spike two or three days from now.) And Yu said in his Q&A that 1) There will be part time jobs in the game
even if we don't reach 9 million, and 2) All of the locations marked "expanded" in the stretch goals will still be in the game even if we don't exceed 5 million. This says to me that the game will be packed with content and things to do and see, as a Shenmue game should be, even if the physical scale of the world in its entirety is a bit on a smaller side. And, while we don't know yet (and I urge everyone not to ASSUME we will because if we don't, this is our ONLY chance to back the game, so I encourage everyone to do so rather than holding out, unless you simply can't,) we are hopeful that we'll get a PayPal or other donation option after the KS ends. And that should easily allow us to gain the remaining 4 or 5 million we need before too long. In short: We have achieved miraculous success with relatively few people. 55,000 or so people will have stood together to save a game everyone thought was dead by the end of this campaign, and I am truly proud and honored to stand among their ranks. Let's be proud and happy about all of this, and continue pushing for every dollar we can gain before the end.
Stand proud. Stand united. Never give up. For Shenmue.