Shenmue Series

Wouldn't the smart thing to do be to take the kickstarter money and fund a remaster of 1 & 2 to get those who never experienced the game to fall in love with it and join those who have to fund the final piece of the trilogy. At the end credits of Shemnue 2 put a link to donate to fund 3. I just wonder how 1 & 2 would hold up with todays gamers who may prefer instant gratification over good storytelling.

the game would seem like s*** to today's gamers. for the time shenmue did not do anything super great it was more the sum of all its parts. The fighting was not great controls were not great voice acting was half ass. However for it's time the sum of all it's parts made me like it. The game will just not work today with most folk. Other games have done what Shunmue did and have done it far better.

As much as I love the games well the 2nd one I loved first was ok even I can admit it does not hold up today vs more modron games.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Frozpot
Maybe you're wrong on both?

I'm not..

I shouldn't feel uncomfortable pledging my own money and that would be the case whether it is Sony or MS.
I have no problems pledging money to an individual or an indie studio or something similar, but once you throw a mega corporation into the mix, there is no reason for me to be there unless I just want a cheaper copy of the game.

Uncomfortable or not, you're were not pledging money to Sony.
- If you read the kickstarter page, it says right there that neither Sony and Shubuya Productions - a different named partner, a cgi film company, I think - will receive a single cent of your dollar of your Kickstarter pledge.
- It also said 2 million were not enough, but YS-Net had secured more funding and resources from other partners.

This game is going to be a Sony Third Party Production title according to Gio Corsi of Sony, it has already reached it's goal. They are the ones that put up the Kickstarter, though it started as an idea from Sega / Suzuki; they have already stated they are looking to do more Kickstarter projects this way.

No.. Adam Boyes said on the E3 stage that this were the developer's project.. :)
What Gio Corsi said, were that they were one of the partners helping out.

Lot's of publishers have been helping out or invested in various Kickstarter projects, since they began.
i.e. I pledged my support to Elite: Dangerous on kickstarter, since I really enjoyed Elite and the Elite: Frontier one and the buggy sequel back in the day, and now they've gone ahead and secured a timed console exclusive deal with Microsoft, their previous publisher, who didn't want to fund Elite.
So perhaps you'll meet a NPC-characther bearing my name, on Xbox One - that dosn't mean I gave my money to Microsoft. I gave it to Frontier Developements of course, to get the new one made. :)

My sole initial response was to kick in a little money to do my part to see a project succeed; it's already met it's goal AND Sony is infusing their own cash/resources. Whats the point in my money being there at this point?
Don't worry though, I won't tell you how to spend your money.
For the record, every project I've ever contributed money to on Kickstarter has been 100% independent projects; I even pulled money out of Bloodstained after it became apparent they were partnering with a Deep Silver.

I'm not annoyed by how you choose to spend your money.
I'm annoyed because when you go around saying that rich companies like Sony - is the ones asking for the pledges from people - you are actually hurting the chances, for the not so rich developers - YS-Net - who's the actual benefactor of these pledges to receive them.
If you get what I mean.
As for Bloodstaiend, they also informed on their kickstarter page that this were not going to be solely funded by Kickstarter.

Wouldn't the smart thing to do be to take the kickstarter money and fund a remaster of 1 & 2 to get those who never experienced the game to fall in love with it and join those who have to fund the final piece of the trilogy. At the end credits of Shemnue 2 put a link to donate to fund 3. I just wonder how 1 & 2 would hold up with todays gamers who may prefer instant gratification over good storytelling.

Concidering that this is a kickstarter for Shenmue 3, doing Shenmue 1 and 2 with the money instead of the third game, would be a disaster.. :p

However, the stretch-goal to make cinema shorts to explain the most important things wich happened in Shenmue 1 and 2, for eventual newcomers wich want to learn more about the universe, have been met tough. :)

I'm guessing it will be something similar as in the main menu in Yakuza 3, where you could select a 20+ minute recap video of the most important things wich happened in each of the earlier games, if you wanted to learn more about the backstory. But I'm also expecting the game will be perfectly fine on it's own. :)
 
Only 45,423 people have kickstarted this. That's a massive minority in the video game world.
And gamers who participate in Kickstarters are a massive minority in general. 45,000 donors doesn't translate to 45,000 interested gamers by any short means. It is better to draw comparison to how other Kickstarters have done and then notice how Shenmue is one of the most backed Kickstarters in all of the history of the site's existence.
 
I really don't see this game selling well on Xbox. This is probably why they don't bother mentioning an Xbox port in their stretch goals.
Shenmue isn't selling well on any platform. It didn't even sell well on the DC.
 
Last edited:
Shenmue isn't selling well on any platform. It didn't even sell well on the DC.
Well... Watchdogs didn't even sell well on Wii U, even though the Wii U was a largely success console just like the Sega Dreamcast. Watchdogs must have never sold well on any platform. :p:D
 
I'm not..



Uncomfortable or not, you're were not pledging money to Sony.
- If you read the kickstarter page, it says right there that neither Sony and Shubuya Productions - a different named partner, a cgi film company, I think - will receive a single cent of your dollar of your Kickstarter pledge.
- It also said 2 million were not enough, but YS-Net had secured more funding and resources from other partners.



No.. Adam Boyes said on the E3 stage that this were the developer's project.. :)
What Gio Corsi said, were that they were one of the partners helping out.

Lot's of publishers have been helping out or invested in various Kickstarter projects, since they began.
i.e. I pledged my support to Elite: Dangerous on kickstarter, since I really enjoyed Elite and the Elite: Frontier one and the buggy sequel back in the day, and now they've gone ahead and secured a timed console exclusive deal with Microsoft, their previous publisher, who didn't want to fund Elite.
So perhaps you'll meet a NPC-characther bearing my name, on Xbox One - that dosn't mean I gave my money to Microsoft. I gave it to Frontier Developements of course, to get the new one made. :)



I'm not annoyed by how you choose to spend your money.
I'm annoyed because when you go around saying that rich companies like Sony - is the ones asking for the pledges from people - you are actually hurting the chances, for the not so rich developers - YS-Net - who's the actual benefactor of these pledges to receive them.
If you get what I mean.
As for Bloodstaiend, they also informed on their kickstarter page that this were not going to be solely funded by Kickstarter.



Concidering that this is a kickstarter for Shenmue 3, doing Shenmue 1 and 2 with the money instead of the third game, would be a disaster.. :p

However, the stretch-goal to make cinema shorts to explain the most important things wich happened in Shenmue 1 and 2, for eventual newcomers wich want to learn more about the universe, have been met tough. :)

I'm guessing it will be something similar as in the main menu in Yakuza 3, where you could select a 20+ minute recap video of the most important things wich happened in each of the earlier games, if you wanted to learn more about the backstory. But I'm also expecting the game will be perfectly fine on it's own. :)

Bloodstained only updated their kickstarter with those details AFTER it slipped (not from them) that Deep Silver was working with them. You don't know what you're talking about in both instances, so just stop.
 
Shenmue isn't selling well on any platform. It didn't even sell well on the DC.

Shenmue didn't sell that well on the dreamcast due to a lot of things such as piracy, low installed base, not enough of good games for it to warrant a purchase, too expensive compared to compeition, and most of all, the freaking PS2 with dvd playback.
Shenmue isn't selling well on any platform? well many folks said the same thing for heavy rain and demon's souls. Just saying...
 
Last edited:
Shenmue didn't sell that well on the dreamcast due to a lot of things such as piracy, low installed based, not enough of good games, too expensive compared to compeition, and most of all, the freaking PS2 with dvd playback.
Shenmue isn't selling well on any platform? well many folks said the same thing for heavy rain and demon's souls. Just saying...

I would argue that Shenmue was far more niche than even Heavy Rain, but we'll see. ( never heard anyone say Demon's Souls wouldn't sell well , though) Either way as a DC owner and Sega fan it's still hilarious seeing all these diehard Sony fans pining for this game, all of a sudden. Oh how the times have changed from the days when they were calling Shenmue things like s***-mue on forums and not too long ago saying that Yakuza was sooo much better.
 
Shenmue didn't sell that well on the dreamcast due to a lot of things such as piracy, low installed base, not enough of good games for it to warrant a purchase, too expensive compared to compeition, and most of all, the freaking PS2 with dvd playback.
Shenmue isn't selling well on any platform? well many folks said the same thing for heavy rain and demon's souls. Just saying...

I had a DC at the time and while all the talk with how innovative it was at the time it looked boring as f***.
 
I would argue that Shenmue was far more niche than even Heavy Rain, but we'll see. ( never heard anyone say Demon's Souls wouldn't sell well , though) Either way as a DC owner and Sega fan it's still hilarious seeing all these diehard Sony fans pining for this game, all of a sudden. Oh how the times have changed from the days when they were calling Shenmue things like s***-mue on forums and not too long ago saying that Yakuza was sooo much better.

It's stunning the number of people pining for this game on message boards who probably have ZERO attachment to this game. Now Sony is claiming it as their own which is fine as this is like picking up the biggest Hollywood bust in history and thinking a sequel is a good idea.
 
The more people argue about Shenmue, the more people will discover this game's existence through Google. Keep doing a good job my loves!
 
Bloodstained only updated their kickstarter with those details AFTER it slipped (not from them) that Deep Silver was working with them. You don't know what you're talking about in both instances, so just stop.

According to Kicktraq, Bloodstained project ran from May 11th -> Jun 12th (33 days)

(https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/#chart-exp-projection)

One day later it's funded and Polygon did a write-up on it, speculating about how they made the game so cheap:
http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/12/8592901/bloodstain-kickstarter-castlevania-reboot

In the comments there that same day one person said the same as you about outside investment on the kickstart-page, and got a response where on that page he could find that information..


In the video on the kickstart-page, at the time the commenter referred to, it shows this:

http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/12/8592901/bloodstain-kickstarter-castlevania-reboot

And all this were at the first day of it's kickstarter-launch - so to me it dosn't look like he hid it away, as you claimed.
 
According to Kicktraq, Bloodstained project ran from May 11th -> Jun 12th (33 days)

(https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/#chart-exp-projection)

One day later it's funded and Polygon did a write-up on it, speculating about how they made the game so cheap:
http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/12/8592901/bloodstain-kickstarter-castlevania-reboot

In the comments there that same day one person said the same as you about outside investment on the kickstart-page, and got a response where on that page he could find that information..


In the video on the kickstart-page, at the time the commenter referred to, it shows this:

http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/12/8592901/bloodstain-kickstarter-castlevania-reboot

And all this were at the first day of it's kickstarter-launch - so to me it dosn't look like he hid it away, as you claimed.

I'm glad you went through all of the effort, but that really doesn't change anything I said at all.

The only reason why anyone found out who they were partnering with is because it popped up when the company filed a trademark. Then they updated the page to reflect that.

Anyways, refer to my first reply to you, I said I like to have money invested in independent developers/individuals. This isn't the case in either scenario.

*That does not mean I won't buy the game when it releases.*

I'm still not sure why any of this matters to you. If you feel my absence is tragic, simply double your pledge. It'll be like I'm vicariously pledging through you.
 
Last edited:
I'm still not sure why any of this matters to you. If you feel my absence is tragic, simply double your pledge. It'll be like I'm vicariously pledging through you.

I reccomend you to go see a doctor, you clearly have issues processing relatively simple information:

I'm not annoyed by how you choose to spend your money.
I'm annoyed because when you go around saying that rich companies like Sony - is the ones asking for the pledges from people - you are actually hurting the chances, for the not so rich developers - YS-Net - who's the actual benefactor of these pledges to receive them.
If you get what I mean.
 
I reccomend you to go see a doctor, you clearly have issues processing relatively simple information:

I guess that would make sense if only you ignore the contradictory part of my post where I never said the pledge money was going to Sony. In fact I said Sony was infusing the project with cash/resources.

Sony, Sega and Suzuki put up the kickstarter as a group effort, the game will be a Third Party Production title. Sony is infusing the project with cash... Sony is also looking to help kickstart other projects this way (according to them, not me). As far as I'm concerned, that is 100% accurate.

Do you think Suzuki put up this Kickstarter on his own? With an IP he doesn't own, and Sony just happened to help launch it and they just happen to be helping with funding, promotioning and marketing? This is all a big coincidence.
 
Last edited:
On budgetary issues, I do think you can do more with less money. UE4 is easy to use, and tools are light-years better than they were back then. I would worry about having to pay voice actors, though. It seems that would eat up most of the money... Guess it's time to bring up Bob, from accounting... I hear he has a nice baritone...
 
I guess that would make sense if only you ignore the contradictory part of my post where I never said the pledge money was going to Sony. In fact I said Sony was infusing the project with cash/resources.

Sony, Sega and Suzuki put up the kickstarter as a group effort, the game will be a Third Party Production title. Sony is infusing the project with cash... Sony is also looking to help kickstart other projects this way (according to them, not me). As far as I'm concerned, that is 100% accurate.

Do you think Suzuki put up this Kickstarter on his own? With an IP he doesn't own, and Sony just happened to help launch it and they just happen to be helping with funding, promotioning and marketing? This is all a big coincidence.

Third party productions's involvement is not a conicidence, and they are contributin - but it's not _their_ title.
Sony third party productions is helping (a partner) YS-Net to make it happen - but they are not involved with the Kickstarter. :-/
You are claiming that Sony third party productions have somehow struck a deal with the publishing powerhouse YS-Net to help develop and also publish their (Third party prodcutions) game - and Sony, Sega and YS-Net are trying to raise two million dollar on kickstarter in order to accomplish that? That is beyond ridickolous, and exactly opposite of what that studio were created to do. :-/
 
Third party productions's involvement is not a conicidence, and they are contributin - but it's not _their_ title.
Sony third party productions is helping (a partner) YS-Net to make it happen - but they are not involved with the Kickstarter. :-/
You are claiming that Sony third party productions have somehow struck a deal with the publishing powerhouse YS-Net to help develop and also publish their (Third party prodcutions) game - and Sony, Sega and YS-Net are trying to raise two million dollar on kickstarter in order to accomplish that? That is beyond ridickolous, and exactly opposite of what that studio were created to do. :-/

You literally just made all of that s*** up and attributed it to me. I didn't say any of that and if you thought I hinted at it, that's you're own problem.

I'm done.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sharkboy1200
There will be a twitch-chat tomorrow where he's supposed to talk about and answer questions about some of the various mini-games in the villages wich he have planned. :)

In the stretch-goal-video update today he mentioned one minigame in Baisha village, were a siege-game remiscant of 'warring kingdoms', where players would see who came out on top.
Tried googling for warring kingdoms, but just got up league of legends warring kingdoms nidalee, wich I doubt is the game he's talking about. :p
In any case, it seems like these minigames is pretty advanced.

I really like the minigames in Yakuza-franchise, 2 of them in the latest one could have been their own downloadable titles.
I don't know how many hours I played with that spaceship blob-shooter and the boxing manager mini-game, but those games would be perfectly fine as their own downloadable games.
I doubt we'll see minigames that advanced or fun, in Shenmue 3, but we can allways hope.. :p
 
There must be a reason why nobody will back it and they need a kickstarter fund.
Because the first two games had ungodly budgets and low sales. So publishers avoid it like the plague. And now gamers are backing it and very successfully so.
 
I think this would be an awesome VR game. But I know that even getting the game funded will be a challenge. Still would be cool as hell walking around a VR version of China.
 
I guess that would make sense if only you ignore the contradictory part of my post where I never said the pledge money was going to Sony. In fact I said Sony was infusing the project with cash/resources.

Sony, Sega and Suzuki put up the kickstarter as a group effort, the game will be a Third Party Production title. Sony is infusing the project with cash... Sony is also looking to help kickstart other projects this way (according to them, not me). As far as I'm concerned, that is 100% accurate.

Do you think Suzuki put up this Kickstarter on his own? With an IP he doesn't own, and Sony just happened to help launch it and they just happen to be helping with funding, promotioning and marketing? This is all a big coincidence.
Sony is every part of these Kickstarter partnership deals, no matter what they say. They are helping by infusing money towards marketing and publishing.

So at the end of the day, the total pot of money from Kickstarter contributions and Sony corporate coffers is added up. Some goes to people making the game, some goes to paying for marketing glitz when the game gets further along and released in 2017.

It really makes no difference how that pot is split up because at the end of the day, Sony spending let's say $2M on marketing/publishing from their own balance sheet or taking it from Kickstarter, and Yu getting $2M from Sony's coffers for development is really a wash.

It's no different than at my work. I've always worked for big companies that have all kinds of budgets. Sales budgets, marketing budgets, SG&A budgets, travel expense budgets etc.... Although each dept is supposed to manage their own budgets, at the end of the day the execs can move money around. It's a zero sum game. This dept takes money from that dept. That dept dept turns back money to another dept etc....

Sony and Yu are doing the same thing. Sony says they aren't going to touch the KS money. We'll see. It'll be interesting what kind of deal they have in regards to marketing funds, publishing deals, exclusivity, Sony taking a cut etc....

Yu claims there's $2M, $5M and $10M goals. If gamer contributions come to a halt, we'll see if Sony sits back and does nothing, or tosses them some cash to top them up to the next level.

Sony isn't doing this in the goodness of their hearts. There's money to be made, that's why they've latched onto it.
 
Last edited:
Sony is every part of these Kickstarter partnership deals, no matter what they say. They are helping by infusing money towards marketing and publishing.

So at the end of the day, the total pot of money from Kickstarter contributions and Sony corporate coffers is added up. Some goes to people making the game, some goes to paying for marketing glitz when the game gets further along and released in 2017.

It really makes no difference how that pot is split up because at the end of the day, Sony spending let's say $2M on marketing/publishing from their own balance sheet or taking it from Kickstarter, and Yu getting $2M from Sony's coffers for development is really a wash.

It's no different than at my work. I've always worked for big companies that have all kinds of budgets. Sales budgets, marketing budgets, SG&A budgets, travel expense budgets etc.... Although each dept is supposed to manage their own budgets, at the end of the day the execs can move money around. It's a zero sum game. This dept takes money from that dept. That dept dept turns back money to another dept etc....

Sony and Yu are doing the same thing. Sony says they aren't going to touch the KS money. We'll see. It'll be interesting what kind of deal they have in regards to marketing funds, publishing deals, exclusivity, Sony taking a cut etc....

Yu claims there's $2M, $5M and $10M goals. If gamer contributions come to a halt, we'll see if Sony sits back and does nothing, or tosses them some cash to top them up to the next level.

Sony isn't doing this in the goodness of their hearts. There's money to be made, that's why they've latched onto it.

It's far more important to them for PR. They are playing up the "for the gamers" thing. It's smart, and gets us some long wanted games made, but it feels more like politics to me. People should not attribute altruistic characteristics. If they didn't benefit, they wouldn't do it. There is nothing wrong with that, as it still works out for us, but there is no need to become shills.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sharkboy1200
I kinda feel for the guy as his magnum opus is being tossed around like a drunk frat girl, but this is too hilarious not to post.


http://www.p4rgaming.com/yu-suzuki-...-iii-if-it-ever-gets-released/comment-page-1/

I'm going to guess that is one bad translation. I'll guess he means if everyone working on the game dead he would finish it himself.

I don't get online folk they just want to be f***ing negative as s*** if you don't think the kick starter is good don't back it and STFU same goes for so called gaming news sites who just use negativity and try and get hits like mean stream media does.

This is not a full reply to you but what I've been reading everyone f***ing guessed sony was going to help with the game I men no s*** folks way to turn common f***ing sense into a way to bash something.
 
I kinda feel for the guy as his magnum opus is being tossed around like a drunk frat girl, but this is too hilarious not to post.


http://www.p4rgaming.com/yu-suzuki-...-iii-if-it-ever-gets-released/comment-page-1/

"When it was finished and the video feed was cut off, Suzuki said in Japanese that he hopes that everyone involved with this game dies after it is over and that he will do it himself if he has to. He wanted to make sure that everyone trying to take advantage of the Shenmue legacy will end up dead."

"After the outburst, the two aiding Suzuki on the stream quickly tried to end it and merely muffled the microphone as they struggled with the technological difficulties of using a video camera. We attempted to decipher what Suzuki said afterwards and came up with a partial translation of his personal kill list.
  • The executives at Sony
  • The people at Awesome Japan
  • Everyone who lied to me saying that they would support Shenmue III
  • My hopes and dreams
  • The people sitting next to me"
:crazy: :laugh:

Sounds like things are going well.