Ben-DutkaWhen people learned that Sony was backing Shenmue 3 , assumptions were made.
To clarify the situation, franchise creator Yu Suzuki has left a Funding and Budget Statement on the game's Kickstarter page .
He said all the funds will go to Ys Net for development purposes, while Sony and Shibuya Productions "are not seeing a cent of your Kickstarter dollars." And as Suzuki added:
"While it is not business practice to discuss the specific details of such arrangements, I can say that with their assistance on the production and marketing end, and in Sony’s case with some publishing support as well, Ys Net is able to use more of the money we collect through Kickstarter purely for Shenmue 3’s development."
The project has raised over $3.6 million but activity has slowed significantly since E3. There are $5 million and $10 million Stretch Goals but for the time being, perhaps only the $5 million goal is realistic. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Here's Suzuki's take on those Stretch Goals:
"Even if these Stretch Goals are not reached, Shenmue 3 will already be a sequel true to its name, and one we can all be proud of. It is my hope though, that together we can make this Shenmue just as revolutionary as the first two were."
Related Game(s): Shenmue 3
Yea, sadly Shenmue 3 will struggle to get much passed 5 million unless some big jolt happens to get it rolling fast again.
I'm thinking of upping my support amount.
One of the stretch goals should be for HD remasters/remakes of the first two games. If that's not possible, Sony needs to publish them soon so we can all get caught up.
Sony can't publish either, since they don't own the publishing rights to those games. Sega and Microsoft do.
Hmmm. Though they are including the movie scenes from the first two games Bio. There may be more leeway here then you're suggesting.
Suzuki has said Sega is being flexible with giving him the rights to make Shenmue III, without really going into detail, so I assume they're going to let him use/recreate certain assets from the first two games to that end.
I think that's a bit different than allowing Ys Net or Sony the rights to recreate/remaster/re-release the first two games. It's especially doubtful when MS has the NA publishing rights to Shenmue II since they were the only reason the game released here at all.
Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE to replay the first two in HD, especially since it's been years since I went through either, I just don't think it's very likely that we'll get any remasters anytime soon, except for maybe the first game and it'd likely be from Sega.
When did Microsoft get the rights thought it was only Sega?
Shenmue II was only available in North America on Xbox, and was published by Microsoft. The Dreamcast version was only released in Japan and PAL territories and Sega had no plans to release it here because of poor sales. MS bought the NA publishing rights.
Why cant this game make it's 10 million goal? There's obviously a demand for it, as evident in it reaching it's initial goal. Surely with Sony 'Winning E3' partially because of this games announcement on their stage. If they're really this years E3 heroes, why arent they, a multi-billion dollar company doing it for The Players? Smoke and Mirrors. Like I already said before, it's the dev's not Sony deserve to be garnering the praise for working hard to fund their game.
Funding fell off sharply once it was announced that Sony had been backing the game all along. People don't like it when publishers play dirty pool, and they logically see little reason in personally funding a game that's already being funded by a multi-billion dollar corporation.
I know several people who kicked in, who say they wouldn't have if they'd known about Sony's involvement, but now they're locked in since the kickstarter reached its goal. Sucks for them, but they should have known better. No publisher is going to give a guy a worldwide stage to announce a kickstarter unless they've already got a piece of that action.
I think funding fell once the core fans from 15 years ago who happen to still care cast their lots.
Shenmue was a special moment in gaming but I doubt the series ever sold more than a couple million at best, the first and second game combined. It always appeared on losing platforms so it's mass acceptance was never there.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 6/25/2015 2:34:30 PM
People's desire for a game to exist doesn't necessarily translate to sales for that game. That's why these endeavours are tricky for publishers and I think Kickstarter is a great way to go. It basically makes people put their money where their mouth is before a huge investment is made.
Could Shen3 really be as revolutionary as it was back when?
No shame in doing what's been done already, but pretty much impossible that part 3 of ANY series is going to have as much impact as part 1, you know?
Ha. Probably not. This is simply providing closure to a series that was left unfinished. I expect the game to be largely rejected by most who weren't fans of the series to begin with.
The first game released when many gamers were still in their diapers and grew up with games like Halo.
I'm curious how they'll handle the controls
Last edited by Temjin001 on 6/25/2015 2:22:36 PM
Except the Dreamcast had dual analog sticks 😛
Either way, though, I agree that it probably won't ever seem like a big deal to people who didn't play the originals, but I want closure. Lan Di must pay. Lan Di must die.
Last edited by Bio on 6/25/2015 2:26:11 PM
I have a dreamcast hooked up right now Bio, it does not have 2 analog sticks.
You're right, I'm not sure why I thought it did. I guess it's been too long since I played that console. Whoops!
hopefully they'll add 1 & 2 HD along with 3. I never had a chance to play them due to being on Dreamcast
Last edited by SuMtOnE on 6/25/2015 4:02:04 PM
I'm betting Sega will release a HD set of the first 2 games to help drum up interest and ride on the possible success of shenmue 3
Shenmue II was only available in North America on Xbox, and was published by Microsoft. The Dreamcast version was only released in Japan and PAL territories and Sega had no plans to release it here because of poor sales. MS bought the NA publishing rights.
Funding fell off sharply once it was announced that Sony had been backing the game all along. People don't like it when publishers play dirty pool, and they logically see little reason in personally funding a game that's already being funded by a multi-billion dollar corporation.
I know several people who kicked in, who say they wouldn't have if they'd known about Sony's involvement, but now they're locked in since the kickstarter reached its goal. Sucks for them, but they should have known better. No publisher is going to give a guy a worldwide stage to announce a kickstarter unless they've already got a piece of that action.
Why cant this game make it's 10 million goal? There's obviously a demand for it, as evident in it reaching it's initial goal. Surely with Sony 'Winning E3' partially because of this games announcement on their stage. If they're really this years E3 heroes, why arent they, a multi-billion dollar company doing it for The Players? Smoke and Mirrors. Like I already said before, it's the dev's not Sony deserve to be garnering the praise for working hard to fund their game.
Except the Dreamcast had dual analog sticks 😛
Either way, though, I agree that it probably won't ever seem like a big deal to people who didn't play the originals, but I want closure. Lan Di must pay. Lan Di must die.
Last edited by Bio on 6/25/2015 2:26:11 PM
I have a dreamcast hooked up right now Bio, it does not have 2 analog sticks.
Ha. Probably not. This is simply providing closure to a series that was left unfinished. I expect the game to be largely rejected by most who weren't fans of the series to begin with.
The first game released when many gamers were still in their diapers and grew up with games like Halo.
I'm curious how they'll handle the controls
Last edited by Temjin001 on 6/25/2015 2:22:36 PM
I think funding fell once the core fans from 15 years ago who happen to still care cast their lots.
Shenmue was a special moment in gaming but I doubt the series ever sold more than a couple million at best, the first and second game combined. It always appeared on losing platforms so it's mass acceptance was never there.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 6/25/2015 2:34:30 PM
No shame in doing what's been done already, but pretty much impossible that part 3 of ANY series is going to have as much impact as part 1, you know?
Yea, sadly Shenmue 3 will struggle to get much passed 5 million unless some big jolt happens to get it rolling fast again.
I'm thinking of upping my support amount.
Suzuki has said Sega is being flexible with giving him the rights to make Shenmue III, without really going into detail, so I assume they're going to let him use/recreate certain assets from the first two games to that end.
I think that's a bit different than allowing Ys Net or Sony the rights to recreate/remaster/re-release the first two games. It's especially doubtful when MS has the NA publishing rights to Shenmue II since they were the only reason the game released here at all.
Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE to replay the first two in HD, especially since it's been years since I went through either, I just don't think it's very likely that we'll get any remasters anytime soon, except for maybe the first game and it'd likely be from Sega.
When did Microsoft get the rights thought it was only Sega?
One of the stretch goals should be for HD remasters/remakes of the first two games. If that's not possible, Sony needs to publish them soon so we can all get caught up.
Hmmm. Though they are including the movie scenes from the first two games Bio. There may be more leeway here then you're suggesting.
Sony can't publish either, since they don't own the publishing rights to those games. Sega and Microsoft do.
People's desire for a game to exist doesn't necessarily translate to sales for that game. That's why these endeavours are tricky for publishers and I think Kickstarter is a great way to go. It basically makes people put their money where their mouth is before a huge investment is made.
I'm betting Sega will release a HD set of the first 2 games to help drum up interest and ride on the possible success of shenmue 3
Could Shen3 really be as revolutionary as it was back when?
hopefully they'll add 1 & 2 HD along with 3. I never had a chance to play them due to being on Dreamcast
Last edited by SuMtOnE on 6/25/2015 4:02:04 PM
You're right, I'm not sure why I thought it did. I guess it's been too long since I played that console. Whoops!