Shenmue 3 (Kickstarter)

More than even Bloodstained, I think this illustrates a culture shift in what Kickstarter is being used for.

There's not a hope in hell $2 million, even $8-10 million (assuming this breaks existing records, which it probably will) could fund Shenmue 3, especially if it's being developed in Japan! Even taking into account the first was the most expensive game made at the time and a massively cut budget was inevitable. What I reckon is happening here is that Sony and perhaps several others have guaranteed the bulk of development funding - with a Kickstarter in place just to prove for certain it will recoup some money (and guarantee tens of thousands of pre-orders ).

So yeah: maybe there is a contractual stipulation that the funding would not be made available without a successful Kickstarter, suggesting this would then not be made. I wouldn't be surprised if more cult classic games and creators go down this route. But it was a business-savvy (and a little cynical, depending on how you look at it) move by Sony to announce this the way it did, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar funding model applied for future 'cult classic' follow-ups - even if Shenmue 3 is the daddy of them all.

As for the game itself, curious to see how it's actually delivered. Without the luxurious budget of the last games, it'll be fascinating to see what approach is adopted to make the most out of resources while still delivering a step forward. Or perhaps they'll be content to create something that really feels in line with the originals - given what was expensive then will be much more reasonable now.

Captain Chaos wrote: »

But then why the kickstarter, to gauge public interest to see how many million they should pump into the project?

As I said above: publicity, pre-orders (Kickstarter: gamer approved pre-ordering!) and a possible deal that full funds would only be delivered on the back of a successful campaign Like Bloodstained, it's incredibly obvious crowd funding would not be sufficient on its own to fund the game.

While it's quite cheeky that there wasn't more details on the campaign page, at the same time I'm surprised people don't realise that Kickstarter alone isn't enough totally (barely even partially) to fund anything but small independent titles. And even then...