Shenmue 3 (Kickstarter)

Ren2k7 wrote: »

There seems to be some confusion (still!) over this game. Shenmue III doesn't have a cent of development costs from anyone else, just whatever they get in these KS and PP campaigns. Sony is covering the cost of converting the PS4 version, publishing and marketing it. Shibuya meanwhile are handling the PC release. But there won't be a game to publish or market without funding from the public in Kickstarter and PayPal contributions. Whatever Yu/Neilo gets in funding from backers is what they'll have for their budget. There are no matching funds forthcoming either.

This has been explained right from the beginning which makes all this concern trolling even now to be quite tiresome.

I know I'm being cynical, but I continue to struggle to believe this is true. It just seems so improbable that the game will get made with the amount of money it has earned (and I can't imagine a 'slacker backer' campaign will come close to matching the Kickstarter amount).

Simply put: $6 million seems like an awfully small amount to develop Shenmue 3. And that $6 million shrinks further - significantly further - when we consider Kickstarter fees, reward fulfillment, taxes, and the cost of development in Japan (not to mention it probably involves a decent sized development team - it's not exactly an independent production!).

Shenmue 3 is ideally going to be a large, ambitious, fully 3D game with impressive production values - at least I reckon everybody hopes it is! Even accepting that the team are going to have to take a step back in terms of scale compared to the first two games out of sheer necessity, and giving them the benefit of the doubt that they will creatively and frugally work with what they have, a crowdfunding only budget for a game of this scope boggles the mind. Given that we have seen many examples of even hugely successful Kickstarter titles stumble financially, a paltry few million dollars seems barely enough to sustain two years (or more) development of a highly anticipated, ambitious sequel - at least not to the quality level the creators or fans would like (I know Yu Suzuki has said $10 million would be ideal, but even that seems low to me).

I don't know: a solely crowdfunded Shenmue 3 is simply such an improbable concept to me, even accepting that a Shenmue 3 with the resources of its predecessors is never going to happen and everybody will just have to adjust accordingly. No doubt the Kickstarter money helped (even if, cynically, I reckon it was as much a cheap marketing / pre-order campaign as a tool to raise money), but Sony's assistance must surely be incredibly valuable in getting this game off the ground. In an extreme scenario, and the crowdfunding is the budget, then I'd be really surprised - and legitimately impressed! - if anybody ends up with the game they wanted, rather than a heavily compromised version of it.