While I agree that Sony should have funded some of it, I don't hold any of this against them. (For all we know, maybe there is more to this than we know so far.) It was unlikely that any publisher would want to fund the game. It didn't sell well on Dreamcast or XBOX and lost Sega lot of money. With Sony giving it some time at the E3 press conference, they at least offered the exposure that the kickstarter wouldn't have gotten otherwise by itself. Over the next 30 days, I think it will become clear what involvement Sony has, or lack thereof. Anyway, my personal wish list: - Physical PS4 release. (Probably will happen) - Ports of 1 and 2 with widescreen. Higher resolution models and textures would be nice, if they exist. (We know the more detailed character models exist at least, since Shenmue Passport used them) - Character models closer to the original - More behind the scenes stuff. The GDC presentation last year was neat. Maybe a documentary? Shenmue 2 was my most-played Dreamcast game. I don't really think anything they can do now can live up to that, but it will be nice to see the story finished. The 3 areas they've revealed sound fairly rural, which doesn't give them a lot of opportunity to re-create one of my favorite things about the 1st, and especially the 2nd game. That to me was the cities, with all of the shops you could go into, and things to see. I'm not sure if there's really an area appropriate for another arcade, but I hope so. I'm expecting more street gambling again.
Sony probably IS funding this- I doubt the budget'll be just 2 millions. Instead, this is probably just to prove there's demand for it.
That's my biggest fear. It's likely the game is already in development and the crowd funding is basically to line Sony's pockets. I mean, it could very well be the only option the team had for official funding from Sony was 2mil upfront so who knows what the case was. Or maybe Sony was just kindly lending a platform to promote the kickstarter (higly doubt it...). I was lamenting earlier in irc that it's too bad we don't have a true industry watchdog. I mean this sort of thing is what journalists would look into, but all we have are blogs who will simply fuel the hype train because that's all they know how to do. These are only suspicions of course, but this is potential abuse (if not legally, then morally) of the crowd funding system and I'd think any savvy journalist would at least cut through the hype to see what exactly went down here.
I wouldn't be surprised if they hold off the next city until Shenmue IV? Remember Shenmue was supposed to have 16 chapters, and we're only up to 5.
Well, it's finally happening. I bet Sega PR are pleased if for no other reason than the spam on their social media will now just be PSO2 based. =P Kickstarter's now just short of $1.5 million, still not 8 hours in.
The fastest video game kickstarter in history, second fastest kickstarter period. Amazing response to a legendary game maker.
If SEGA is smart, they'll have these prepared for when the Kickstarter is successful to cash in on them as soon as possible. Also I went to bed knowing Yu had tweeted a picture of a forklift at E3 earlier in the day and assuming he was trolling. I wake up and Shenmue 3 has $1.8 million in funding. Duck races in Shenmue 3 please. Also fuck yes Shenmue 3. Can you tell I'm excited? Shenmue 3. Shenmue 3. Shenmue 3.
Ryo and Shenhua look horrible. What happened to the character designs? Even if everything is WIP, to start off with this just completely discourages me. Ryo looks like he literally aged the 14 years they've been gone (or more) and he's applied lots of makeup to try to look as young as he did then, and Shenhua looks like the pretty actress quit and some lesser attractive generic Chinese girl took her place. I hope they change this...
No way that a mere 2 million is going to be enough for this behemoth. But why would Sony only partially fund it? I'm guessing theyre doing so at least. SEGA haven't sold the right or anything, because it's still being licensed by them and any new IP holder would be shouting it from the rooftops.