Shenmue III - For Real This Time (Was "Yu Suzuki, a Forklift, & E3 - What Does It Mean?")

[sfchakan]

There is a good amount of discussion online about this being the future of a good chunk of gaming. Sell your game before it's made to a fanbase, then deliver whatever you feel like/can in the end. If the backers don't like the finished product, screw em', you already have their money. It's a slippery slope.

I wonder how many games people are willing to Kickstarter when you have people like Tim Schafer out there overpromising and under-delivering. Also, will consumers be fine with ponying up cash ~2 years in advance for so many games? I don't think that's the case for the majority of projects out there.

[CDiablo]

I wonder how many games people are willing to Kickstarter when you have people like Tim Schafer out there overpromising and under-delivering. Also, will consumers be fine with ponying up cash ~2 years in advance for so many games? I don't think that's the case for the majority of projects out there.

Kickstarters happen and fail all the time at the indy level. Historically any game that has a name attached to it (Schafer, Iga, Infanue, Suzuki) seem to not only get funded, but well funded past what they initially ask for. They are taking advantage of nostalgia and people are willing to pay until they get burned.

[The Adventurer]

Kickstarters happen and fail all the time at the indy level. Historically any game that has a name attached to it (Schafer, Iga, Infanue, Suzuki) seem to not only get funded, but well funded past what they initially ask for. They are taking advantage of nostalgia and people are willing to pay until they get burned.

People like to back a proven track record. That's not nostalgia, that's good business sense.

[JSoup]

People like to back a proven track record. That's not nostalgia, that's good business sense.

Yeah, that worked out real well for Double Fine backers, didn't it?

[The Adventurer]

Yeah, that worked out real well for Double Fine backers, didn't it?

Yes. Yes it did. I got exactly the game i payed for.

[kupomogli]

What I'd like to eventually see is Japanese developers that don't have faith in their product overseas, have a Kickstarter to fund localized physical or digital releases of the product. Yakuza 5 is being released in the west finally, but how long did it take? A long fu**ing time, and it's only because Sony really pushed in bringing it over as they're the ones localizing it, while Sega makes the comment about how they're doing it for their fans. Sega was bullshitting everyone who doesn't have the common sense to see through their lies.

A lot of Japanese publishers are starting to become more comfortable in publishing more games in the west recently, and imo it's mostly because of the success of the PS4 and many games being PS4/Vita or PS4/PS3. Namco Bandai published Graces F on the PS3 as a sort of test game and we've been getting every Tales game since, so that might have also caught Japanese publishers eyes. So this gen looks like Japanese games will return and be a major focus in western gaming, not as big as western games, but not be almost invisible like last gen in comparison to western titles.

Regardless how Shenmue 3 turns out, I think high profile developers having like IGA and Yu Suzuki having Kickstarters that have done so well are going to go a long way in showing that western gamers want more Japanese games.

[JSoup]

Yes. Yes it did. I got exactly the game i payed for.

Which game are we talking about? They've Kickstarted more than one.
And if you'd bothered to look at the easily accessible information that you as a supposed backer were given freely, you'd see that, no, you don't get what you paid for, in any of the cases.

[sfchakan]

Well, to be fair, Yakuza 4 only sold something like 140,000 copies in North America according to a google search I did. Is that enough to justify an English localization for a game that size?

Unfortunately, we're getting a digital release only here in the States. What a bummer.

[JSoup]

I'm kinda hoping between now and then the first two Shenmue games are ported. A quick search tells me that they are on system I don't own and a tad expensive to boot.

Edit: Also, copying this from Neogaf, but apparently Gio Corsi stated on E3 stream (http://www.twitch.tv/playstation/v/6249998 around 57:10) that Sony is personally helping with funding and development of Shenmue 3. So that probably nixes any chance of a 360 release, although not absolutely. Sony has helped fund games in the past that have gone multi-platform.

[Gentlegamer]

Because in the future in which we live, "classic gaming" business models are dead in favor of unfinished, 1000 patches pending, DLC-laden, IAP-addled business models which aim to basically charge double for a game by charging once for the bulk and once again when you add up the costs of all of the DLC for a product which, when released to the world in a so-called "gold master" state, is in fact in what used to be considered an early internal beta state.

So when you want to release a game in the mold of a "classic gaming" business model, SONY takes one look at the super successful Kickstarter projects, licks its lips, and thinks to itself, "Why pay for development when the crazy fanatics will? Let's skip manufacturing and distributing physical copies which imbue people with first sale rights, go digital only to drive our distribution costs down to near-zero, and skip development costs by externalizing that factor to the most die-hard fans out there. Then we can just toss out an advertising campaign for the thing, have that as our only business cost, and reap all of the profits we can!" The company then turns to the hopeful game developer and offers a cash incentive to him if he can raise enough capital through a crowd-funding campaign in exchange for a time-limited window of console exclusivity.

Sad but true.

[Tanooki]

Im going to be pretty upset if this doesn't come to XBOX. Since it's a kickstarter hopefully its a stretch goal, but I wouldn't be shocked if Sony paid handsomely to make sure that doesnt happen.

Edit: They are charging $30 for a digitial version, and there is no PS4 physical.......this reeks of indy game and not full game experience.

Sony NEEDS to do that. Nintendo could learn a lesson more to do that as well. That's the big problem these last couple generations on systems. They're f'd up port boxes with nothing original on any of them other than what their own 1st and 2nd party partners make. You used to be able to get a lot of unique titles when they'd court developers and pay them a sum to not do it elsewhere for a year if ever. Then it went to making it for any system a developer wasn't an anti-fanboy for when there was enough of a base to justify a title, and now it's just because of their screw ups f-Nintendo and put it on PC, PS4 and the One.

Sony learned that lesson well, look at them paying for like a large chunk of not only the Street Fighter V development, but also locked down any super, ultra, uber stupor super dooper revival X releases as well. SF is crack to 2D fighting gamers and it's just on PS4 or PC, and anything on PC easily ports to MS junk. If this is PC+PS4 now and you don't see within a week or two a stretch adding 'the one' on the kickstarter, Sony pulled one over on MS again which is funny.


I hate kickstarter, but damn that was a good point. Iga, Inafune, etc. The total blowouts and destruction of their goals and stretches into absurdity goes to show that this stupid myth the west hates Japanese games is bullshit. If people are willing due to a developmental track record to throw that much cash at a Japanese guys promised game to come, there's definitely a market beyond the dude bros fools who lap up all the call of honor madden woods sports games.

[Gentlegamer]

In other news, I decided to look into getting a copy of Shenmue II... I had seen it not long ago all over ebay for around $20 but passed it up because I hadn't played my copy of Shenmue yet, now it's $60+.

I guess I can hope there's a PC rerelease of the games in the future.

In the meantime, I really hate the modern video game climate.

[Leo_A]

Maybe we'll get those rumored XBLA/PSN conversions finally.

Isn't Yakuza in many ways a spiritual successor to Shenmue? I wonder how many of those that are excited about this, realize that there's a successful and long established franchise that has appeared in the intervening years that shares a lot of common elements that people loved about Shenmue.

[Gentlegamer]

Good point about Yakuza, I've never played it but it always sounded interesting to me.

In other discussions about localizing Yakuza games, I've heard the argument that there's no need for full English VA localization, the audience would be fine with English subtitles. I actually think I would be fine with that, too.

[sfchakan]

I would be fine with English subtitles. Especially if it meant more Yakuza games and not lagging behind multiple years with the localization.

[PreZZ]

The recent kickstarters like mighty no.9, bloodstained and shemue should send a strong signal to the old Japanese publishers. Stop fucking around and just give us the games we want, we are funding brand new IPs that are copies of your properties! Except for shenmue, but im intrigued to know how sega let ys net have the license to shenmue or how much it costed. Sad that sega is no part of it, but then again fuck them for all their bullshit cough*pso2*cough they treat non japanese consumers like shit.

[PizzaKat]

Shenmue was interesting but got boring at times. I haven't finished the 2nd but it was ho hum. I'm glad the 3rd will eventually be released for the fans.

[Nz17]

I'm not surprised that the prices of the earlier Shenmue games went up after this announcement. The same thing happened to the earlier Mega Man Legends games after the announcement of a new entry in that series. I'm glad that I imported a European Dreamcast copy of Shenmue II around 2005 - 2010 because that allowed me to continue my save from Shenmue I. Yes, I had to use a hex editor to alter my save file, but thankfully there's a homebrew Dreamcast app that lets you do that, and in fact there is a dedicated homebrew app just for switching the region of your Shenmue I save to carry over into the Japanese and European Shenmue II games. So if you're not too picky about platforms or just want to play Shenmue II on the superior console ;-) I'd say you should buy the Dreamcast Shenmue II . Sure they added the ability to take screenshots as snapshots in the Xbox port of Shenmue II, but if you import the European Shenmue II, you will get Japanese voice acting with English subtitles instead of the stilted American English dubbing found in the Xbox release.

***

It looks like the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter project has already completed its earliest stretch goals. Sure there are higher stretch goals for building bigger and better cities into the game and more cities, but there are also lower stretch goals for adding subtitles in various European languages. They have already fulfilled many of the stretch goals at 2.1 million dollars and so forth, but they are almost at 3 million dollars in funding now so they probably will make that $4 million stretch goal and beyond.

[The 1 2 P]

If this is PC+PS4 now and you don't see within a week or two a stretch adding 'the one' on the kickstarter, Sony pulled one over on MS again which is funny.

Paying to have a decade old franchise(that has never been profitable) on your system isn't pulling one over on Microsoft. It just means that Sony has another console exclusive on their system. As someone that doesn't own a PS4 I don't have a problem with this at all but I think Sony should have funded the whole project without the need of kickstarter. But I assure you Microsoft isn't one bit concerned with not having this game as an exclusive on XBO, especially since there's a chance it might eventually be released on it anyway.

[The 1 2 P]

What I'd like to eventually see is Japanese developers that don't have faith in their product overseas, have a Kickstarter to fund localized physical or digital releases of the product.

I like this idea as well. From Software should get started on making one to have Metal Wolf Chaos released on XBO as a download and retail release. I bet if they approached Microsoft they would probably help fund it too.