I Doubt Shenmue III will ever see the light of day

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BanjoPickles
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I Doubt Shenmue III will ever see the light of day

Postby BanjoPickles » July 1st, 2015, 2:49 pm

I'm one of the people who has hoped, against all hope, that a sequel would one day materialize. When I heard about the E3 announcement, I was elated....until reality set in.

The game currently sits at $3.7 million. That's a good number, but not Shenmue good. Yu Suzuki has now increased the amount to $10 million, a number that is double the largest amount ever contributed to a kickstarter campaign. That's just a drop in the bucket to what it would actually cost to make the thing! There's no way that Sony would pony up the rest, and there's even less of a chance that anybody else would invest in a project that has next to no chance of turning a profit. It would be nice to see Sega support the project by releasing the first two on PSN, but I don't think that it'll happen. Their window of riding the wave of free publicity is closing fast.

I want to believe that, somehow, Shenmue 3 could happen, but I just don't see it. Does anybody else feel the same?

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JustLikeHeaven
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Re: I Doubt Shenmue III will ever see the light of day

Postby JustLikeHeaven » July 1st, 2015, 3:36 pm

It still looks like the Kickstarter is set at it's original goal of $2 million space bucks.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ys ... escription

The rest of the money looks like stretch goals to add more content to the game. Everything I've read is that the Kickstarter was simply created to gauge interest. The game is going to cost way more than the $2 million that they're asking for. My understanding, from articles that I've read, is that Sony is funding the rest of the development and publishing costs. Basically the E3 stuff was a big way to generate hype for the Kickstarter.

Personally, I don't see how this doesn't get made in some way or form. There would be so much egg on Sony's face if they fail to deliver this. Plus having Kickstarter involved means that if it doesn't come out the potential for a lawsuit is very high. Chances are they'd just refund everyone their money, but man...it would create a lot of bad publicity for Sony.

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ActRaiser
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Re: I Doubt Shenmue III will ever see the light of day

Postby ActRaiser » July 1st, 2015, 6:26 pm

If you look at what's offered in the tiers, did anyone else notice that there's no offer for a physical PS4 game? It's a digital copy for the PS4 or PC OR a physical copy for PC on one of the upper tiers.

I'm guessing this falls into the digital only release for PS4 at least initially.

As it's a digital only title there's far less risk from a publisher's perspective. There's nothing to box up, print, manufacture, eat unsold copies of, etc. Now, if it proves to sell via digital only then you can expect a physical copy later.

I've got to admit the PS4 is the go to console for adventure games with multiple Tim Schafer games available and then the Tell Tale games on top of it. Plus, Sony would have major egg on their face taking money from gamers and then not delivering anything.

Now, if this was a post about The Last Guardian or FFVII...

Microsoft did the same thing with The Phantom Dust as well...And the same seems to have happened to Nintendo's Project: Giant Robot from last year. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until next E3 to see where it's at. It should be pretty easy to see how things are progressing by that point.

BanjoPickles
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Re: I Doubt Shenmue III will ever see the light of day

Postby BanjoPickles » July 2nd, 2015, 12:48 am

I hope you guys are right. I just don't see Sony dropping fifteen million on something that may sell 500,000 tops. Shenmue 1 sold 1 million back in 1999, and 2 sold far less. I just don't see this project making much sense, financially.

Another thing that I seriously worry about is something that I'll call the Nights syndrome. Shenmue was amazing when it first came out. In fact, I remember being sucked into it like no other game I had ever played before. However, I worry that 3 runs the risk of not having that same magic. Unless something were to be worked out with Sega, you won't see the arcade, nor the Sega collectibles from the gumball machines. Also, the idea of a wide, open world has become an industry standard that was established by Shenmue, and I worry that it may feel antiquated. With Nights, Journey Into Dreams made me question the durability of the first game. I don't want the same to happen to Shenmue.

I'm sorry to be such a downer, but I'll believe this project is real when real work is done on the development end. Whatever happened to the River City Ransom sequel that exceeded its kickstarter goal? I haven't heard a thing about that game in at least two years, and that game is minuscule compared to Shenmue.

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Atariboy
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Re: I Doubt Shenmue III will ever see the light of day

Postby Atariboy » July 2nd, 2015, 4:10 am

BanjoPickles wrote:I just don't see this project making much sense, financially.


Does it even need to?

Just the positive reaction alone likely more than justifies Sony subsidizing fan-service like this. Assuming that you're correct and it will perform rather modestly when it actually is released rather than be a profitable release on a direct cost basis, I still think that Sony wins.

I think Shenmue 3 from Sony's perspective is all about the intangible benefits.

Vexer6
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Re: I Doubt Shenmue III will ever see the light of day

Postby Vexer6 » July 2nd, 2015, 11:30 am


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Rev
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Re: I Doubt Shenmue III will ever see the light of day

Postby Rev » July 2nd, 2015, 5:14 pm

Shenmue 3 will very likely happen at this point since the kickstarter started off so successful and still has generated a lot of hype around the game. I wish the kickstarter would have a better organizer or something because it definitely feels lacking. Still, in one form or another the game will come to fruition.

Tron
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Re: I Doubt Shenmue III will ever see the light of day

Postby Tron » July 3rd, 2015, 3:02 pm

For many years there were many games that I hoped would some day get sequels or remakes. Now I'd probably prefer that they don't even bother since in all likelihood they'll be digital releases only. I'm glad Tactics Ogre got a remake on the PSP, so at least that happened, but with everything else I've been waiting for time has probably run out.

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Atariboy
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Re: I Doubt Shenmue III will ever see the light of day

Postby Atariboy » July 4th, 2015, 3:03 am

PS4 physical reward edition announced

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ys ... ts/1283532

I hope they have a heck of a virtual arcade included, since that's going to be the only reason why I purchase this. I bought Shenmue 2 for the Xbox used for $10 or $15 a few years back just to play Hang-On. The main game itself didn't do much for me.

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Rev
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Re: I Doubt Shenmue III will ever see the light of day

Postby Rev » July 4th, 2015, 10:37 am

Damn... I was going to post that. Curses.

Anyway, I might actually drop money on the kickstarter now. The kickstarter states that the PS4 physical reward comes with a special edition cover that will only be available to kickstarter supporters. So basically, even if you don't support it there will be a physical release.


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