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Sony is officially helping with funding and development with Shenmue 3

Kickstarter states that they are unsure about other platforms being supported. It's better than saying exclusive. Hopefully if the Kickstarter does REALLY well, they can look in to it.
 
And Wii U and Vita. However, there comes a point where adding more platforms leads to diminishing returns. In the case of games like Shenmue and FF7, I wouldn't be surprised if the developers conclude that the vast majority of their potential customers are covered by PC and PS4, and settle on just those two platforms.


Sony is almost certainly putting a lot of money into Shenmue. Kickstarter can only finance a part of the game, and the rest has to come from somewhere else. It's possible that YS Net has other financiers lined up, but Sony is still likely to be the largest among them. The game is organized like other Indie funds games in technical terms, but it occupies a much more important position than any of them.

Between your guessing, and Yu Suzuki's statements, I'm going to take Suzuki's word at this point that the majority of funding is coming from crowdfunding and Sony isn't contributing all that much. That may change, and I hope it does, but I think to assume something different is potentially dangerous for the KS.
 

4Tran

Member
Between your guessing, and Yu Suzuki's statements, I'm going to take Suzuki's word at this point that the majority of funding is coming from crowdfunding and Sony isn't contributing all that much. That may change, and I hope it does, but I think to assume something different is potentially dangerous for the KS.
I just don't see how this is a game that can be made on the cheap. The largest Kickstarter game ever was Bloodstained, and that made $5.5M, and the only way that much money can cover more than half of Shenmue III's development is if it's tiny compared to its predecessors. It would be a lot more dependable if YS Net gets lots of outside investment, but we haven't heard word of that yet.
 

Theonik

Member
The worst part is that people still dont get this and that the Kickstarter is CRUCIAL for the game. :/

Sony is getting the bad role for being the mean publisher while they're providing help, although the kind of help any indie is getting, and Shenmue 3 kickstarter might be losing momentum :/

People just misunderstood the "gauge interest" thing. They think that, now that the game reached the 2m, it'll be fully funded regardless of anything. But it was to gauge interest that gamers would fund such a game. :/
Not mutually exclusive. Both are happening at the same time. I will say this though that, Bloodstained was like this from day 1 and it wasn't really an issue, and the slowdown is normal for a KS so there is little need to despair right now. Hopefully they are able to turn this campaign around.

I believe in an interview with Famitsu Yu Suzuki stressed that the majority of funding is coming via Kickstarter. In another interview (I believe a French one) a guy from Shibuya Productions said it was up to him to search for more investment into the project.

So Sony's funding is going to be pretty minimal. We don't even know what "funding" means, maybe it means free tools? Discount on license fees? Or even hard cash?
There is also this quote from Yosp from his E3 summary:
“I was talking to Suzuki-san last year when I saw him at an event. He said that, as so many people were asking for Shenmue III, he was exploring a good way to restart the project – and he has a really good relationship with Sega who own the IP. So I’m really happy to see that the SCEA third party relations team was able to work out an agreement to support his Kickstarter project. Once the Kickstarter project is funded we will offer the same kind of support that we’ve been doing with many independent projects."
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2015/06/19/shuhei-yoshida-looks-back-at-e3-2015/

Honestly as of right now we have more evidence of the contrary.
 

Maligna

Banned
Sony is almost certainly putting a lot of money into Shenmue. .

Except they aren't. Yu said the bulk of the game's budget is from the kickstarter. Sony's contribution is paltry.

We have to get the word out about this, or everyone is going to assume as you did that this project doesn't really need our help.
 
Except they aren't. Yu said the bulk of the game's budget is from the kickstarter. Sony's contribution is paltry.

We have to get the word out about this, or everyone is going to assume as you did that this project doesn't really need our help.

Hopefully the various chat and talk sessions will help for explaining this situation in order to clear things up as needed.
Just read in the newsletter that a reddit talk was planned.
 
i think ff7 remake is too big to skip platform, but it's up to how ff15 perform on xbone. shenmue is probably locked on ps4/pc, like grim fandango, another sony/third party collaboration. and sf5, but we still can see a ultra sf5.
SF5 is PS exclusive for the life of the game. There will be no SF5 subtitle edition for Xbox... ever.
 

Aki-at

Member
Smh at some of the people who think they know what the funding is based on broad statements made in these interviews. You realize they're being purposefully vague, right?
 
I just don't see how this is a game that can be made on the cheap. The largest Kickstarter game ever was Bloodstained, and that made $5.5M, and the only way that much money can cover more than half of Shenmue III's development is if it's tiny compared to its predecessors. It would be a lot more dependable if YS Net gets lots of outside investment, but we haven't heard word of that yet.

The fact that they are likely looking for 12 Million dollars to cap out the stretch goals in the Kickstarter says a lot. That is a TON of money to be asking from Kickstarter. Once you are looking at that number for the full fledged experience, then it starts to make more sense. I'm not denying there will be outside help, but as far as anything we know, the kickstarter will have a huge affect on what type of game we get. Say outside investors contribute 12 million, there is a big difference between 14 and 24 million.
 

Theonik

Member
The key words he used here was "many independent projects" and we know most indie projects Sony support isn't funded with much cash. They're supportive yes and are willing to market a project but they don't pour cash into projects unless they own the IP.
Yes. Usually Sony's approach with indie projects is giving them advances on their PSN sales at best too.
 
The key words he used here was "many independent projects" and we know most indie projects Sony support isn't funded with much cash. They're supportive yes and are willing to market a project but they don't pour cash into projects unless they own the IP.

Explain No Man's Sky & SFV then? they don't own those IP's.

Also, keyword "Independent" means developer without publisher. It doesn't necessarily mean it will be supported like a indie dev. If that were true Shu would have said like our independent devs not projects.

You crazy if Shenmue 3 can be made with 3 million, Sony definitely is giving SFV level money.
 

Jigorath

Banned
That is quite unfortunate. I was under the impression they were footing most of the bill and were just gauging interest.

Even though I'm not a Shenmue fan myself, I know some who are, so I hope the game still gets to happen.

Weren't you just complaining about Sony's involvement with the game?

Now you're complaining about Sony's lack of involvement with the game?
 

test_account

XP-39C²
I think Adam Boyes and other people at Sony have been pretty clear on that matter. The only fact that it is their 3rd party production that is doing that should be pretty much telling.
I believe in an interview with Famitsu Yu Suzuki stressed that the majority of funding is coming via Kickstarter. In another interview (I believe a French one) a guy from Shibuya Productions said it was up to him to search for more investment into the project.

So Sony's funding is going to be pretty minimal. We don't even know what "funding" means, maybe it means free tools? Discount on license fees? Or even hard cash?
Thanks for the answers. Good to know more concrete info around that the Kickstarter was needed for the project to become a reality.
 

Audioboxer

Member
Can't believe these arguments are still brewing.

Can it not really just be as simple as if Yu Suzuki wasn't happy with the arrangement he... *shock* wouldn't have accepted the terms with Sony? *shock*

The guy is clearly happy with the setup he has to make Shenmue 3. It's not as if Sony raided him at gunpoint and said make this game.
 
That is quite unfortunate. I was under the impression they were footing most of the bill and were just gauging interest.

Even though I'm not a Shenmue fan myself, I know some who are, so I hope the game still gets to happen.

Christ. It's like you believe everybody has forgotten your early outrage because it was thought Sony was funding it all anyway. What an absolute joke of a poster you are.
 

nampad

Member
I just don't see how this is a game that can be made on the cheap. The largest Kickstarter game ever was Bloodstained, and that made $5.5M, and the only way that much money can cover more than half of Shenmue III's development is if it's tiny compared to its predecessors. It would be a lot more dependable if YS Net gets lots of outside investment, but we haven't heard word of that yet.

The biggest Kickstarter game isn't the biggest crowd funded game though (e.g Star Citizen).
I guess it is safe to say that Shenmue 3 has a lot more pull then all the other games on Kickstarter so for.
 
Weren't you just complaining about Sony's involvement with the game?

Now you're complaining about Sony's lack of involvement with the game?

Christ. It's like you believe everybody has forgotten your early outrage because it was thought Sony was funding it all anyway. What an absolute joke of a poster you are.

My objection was never about Sony themselves funding it. It was about the lack of transparency. I can see how you can make that mistake though. There's a lot of emotions and finger pointing happening in this thread.

It's not like I don't want the game to be made. No one should want that.
 
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