Deep Silver is the only one at fault here for how they handled this situation. This same exact thing happened with Metro Exodus, so the fact that people are hating on Yu Suzuki for this is ridiculous to me. He's just out to make the best game possible and Deep Silver are the ones responsible for decisions like this at the end of the day. They've known that they were going to put Shenmue on the Epic Game Store for a while now, so they could have handled the announcement better because they knew it wouldn't go over well based on what happened with Metro. And that game didn't even involve fan backing. For everyone demanding answers, it's only been a few days. They need to shape a response in a way that won't piss you off even more, but let's be honest, you won't be satisfied no matter what Deep Silver has to say on the matter. And the longer it takes for you to hear something it's probably for the best because it could mean they're taking some kind of action that will benefit you.
This decision was always going to get blowback. It's just par for the course with anything related to Shenmue. This Kickstarter has been a source of negativity since the first week of its existence... when people misinterpreted Sony's involvement and were calling it a scam. Shenmue always gets hate. Even if this didn't happen Shenmue III is destined to review poorly and sell badly as a result. People are just waiting to bash on it for a variety of reasons. Either they have an issue with Kickstarter or the Epic Game Store. They hold it to the standards of a AAA game despite its low budget. They think the originals are overrated and want to tear the fandom down. The list goes on and on. If there's one thing that is certain in life it is that Shenmue will get hate. I accept that, and I accept the fact that this will probably be the end of the line for the franchise the way that things are looking now.
People hate on the Epic Game Store, but from what I've seen when they do get exclusives they offer them to consumers at a $10 discount of what the standard price would be on Steam. Steam has been in existence for 15 years while the Epic Game Store has only been around for 6 months. It will grow and develop, but that takes time. I don't understand why people want Steam to monopolize the PC games industry so badly.
This entire drama that's playing out is such a joke. There are problems in the world bigger than you needing to move your mouse 2 inches to the left to select the epic store launcher.
