Vague speculation from insider on problems with this port...

I had a listen to this and I wish he'd let on more. (Edit John did so this no longer stands! Welcome John!)

I get the impression SEGA rushed this out and also D3T probably didn't realise how complex the game was and they may have ran into more issues than anticipated, told SEGA and they were like no get it out.

The Japanese date always felt odd to me and that additional 3 months will likely result in a fixed game for the release there. Maybe SEGA Japan pulled rank and said it wasn't coming out over there until ready? There is a commitment to these games until Nov 22nd so I am sure they will be investing in fixing these issues.

Who knows I am guessing. Maybe one day we will hear the story around this. D3T have had a tonne of flack, some of which is justified but we really don't know the story behind the scenes.
 
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I’m pretty disappointed over this, but Sega’s been a constant disappointment for years. I don’t have much faith they’re going to patch this to the point it’s as playable as the originals, which is what really bothers me. why spend more money on these games when they’ve already sold a ton of copies and probably won’t sell many more?

Are you playing the console versions? I'm playing on PC, with the Beta patch and so far have had no problems. With the wide-screen, higher-resolution and short load times, better controls, save features and language choices, for me at least these are proving to be the definitive versions.
 
I played through Shenmue 1 to completion and found very few issues (something John also states), but all the stories about Shenmue 2 having even bigger crushed blacks issues and the sound being destroyed have me wanting to hold off starting it until it is patched :(

But yeah, reading between the lines, I'm assuming Sega wanted to do this port on the cheap and D3t didn't have the resources or time to do it justice. I imagine they were overworked and did their best, but Sega would not allow for the release date to be any later. I'm speculating of course though.
 
Shenmue 1 on PC with the last two patches is pretty much perfect now.

Shenmue 2 has various Audio issues to be resolved (broken out of tune music and voices, music etc.. mixed at random volumes) but they have already released two patches and have a third in the QA Steam branch already. That's not the sign of a company who plans to release and run.

They are clearly working hard on patches and there is absolutely no reason to currently think they are not going to fix all the problems. I'm sure SEGA pushed for a quick release for the reasons most people have mentioned and D3T are doing the best they can with the time they have been given.
 
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It seems likely to me. I was astonished that the usually meticulous Digital Foundry didn’t mention any of them. There’s no way they could have missed them.

Plus, let’s be honest. We have ample evidence that the games review press doesn’t care about ethics (although I don’t include Digital Foundry in that, who I consider solid).
Thanks and I can give some insight into this one.

I was, unfortunately, under tight constraints with the coverage. I put about 2-3 hours into each version of the games - which means PS4, Pro, Xbox One and XOX in both Shenmue 1 and 2. That's eight different capture sessions and, with a tight deadline, I couldn't dig as deep as I'd have liked to so I focused primarily on the visual upgrades which are plainly obvious.

I noticed a few bugs here and there but didn't dig as deeply as you guys and we were told to expect bug fixes on day 1 (I played the original release pre-patch versions mostly). My experience was pretty good overall and I've since played through them without crashes, weird camera angles or other more severe bugs but I definitely encountered many of the issues mentioned here during the play-through. It's a unique case here, I think, and one that annoys me greatly.

It has also arrived at the worst possible time since I'm totally drowning in assignments including having to travel around and do presentations + some other stuff away from the desk.

If this continues, however, and fixes do not arise, I might need to call on you guys here to help me put something together on this. My fear, however, is that there isn't the budget or manpower left to fix these issues. I've been reading the forums, though, and decided to finally jump in.

As for what happened here, there's not much more to say there right now. :( Just an inkling.
 
Thanks for clearing things up, John. I wouldn't feel too bad about the video not discussing the bugs as I believe that your relatively bug-free experience is more common than is portrayed on here, where everyone is obviously hyper-critical, and rightly so.

I understand your concerns about the budget but honestly, I've been impressed with how quickly d3t have patched the game on PC, and it seems (at least publicly) that SEGA know they have to get these games in better shape.

*edit* Also, DF Retro is the best show on YouTube as far as I'm concerned, and I love hearing you on Back in my Play (I made the BimP logo :p)
 
Thanks for clearing things up, John. I wouldn't feel too bad about the video not discussing the bugs as I believe that your relatively bug-free experience is more common than is portrayed on here, where everyone is obviously hyper-critical, and rightly so.

I understand your concerns about the budget but honestly, I've been impressed with how quickly d3t have patched the game on PC, and it seems (at least publicly) that SEGA know they have to get these games in better shape.

*edit* Also, DF Retro is the best show on YouTube as far as I'm concerned, and I love hearing you on Back in my Play (I made the BimP logo :p)
Ohhh, you did the logo!? I love that design. Awesome work!

I certainly hope you're right too about getting the game fixed. Let's see what the next patch on console brings.
 
Thanks and I can give some insight into this one.

I was, unfortunately, under tight constraints with the coverage. I put about 2-3 hours into each version of the games - which means PS4, Pro, Xbox One and XOX in both Shenmue 1 and 2. That's eight different capture sessions and, with a tight deadline, I couldn't dig as deep as I'd have liked to so I focused primarily on the visual upgrades which are plainly obvious.

I noticed a few bugs here and there but didn't dig as deeply as you guys and we were told to expect bug fixes on day 1 (I played the original release pre-patch versions mostly). My experience was pretty good overall and I've since played through them without crashes, weird camera angles or other more severe bugs but I definitely encountered many of the issues mentioned here during the play-through. It's a unique case here, I think, and one that annoys me greatly.

It has also arrived at the worst possible time since I'm totally drowning in assignments including having to travel around and do presentations + some other stuff away from the desk.

If this continues, however, and fixes do not arise, I might need to call on you guys here to help me put something together on this. My fear, however, is that there isn't the budget or manpower left to fix these issues. I've been reading the forums, though, and decided to finally jump in.

As for what happened here, there's not much more to say there right now. :( Just an inkling.

Good to see you John, you are very welcome!

If the experiences across the board were on the 1.0.0.... phew, as much as I love Shenmue and don't sweat the small stuff, that first version was hard going. This was on PS4 too, with the 1.0.1 coming before embargo was lifted. It did fix a few things, but the odd thing was that certain issues would not happen again after a reset of the hardware, which was.... strange.

Either way, with the betas for PC, personally it's been the only real way to enjoy it as much as it should be enjoyed. Plus the latest patches should be arriving over the coming days too, so step by step for sure.
 
Thanks for sharing the extra insight John! Your video was and still is the best representation of the game we ultimately got for the most part - whereas most others were quick to jump on the negatives.

I really hope both SEGA and D3T are still dedicated to the cause, it’s still within their best interests to make sure the game eventually is in a more perfect state, as anything Shenmue relaed they decide to do in the future based on the success they’re had with the re-release will always lead back to this release and any gamers who jump on the Shenmue train will start here.

I believe that because of the Japan release in a couple of months, they won’t abandon the project just like that. I’m sure they’re aware of all the faults and are doing their best to iron stuff out, using the PC build as the main way of doing this, as releasing patches via steam seems to be alot easier than the consoles. With a patch scheduled for tomorrow (announced last week) we’ll have a better idea of where things stand I reckon :)
 
Thanks for chiming in, John. I hope you're wrong about them not having the means to fully fix it all.
 
Thanks for chiming in, John. I hope you're wrong about them not having the means to fully fix it all.

The two patches they have released so far kinda fly in the face of the assumption they don't have time, manpower or money to fix the bugs.. Perhaps after Shenmue sold better than expected SEGA decided to throw more money at D3T for extended support past release?
 
It sounds like there are still lots of bugs in the PC versions. Isn't the music still fucked up? Kinda better isn't fixed. It should sound the same, shouldn't it? Well, there's a new patch due for us console players, so no time for doom 'n gloom until we can assess the new patch.
 
The two patches they have released so far kinda fly in the face of the assumption they don't have time, manpower or money to fix the bugs.
You think? I would have said that the PC patches are definitely steps in the right direction, especially with the 2nd patch so hot off the heels of the 1st one. If these guys can get something like Shenmue running at all on modern hardware, I'm sure they're capable of ironing out the bugs.

Perhaps after Shenmue sold better than expected SEGA decided to throw more money at D3T for extended support past release?
I've also suspected this. The unexpected success of Shenmue I & II will probably convince SEGA to pump some more cash into the project.

And just a quick note; SEGA pushed patches for SADX and SEGA Bass Fishing (released in 2011) until 2014. Heck, they were even still supporting the failed JSR port a year later. So I really don't think we have much to worry about regarding longevity of support.
 
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You think? I would have said that the PC patches are definitely steps in the right direction, especially with the 2nd patch so hot off the heels of the 1st one. If these guys can get something like Shenmue running at all on modern hardware, I'm sure they're capable of ironing out the bugs.

might want to re-read what I said lol... Because that's exactly what I'm saying.
 
I had a dream where the Japanese version of the remakes was a fully-polished, Kid-Nocon version of the game. Shenmue 1+2 were combined into one game and things like the boat chapter/ability to use the bicycle were included!

Imagine if this actually happened...
 
I had a dream where the Japanese version of the remakes was a fully-polished, Kid-Nocon version of the game. Shenmue 1+2 were combined into one game and things like the boat chapter/ability to use the bicycle were included!

Imagine if this actually happened...
Lol I had almost this exact same dream about a week ago. Only in my dream it was in VR (which is weird because I wouldn't want it in VR)
 
In my opinion, someone in upper management really wanted the August release date to get ahead of Spiderman, Red Dead Redemption 2 and all of the other big name titles coming out in fall.
...
I think Japan's release date is their original target for actually finishing and Japan is going to get the original intended release out of the box.
When people who got the game early reported many bugs I got very skeptical that this would be patched quickly. And as @AnimeGamer183 said earlier. It feels as if the Western audience is used as quality assurance testers which likely isn't that far from the truth.
A programmer who used to work for Microsoft talked about this "we'll patch it later" mentality in the industry. As an example he mentioned that Microsoft got rid of many QA-testers when they released Windows 10 since they also used regular users to test updates on larger scales. Then when newly discovered bugs got fixed, the enterprise customers who make them money get their updates. As for Shenmue, I personally didn't encounter any huge bugs when I played through Shenmue I but smaller issues like missing sound etc. are still annoying of course and detract from the experience.
 
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