What's taking so long for the final funding amount for Shenmue 3 to be revealed?

[Thor_Stone]

I've been curious for months if Shenmue 3 would hit at least one more stretch goal now that the funding is over, but they still haven't revealed the final tally. Anyone wanna guess why it's taking so long?

 

[Valascaziel]

They are probably just very busy with development and it may be a bit moot to reveal if no further goals were reached.

That being said, if we somehow managed to get the High Ground system implemented, I would be fine with just that included.

The optimist in me likes to think the resurgance of interest in the series and the sales of S1+2 garnered a private investor to fund the rest of the goals.

That would be a great positive if we get a fully funded experience. I have a feeling we will get an update around the week of the JP release of Shenmue I and II.

 

[Zoyous]

The money is kept in tall stacks in Yu Suzuki's garage, but since he is spending nights at the office these days, no one has been able to get in to count it recently.

 

[ValoniMahoni]

I honestly think that most of the stretch goals were "lies" in the first place and that they are reached and will be implemented anyway, no matter how much the amount of pledges was

 

[hazuki00]

I honestly think that most of the stretch goals were "lies" in the first place and that they are reached and will be implemented anyway, no matter how much the amount of pledges was

I think more or less the same, because of the frugal use and efficiency of unreal engine 4 they can achieve the same with less money and manpower. Suzuki himself said this.
Besides, with the support of Shibuya and Deep silver Suzuki can make the game he was dreaming about.

 

[darksniper]

I just hope that enough funding was covered to allow both Ren and Shenhua to be playable in the game.

 

[Cyberman]

I just hope that enough funding was covered to allow both Ren and Shenhua to be playable in the game.

Same here. It would be nice to play as somebody else other than Ryo.

 

[KiddMarine]

I just hope that enough funding was covered to allow both Ren and Shenhua to be playable in the game.

IIRC the Character Perspective System was the $5 million stretch goal, so we got way past that just with the original KickStarter sum.

 

[hyo_razuki]

They are quite obviously hiding those figures for some reason. The campaign has ended in August. Nobody takes months over months to add up some numbers on a Paypal account.

However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It could be Yu is still talking to Deep Silver or other investors behind the scenes, could be them just avoiding the pressure from promising more stretch goals or whatever. Could be anything really, but I guess they do have their reasons for holding back those numbers.

Don't expect them to be revealed any time soon, if ever.

 

[spud1897]

They are quite obviously hiding those figures for some reason. The campaign has ended in August. Nobody takes months over months to add up some numbers on a Paypal account.

However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It could be Yu is still talking to Deep Silver or other investors behind the scenes, could be them just avoiding the pressure from promising more stretch goals or whatever. Could be anything really, but I guess they do have their reasons for holding back those numbers.

Don't expect them to be revealed any time soon, if ever.

It's exactly that. It could be anything. They closed the campaign to new backers in August but I believe the upgrades closed end of Sept. So that's 6 weeks ago now.

I'd like to know but would rather they focussed on the game. I'm sure they will update us soon.

 

[Reprise]

Or maybe they just want to coincide the update with some actual news. Perhaps some sort of development milestone they haven't reached yet. Who knows? It is a weird one... Their last update said they were still calculating the totals, which is, again, weird, but whatever.

 

[Spaghetti]

Crowdfunded finances, especially on a larger scale, can take time to properly clear even if there are no holdups or hiccups in the process. If you've read the last Kickstarter update for Adam Sipione's Shenmue documentary, you'll see him comment that it took a month for the money to properly clear after the crowdfunding ended.

Not sure what YS Net's status on PayPal is exactly, but buyers can file chargebacks within 120 days or more of purchase from a seller. That might be interfering with giving a final exact total if some backers are being screwy with chargebacks.

At this stage of development, they're also exceptionally busy right now and anything non-essential to getting the game shipped will be on the back burner. Updates included. We might get something at Christmas, maybe earlier if we're lucky.

Personal theory is they're also conscious of complaints when an update is light on info/media assets, so it's being sat on.

Anybody wondering about additional investors might want to check their expectations, though. Any significant financial injection puts us firmly back in delay territory immediately (building the additional environment/content, testing it, additional voice recording, etc), and I'm not so sure we would have had two reiterations of the release date (at TGS, and again on the Steam page) if something like that was definitely happening.

Never say never, but the impression of what Yu had to say about the game at TGS was that the focus is on shipping it. Deep Silver's investment was very openly talked about, as was Shibuya's, so I personally won't be crossing my fingers that some unnamed figure or organisation pumped more money into the project without revealing themselves.

Their last update said they were still calculating the totals, which is, again, weird, but whatever.

If you check the previous update on the Shenmue.link website, you'll see it was initially queued up on, or for, September 13th; which was about two weeks before it actually launched. At the time of writing it was probably accurate that a final total wasn't calculated. It may have still been accurate when the update launched considering they didn't add an amendment for the final total.

I honestly think that most of the stretch goals were "lies" in the first place and that they are reached and will be implemented anyway, no matter how much the amount of pledges was

This is wishful thinking unfortunately. Even the best intentions to make a great product no matter the budget will have to face the reality that people's time and work costs money.

I used to think a few extra combat stretch goals were being thrown in based on that update during the prototype days talking about the Higher Ground Battle system, but once we hit the AI Battling stretch goal in July, it became clear (to me, at least) that this was just the "R&D" that was talked about in Update #85. In a development sense it's a smart move, because they kept the door open to these features should the funding goals get hit, without having to add them in cold to an existing combat system that wasn't designed to accommodate.

 

[orient]

Anybody wondering about additional investors might want to check their expectations, though. Any significant financial injection puts us firmly back in delay territory immediately

Why would anyone think additional investment is even a remote possibility at this point? There's already a publisher in Deep Silver, an investor/promoter in Shibuya Prod, a licensor in SEGA, a marketing deal with Sony, and backer money from fans.

There's already way too many parties involved, at least three or four of which will be looking for a return on investment (I'm sure Ys Net would like to make some money in all of this).

Deep Silver were the cash injection. That's what publishers are for.

 

[hazuki00]

Who will be publishing Shenmue 3 in japan? I think this would be the last thing we have to know.

 

[orient]

It was announced as a global publishing deal.

DS could strike a distribution deal with a Japanese company to distribute the game in Japan...I guess, but why? They've released trailers in Japanese.

I think one thing's certain -- another partner isn't going to jump on board this late in the development and pump more cash into the project. It makes no sense.

 

[Spaghetti]

Why would anyone think additional investment is even a remote possibility at this point? There's already a publisher in Deep Silver, an investor/promoter in Shibuya Prod, a licensor in SEGA, a marketing deal with Sony, and backer money from fans.

There's already way too many parties involved, at least three or four of which will be looking for a return on investment (I'm sure Ys Net would like to make some money in all of this).

Deep Silver were the cash injection. That's what publishers are for.

I think some people are still feeling anxiety over it "not having enough money". Personally I think the project has been incredibly lucky already, and it's a bit disconcerting there are still hopes for a knight in shining armour to throw tens of millions at YS Net this late in development. Maybe some just aren't quite ready to accept the reality of a AA Shenmue game or what that entails, but that's another discussion.

You're right to point out that another investor would be yet another hand in the pot. More likely, Deep Silver would be compelled into upping their stake in the project, than hand over a percentage to another party. Letting the game cook until the middle of next year, is a reaffirmation of their investment in the project I think. That's a more tangible and exciting commitment than wondering about secret investors.

 

[orient]

I think some people are still feeling anxiety over it "not having enough money". Personally I think the project has been incredibly lucky already, and it's a bit disconcerting there are still hopes for a knight in shining armour to throw tens of millions at YS Net this late in development. Maybe some just aren't quite ready to accept the reality of a AA Shenmue game or what that entails, but that's another discussion.

You're right to point out that another investor would be yet another hand in the pot. More likely, Deep Silver would be compelled into upping their stake in the project, than hand over a percentage to another party. Letting the game cook until the middle of next year, is a reaffirmation of their investment in the project I think. That's a more tangible and exciting commitment than wondering about secret investors.

Yeah, the fact that any publisher was willing to step in and pay for another year+ of development and promotion was incredibly fortunate and no doubt saved the game.

I know it can be hard to accept for some people that Shenmue is no longer the cutting-edge, luxuriously expensive series it once was, but man...it's been over 3 years now...time to come to grips with it.

 

[Valascaziel]

Well, my stance was more wishful thinking...I've of the mindset the majority of goals are included anyway, as someone else said.

But revealing that opens the gate, potentially, for hot takes by journalists about how it was going to be funded anyway, Kickstarters are stupid, etc..

I think the budget for the game is probably higher than most think. It amassed a far greater sum and publicity than Kingdom Come.

I've always been a fan of the combat system, so if at least that is as fully fleshed out it can be, I'm good.

 

[darksniper]

If I'm not mistaken, Yu Suzuki has went on record to say that the Deep Silver deal has allowed him to make the Shenmue III he envisioned fully. That's all the affirmation I need tbh. I could care less about the numbers at this point.

 

[Thor_Stone]

Damnit, we didn't hit 7.5 million. I am disappoint.