WHY KICKSTARTER TO MAKE S4? WHAT ABOUT SEGA?
I'll just gonna write again the title.
What about Sega
What abut Sega....hmm...
I don't know.
Sega, as it seems, has been trying to turn a new leaf.
Word has it it is being run by new management which might have more of an affection for the prestige of the gaming side history of Sega and want to bring that glory back.
This is why you are seeing older titles being brought back and more focus on gaming again.
I do also recall reading an old article in which the Sammy Studios side of the company that acquired Sega in 2003, over time when looking at their financial spreadsheets, started to question whether it was financially even lucrative to have acquired Sega after all, as they looked at the yearly numbers and did not see anything significant coming from the video game side of Sega. Was this a worthy investment or a waste of time?
Was the pachinko side of Sammy Studios truly the ones who have been holding up Sega all this time?
Is that even right?
Something needed to be done then in their eyes
Yes they bought Atlus, which many Atlus fans were happy....I guess.
Initially I took that as a way for them to continue to be complacent; just rely on Atlus now.
Some feared they might influence Atlus to be complacent.
We haven't seen either of these thankfully (though where the hell is Shin Megami Tensei V?? And why only Switch. meh)
Anyways...
What about Sega...
hmm...
Yes a Kickstarter probably..okay lets face it: definitely, would not be as effective as the last time.
Law of diminishing returns.
Unless something (like Call of Duty or Fortnite) which is constantly in people's faces all the time with huge marketing efforts, the effects of using KS will be even less, especially after the affairs of the last one.
So yeah probably a moot point to try it again.
But...the point of a KS is to prove to corporate backers that there indeed is a purpose for said product as the consumers put their money where their mouth is before said product even came out.
Therefore it is proof there is desire for it.
This proof is supposed to convince said corporate entities to fund the rest of the project after it is kickstarted by the regular consumer backers. And beyond (potential sequels)...so that it never need to be kickstarted.
Shenmue 3 was kickstarted and slacker backed for 7 million. An extra 5 million was brought forth by companies.
This I imagine when to marketing. Or maybe not all was even spent. We don't know for sure.
Anyways..
Sega was once obviously a backer of the Shenmue series. The original backers.
Reluctant after the fall of the Dreamcast and Shenmue 2's mediocre sales results on the OG XBox debut (when to be fair, was only released in the West, not Japan, and to an audience unfamiliar to the series. 30K is a much less number than 1.2 million. And the DC version of Shenmue 2 of course was never officially released to the U.S so there was that too).
So this reluctance by Sega was considered common sense by many. Why continue to invest in a failed project.
But was it really failed; or was it a victim of outside circumstance.
After all, Shenmue 1 was thr 5th best selling game.
But 5th best selling at 1.2 million on a dying console; is that really saying much to an unconvinced public crowd who go by whatever the media dictates?
For years Shenmue was deemed a failure in the public media's eyes and that resonated into gamers psyche for decades now. So then despite the nostaligia screams of adoration when Shenmue 3 was announced at E3 2015, despite the record breaking Kickstarter results, its quite obvious not only did the 1.2 million copy owners not all show up to invest in this kickstarter, a whole 2 generations of gamers as a whole also did not come forth to invest in this third entry in kickstarter; partially because 'what the hell is Shenmue', mixed in with apprehension for KS in general, and the long time negative stigma the Shenmue series has gotten over the years.
So too this was probably felt by Sony themselves; despite some key players in there obviously (Marc Cerny, Adam Boyes, Gio Corsi, maybe even David Cage) had an influential effect on convincing the higher ups at Sony to present Shenmue 3 at E3 2015 and help in whatever little way (since Sony apparently invested a little not a lot) to help put this project in the public spotlight.
We also cannot forget Sega themselves; for it was them, despite not actually even being involved in this development project, nor getting any money from it, were the ones who agreed to give Yu Suzuki rights to the Shenmue license bar Shenmue 1 & 2.
now, the question for the future lies in will Sega step in financially to help this time?
Perhaps with the numbers coming in that are not that great as of yet, time will need to pass by more to tell.
It is true though that at certain more recent public events Yu Suzuki held, that it is said Sega was around nearby showing a bit of curious interest.
Not to mention we know that from Yu Suzuki's words; he is still in good relations with Sega. He is 'a consultant'.
He even mentioned the possibility of continuing the Outrun or VF series as a consultant with Sega if he felt like it (but talks would have to be done). But that shows Sega is willing to listen.
And so if they're willing to listen; that sounds like a whole nother point of progress from the company;
the same company that finally put out an HD compilation of Shenmue 1 & 2 when most thought that'd never be done.
And it was done after the Shenmue 3 announcement which is telling.
So it would then depend on how much a stake would Sega put it; would they be willing to work with other investors.
We know through Bayonetta, that Sega wanted nothing to do with fully funding a Bayonetta 2 or 3.
So Platinum Games had to seek out investors elsewhere.
This sounded mean from anyone viewing Sega. Abandoning their own IP in a way; similar to Shenmue.
But, they, unlike say Konami, were still open to the idea of allowing an outside company (Nintendo) to fund these 2 games.
So there's that.
And we see that not only were they okay with outside companies and fans backing Shenmue 3, they as I said, allowed Yu to get the Shenmue 3 license, and didnt get any $ from it. So there's that too.
This could be their way of honoring Suzuki's contribution to the company's legacy for years.
I guess they did not forget that.
They must also somewhat respect Platinum Games despite not funding the Bayonetta sequels (and letting Anarchy Reigns die).
So, for a future Shenmue, could they be involved? Perhaps. Fully? I doubt it. Will they be willing to work with other investors? Perhaps. We dont know for now but the idea is certainly more open to it now than it was in the past.