https://www.radiosega.net/shows/blog/sega-lounge/2015/07/got-questions-for-cedric-biscay/

We're interview Shenmue III's co-producer next week, so let us know if you have any specific questions.

Hello, everyone! This week's we'll be doing not one but two of these blog posts. This first one is related to next week's show, airing on the 16th of July.

We'll be chatting with Cédric Biscay, President and CEO of Shibuya Productions, and co-producer of the upcoming Shenmue III game.

Since the interview will be pre-recorded, we wanted you guys to have the chance of asking some questions to Mr. Biscay. Is there anything about his connection with the Shenmue universe that you're curious about? Any questions about the Kickstarter project? Any suggestions you'd like us to pass on?

You can send us your questions via a comment on the bottom of this page or by writing an email to kc[at]radiosega[dot]net with the subject 'Question for Cédric Biscay". Please make sure you send us your questions asap, so we can include them in the interview.

The interview will air on Thursday, 16th July, at 8pm BST (9pm Central Europe/3pm EST/12pm PST), which is roughly one day before the Kickstarter ends. Don't miss it!

The vendor name will be in Chinese.

Also consider no one's paying $4,500 to name a vendor.

1 person has backed the palm reading thing, which I can't imagine will be significant at all.

1 person remains in the Lucky Hit tier. I won't be surprised if that drops to 0 on the last day.

I suppose getting a bunch of random dices and capsule toys with people you don't know's faces might suck, but hey, they're just capsule toys.

The I Am Shenmue tier still has quite a few backers, but I think you'll have to actually actively look for people's photos to even notice it.

They should just have a fire sale on these new tiers since they're limited and max out their backers while there's still time. Fishing rod? $300-500 + 10 backers. Not a horrible profit considering it'll cost them neither time nor effort to plug someone's name into the game. I really don't get why they're pricing these things so high.

Esmeralda Escudero ‏@AlexiaHewson 6h6 hours ago
@CedricBiscay With all due respect Cedric, the last rewards are useless. We need rewards that are less than 500$ that people can afford :S
1 retweet 1 favorite
Reply Retweet1 Favorited1
More
Cedric Biscay ‏@CedricBiscay 9m9 minutes ago
@AlexiaHewson I know and I am doing my best in order to reach your expectations.

Hey, Phong, do what you want, but I think you're being super irrational. The game isn't coming out for at least two years and it's still pretty much by the same creative geniuses who brought us the first two games. If you have that little faith in the project, then maybe you've just outgrown Shenmue. I'm not going to let some rushed proof of concept scare me away from something I've desired for half of my life.

I think the trailer was the bomb. He probably didn't think they'd be able to make it in time.

Hey, the Kickstarter made $100K+ yesterday and will make even more today, so I don't think anyone can complain.

I'd love it if they charged you when you pledge to higher tiers. There's no mistakes when you decide to play with that kind of money. If you can't lose it, don't fuck with the higher tiers.

https://twitter.com/razer/status/621353948822147072

Very cool

I hope he brings up that he was considering pledging thousands, but the video suddenly made him realize Shenmue sucks so he'll grab a preorder in a couple years. We get it, man. A rushed video ruined something you've waited years for. No ones going to beg you to stick around. Things are going swimmingly without you. It sucks you feel betrayed by Yu Suzuki, but none of us can help you.

It's not the stupidest complaint I've seen. There are quite a few people who are upset Ryo might be able to jump.

I don't understand how someone joined this forum in 2003 and decided to give up on the series because of some fireflies in a teaser trailer.

Well, you got what you wanted. It's not all bad. Hopefully someone fills a seat or two in Monaco or else they'll be lonely. :(

I don't put much stock in these proclamations. People were insisting there'd be no PS4 physical because Awesome Japan messaged them telling them that. Yeah, they're not going to break news before it's meant to be broken.

Just get a few minutes alone with Yu and feed him ideas so awesome he can't help but put them in the game.

It's on right now...

You are not authorised to read this forum.

Knowing Shenmue 3 will exist is about as exciting as winning the lottery.

I still don't believe Sony hurt the campaign at all. E3 shot the campaign full of life and it died because of poor management from Awesome Japan. Things picked up and we exceeded almost everyone here's expectations. You do see a lot of whining about Sony on Twitter, but it's just a vocal minority that never wanted the game in the first place.

Better Kickstarter campaign might've gotten us an extra $500K to a million. I don't think they could've done significantly better than Awesome Japan. I'm basing this on other Kickstarters' performance.

I thought he was saying that "the bomb" shouldn't be related to further funding.

They're going to have to publicly announce something soon. You can't announce Paypal at the end of the Twitch and then just choose to ignore it. The people are waiting.

These Rooster Teeth people really have it out for Shenmue. Another one of their programs (Funhaus) continues to run programs/podcasts bashing the series. Did someone at that company run a failed Kickstarter? I don't understand why they're spending so much time bad mouthing Shenmue.

They implemented Paypal on other Kickstarters they ran, notably one run for a Kickstarter for Ys Net's Kenji Otoso...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287579779/coluboccoro

I don't think they're going away. Clearly someone on the team was already pleased with their work.

I assume the Shenmue 3 Paypal page will look a lot like this:

http://santa-company.jugemcart.com

Multiple threads about a copyright and a trademark seems a bit excessive to me. It seems like many of us have forgotten Shenmue 3, with Sega's blessing, was just announced.

The misinformed articles, commenters and Twitterers are really kind of pissing me off. Why so many crocodile tiers about this game?

The Game Informer title is something like:

"YU SUZUKI WANTS EVEN MORE MONEY"

And all the comments are like WHAT A DISASTER!!!!

David, no need for apology. I also did not intend to act like I was the source of the Facebook post. Your name on Facebook is written in Japanese characters, so I was not aware it was you. I will be more careful next time. Just thought it was worth sharing with the thread.

They've raised $65K. Whether that's a good thing is up to you.

http://www.marketingweek.com/2015/10/12/sega-europes-marketing-director-on-the-transition-from-sonic-to-smartphones

"Now my biggest challenge as marketing director is to make sure people are aware that Sega isn’t just this heritage brand that made all the Sonic games but we’re making cutting edge adult narratives such as Alien Isolation too. Not a lot of people realise we make Football Manager either – that has to change.”
“We’ve had some great successes on mobile – our Sonic Dash game has over 100 million downloads – but mobile is an overcrowded market and being truly innovative in that space isn’t easy,” he adds. “The strategy at Sega is to focus on producing great content first and then decide which platform it works best on afterwards.”

Admitting that Sega has not done a “great job over the last four years” in communicating its brand values and “Yes, we want to innovate and back smarthphones and virtual reality but our key purpose is to go back to what the brand used to stand for and I think the buzz around Shenmue 3 shows that people love our legacy,” adds Rooke, who says Sega is exploring ways to re-release the original two Shenmue titles.

“Sega was an innovator, the Dreamcast was offering online gaming as early as 1998. But perhaps back then we were pushing boundaries a little too soon. Nowadays we know what we’re good at and the strategy is to be more gradual. Over the next few years, we want to use engaging content and marketing to remind the public why they fell in love with Sega in the first place.”

I know we're reading tea leaves here, but there's no denying they're possibly dropping hints all over the place now:



I mean...come on!

Doesn't seem productive to complain about a few test shots taken three months into development. *shrug*

They're making "less" of a game based on some early shots that'll never be seen again when the game comes out. People around here just enjoy worrying.

This is awesome.

http://teamyu.net/Shenmue.III?action=raffle

The final portion of Shenmue III's crowdfunding campaign expires at the end of December, at which point the game's development budget will be set in stone. Though we are all delighted with the progress being made by Ys Net in these early stages, opportunities to expand the scope of such an important title don't come along often.

Therefore, to help make the most of these final few weeks of the year, dedicated fans have pooled their most treasured resources together with First 4 Figures to donate some extraordinary prizes for an unmissable contest we're calling the Winning Can Raffle!

In short, here's what's on offer:

- Exclusive edition Lan Di statue directly from the workshop of First 4 Figures

- Standard edition Ryo Hazuki statue signed and personalized by voice actor Corey Marshall

- Limited edition Japanese copy of the original Shenmue for Dreamcast, complete with Jukebox CD, signed by Yu Suzuki

- Limited edition Japanese copy of Shenmue II for Dreamcast, sealed and VGA Gold graded

- Translucent blue Shenmue soundtrack LP, signed and personalized by Corey Marshall

- Rare promo stickers from the Shenmue Premiere in Japan

- Official Shenmue T-shirt from the Tokyo Game Show 2015 (size M)

Plus: ALL entrants will receive a bonus Shenmue themed decal just for taking part!Remember, all you need to do is participate in the Shenmue III Slacker Backer campaign at any of the tiers listed above and forward your PayPal receipt to [email protected] before the relevant deadline to receive your decal and be entered into these draws. For any Shenmue fan this prize pool is an absolute goldmine, so whatever you do, don't miss out. For a little extra support towards Shenmue III's development, you could be walking away with an item you'll cherish for many years after the game's release - on top of the great backer rewards you're guaranteed from Ys Net!

I think it's interesting the official Sega Facebook page shared a link to the Lan Di figure preorder.


Baby steps, folks.

They'll get nicer royalties from game sales.

I don't know many prototypes that have great graphics. I wouldn't worry about graphics until we're looking at an actual game.

My problem is they don't seem to acknowledge their numerous mistakes. A simple follow-up E-mail explaining no one is losing their rewards would help. Chances are it'll take another month before we see anything. Maybe they're only being paid to work once a month? I have no insight. I'm just a guy on the net.

I think the concern about this latest mishap is somewhat overblown simply because the funding was supposed to end last month anyway. They're making more than they originally set out to, so that's a positive. The more troubling aspect is no mention of the PC version or the promised Kickstarter upgrades.

Just stumbled upon this one.

The demo is great and the graphics/music really match the classic Outrun feel.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/noctet/slipstream

At least part of the media are publishing apologize and corrected articles, although they still point out the lack of communication from YsNet.

http://segmentnext.com/2016/01/07/shenmue-3-paypal-rewards-arent-canceled-publications-wrongly-reported-scenario/
They should be called out on their lack of communication.

By the way, I stand by my opinion that Shenmue 2 is the greatest game of all time. I don't care if it's aged poorly or if the English dub is terrible. I have never been more affected by a videogame in my life. It truly marked the end of an era for me as well. I pretty much lost interest in gaming after Shenmue 2. It's going to take more than some Kickstarter cock-ups and VG media bullshit to make me lose interest in Shenmue 3.

The most offensive thing about your post is that you found Shenmue 2 just 'ok'. 8)

You found Shenmue 2 merely ok and think the series' storyline is predictable and not very good. Not sure why you were ever looking forward to a third game.

No.

Exactly.

It's a prototype.

The game has barely entered development. It didn't exist at all less than a year ago. The Kickstarter models were likely thrown together in a day or two just so they'd have something to show. Remember the game would not have happened at all without Kickstarter funding. They didn't spend months and years putting the game together ahead of the Kickstartet.

I have complete faith the models, the animations and the environments will look substantially better than what we are seeing right now. You have a game directed by a talented developer--one of the most legendary of all time, in fact--with most of the original crew, particularly the character designer and environment modelers. It'll look great.

Not to mention they hired Kid Nocon, who seems to be extremely familiar with Unreal Engine. I'm sure he's not the only one on the team that is.

Have faith.

The game isn't going to look like an out-of-the-box Unreal Engine game. We're fretting over nothing.

Good to see Awesome Japan is not fulfilling rewards. One less thing for the naysayers to chicken little over.

I'm not disappointed that they didn't show anything, but I am disappointed the incompetent imbeciles running the Kickstarter/Paypal couldn't even so much as send a Tweet acknowledging the one-year anniversary.

I can't wait for their three-sentence update in two weeks that says something about it being a year full of tears or whatever cliche nonsense they tend to write, all in garbled English full of typos.

They're so bad.

I guarantee you there are people in and outside this community that would do an amazing job and not even expect compensation.

Crowdfunded games in general are an easy target. Add in the Sony conspiracy and you've got the makings of a very, very easy target.

I feel for Yu Suzuki, and I feel for the fanbase, but there's a good reason why crowdfunded games are an easy target. Look at how poor most of them turn out to be.

Once there's a playable build, I expect better coverage provided the game lives up expectations. If the character models are as poor as they were when the game was announced and the voice acting is sub-Shenmue 1, then expect to get upset all over again. (I don't expect any of this to happen.)