shredingskin wrote: If you were a publisher would you give money to a guy that made the most expensive game at the time for a half-dead console (also considering the BIG development time) and then made a million dolar budget MMORPG that never got released ? (also big time consuming).
He wasn't making a game for a half-dead console, if anyone had known the console was going to end the way it did no one at Sega would have green lit the project or any others, simply he was making a game for a console, and at the time of the Dreamcast Sega were very much in to trying things with new games; Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Seaman, Sega Bass Fishing, etc. Sega thought their console would have a complete lifecycle not a stinted one
So would I give money to a guy who constantly for the past 13 years has had one of the most requested sequels? With fans literally offering to give money to the project? Whose reputation is making very high quality games which review well? Damn right I would, I'd have asked him (and put a hard deadline in place) to make a launch title for my next gen console for the following reasons:
1. He knows how to construct a story
2. He knows how to make a living, breathing world and make it feel real
3. At the start of a new console gen you want a game which will visually wow the audiences and he knows how to do that
4. Even if people have little interest a high percentage of people will purchase a game at console launch due to the general lack of release titles at the start of each gen so you should be able to make your money back from genuine Yu fans and also people with a general interest
The fact that Shenmue went over budget is one thing, but you can't take away the fact that a lot of games go over budget and don't actually meet the critical acclaim that Shenmue did with virtually no negative reviews