Shenmue Dojo

Let me start by saying im very happy for Shenmue 3 kickstarter announcement. But can someone explain to me how a $47 video million game is now funded at only 2 or 4 million. Something is not right here, as an open world game made in eight generation consoles, it should cost at least 20M. Looks like we are going to miss some chapters in shenmue saga and the story wont conclude in third installment. This will be a very dumb move if Suzuki decided not to finish the story in Shenmue 3

hazuki90 wrote: Let me start by saying im very happy for Shenmue 3 kickstarter announcement. But can someone explain to me how a $47 video million game is now funded at only 2 or 4 million. Something is not right here, as an open world game made in eight generation consoles, it should cost at least 20M. Looks like we are going to miss some chapters in shenmue saga and the story wont conclude in third installment. This will be a very dumb move if Suzuki decided not to finish the story in Shenmue 3

Actually the Kicktarter goal is about 10% of the money needed to create the game (taking as example the recently funded Bloodstained). The campaign is ultimately used to show interest from the public to the actual investors. Fans are being shown a budget that doesn't line up with the reality of game development, and it's skewing the public perception of what a game actually costs. So the thing is, this game is expensive and the more successful this campaign becomes, more money will be thrown on the production of the game by its investors (Ysnet and Sony(?)).

It's not. I imagine the fundraiser is to show investors (most likely Sony) that people ARE interested enough and will put their money where their mouth is.
The fact the entire goal was pledged in 9 hours goes to show how strong the Shenmue community still is.
On the KS page, it states that if the goal is reached, Shenmue 3 WILL happen on PS4 and PC. So it's pretty safe to assume Sony (and possible other investors) made a deal with Yu already (meet the $2 million, we'll fund the rest.)

I guess we don't need to create an engine that is well balanced for some specific hardware (Dreamcast) and also we'll prolly cut out having 150 different footstep sounds for every single character. Not like anyone ever realized that every single NPC in Shenmue had different footstep sounds and such...

Man, we're gonna get a lot of these posts, aren't we?
Like everyone is saying, there are surely other investors involved, and they'll be covering the grand majority of the budget. They just have to be shown first, through kickstarter, that there's enough demand.

One other thing to note though, the millions upon millions that went into Shenmue didn't only go into one game; that money was intended to have gone toward multiple games on the Dreamcast, but the series was cut short. It wasn't that they just pulled out 70 million, and that all went into the first Shenmue. That budget was part of a longer-term plan. Much of that money went toward research, travel expenses, the development of an engine that all of the games would have run on, prepared visual elements, sound elements, plus all the material that was scrapped early on, what with the Saturn version and all. Too much stuff to list.
A game like Shenmue, as a singular product, does not actually cost a full 70 mil. And since most of the story elements and visual design is presumably already finished for much of Shenmue III, this game will certainly cost something far below that mark.

OL wrote:
Man, we're gonna get a lot of these posts, aren't we?
Like everyone is saying, there are surely other investors involved, and they'll be covering the grand majority of the budget. They just have to be shown first, through kickstarter, that there's enough demand.

One other thing to note though, the millions upon millions that went into Shenmue didn't only go into one game; that money was intended to have gone toward multiple games on the Dreamcast, but the series was cut short. It wasn't that they just pulled out 70 million, and that all went into the first Shenmue. That budget was part of a longer-term plan. Much of that money went toward research, travel expenses, the development of an engine that all of the games would have run on, prepared visual elements, sound elements, plus all the material that was scrapped early on, what with the Saturn version and all. Too much stuff to list.
A game like Shenmue, as a singular product, does not actually cost a full 70 mil. And since most of the story elements and visual design is presumably already finished for much of Shenmue III, this game will certainly cost something far below that mark.

+1
Good points

Although Sony said before the announcement that they are fully independents but we welcome them in our stage. Man It was a good theater

Muscat wrote:Although Sony said before the announcement that they are fully independents but we welcome them in our stage. Man It was a good theater

At that point, they would have been independent from each other, Sony had no idea how it would pan out. I imagine now the kickstarter has done so well, Sony will be backing Yu to some degree. It doesn't sound right that they'd have Yu on their stage just out of "kindness", they are in it to make money. There's something going on behind the scenes which hopefully we'll find out about soon.

I think Sony gave Suzuki their E3 spot in exchange for console exclusivity and lets be honest here, Sony E3 air time costs more than 2M.

I just don't get why anyone would actually think 2 million is the only budget.

Last Shenmue differs from other Kickstarter projects.While some previous Kickstarters have underestimated production costs and needed further funding to bail them out, Shenmue 3 marks the first time that a campaign has so apparently set funding goals at arbitrary price points (to gauge and to generate hype for the Shenmue brand) rather than a figure that reflects the true cost of development. It’s a new role that crowdfunding has come to play in today's market. It's a given Sony and Yu Suzuki planned this thoroughly.

sand4fish wrote: Last Shenmue differs from other Kickstarter projects.While some previous Kickstarters have underestimated production costs and needed further funding to bail them out, Shenmue 3 marks the first time that a campaign has so apparently set funding goals at arbitrary price points (to gauge and to generate hype for the Shenmue brand) rather than a figure that reflects the true cost of development. It’s a new role that crowdfunding has come to play in today's market. It's a given Sony and Yu Suzuki planned this thoroughly.

That's a legitimate model, although I'm concerned that Shenmue's rapid fanbase may create a distorted perception of the actual demand for the finished product. I mean let's be honest, most of us are in for the long haul because we're invested in the story.