Get Shibuya Productions to manage/absorb KS?

[south carmain]

At this moment the wheels are already turning, and the kickstarter is not THAT bad. We are just overprojecting on what shenmue actual interest is. It's a 15 yr old niche game, with a loyal fanbase, a lot of people thought it couldn't even manage to get 1 mil.

Shenmue isn't exactly niche at 1.2 million copies sold. And yeah it's not that bad but mainly thanks to SONY promoting it in the spotlight at the biggest gaming event of the year.

The thing is that to make this kickstarter as successful as possible is to market it properly. It doesn't matter if the game was previously niche or even if it didn't have a fanbase at all as long as it is properly marketed the sky is the limit (this is why game companies put in just as much money in to marketing their games as developing them these days).

The fans and SONY have done what they could and admittedly they got the kickstarter pretty far but now that it is Awesome Japan's turn to push it further it has come to a halt because unfortunately Yu hired a team that weren't that good to begin with for a job that is 30 times bigger than anything they have experience with.

[ys]

That's quite a different situation than a Kickstarter though where there is a very specific and high stakes timeline. One month, all or nothing. Coporate malaise isn't present in the same way in that situation.

In someways it's more analogous to the final month of a political campaign than to corporate business as usual.

That's the benefit of being a smaller company. Having the ability to be nimble and adapt quickly, and make changes at a moments notice is a tremendous advantage; similar to a small, upscale restaurant changing an item on a menu that isn't working, to that of a titan of industry like McDonalds, that would take months and months to change.
I really don't expect YS to change course this late, though.

I agree there. It's not exactly the same and more of a rush. I was mostly thinking along the lines of it being cost effective or not. I suspect that it would be bad financially to end their contract at this point. Especially when they achieved the goal of getting the game funded.

It's a bit of hassle too and there's not much time left. I own a small business myself and noticed this when checking out regulations. When working at that multinational my bosses also told me the same when they talked about letting some guy go.

Shenmue isn't exactly niche at 1.2 million copies sold. And yeah it's not that bad but mainly thanks to SONY promoting it in the spotlight at the biggest gaming event of the year.

I also remarked about that earlier. Games back then didn't sell as much compared to now since it wasn't as mainstream yet. Over 1 million was seen as best-sellers on PS2 for example.

[drunkensailor]

shenmue 1 sold more than 1.2 million. I see this number all the time and wonder how people get to this. I hope not the npd charts of early 2000s, where big chains like eb were never part of

[punkmanced]

My primary concern with this potential direction would be how it would be reported in the media.

Because WE'RE not thrilled with the handling of the campaign, we assume that it would generate a PR boon for the project should they be replaced. But would headlines like, oh, I don't know, "Shenmue 3 Kickstarter handlers replaced due to mismanagement," really have a positive impact on the public's view of the game and its campaign? And how might other partners feel about it? Sony for instance? Would such a move impact their sense of risk and therefore their willingness to contribute?

Just something to keep in mind. I completely concur that the campaign has not been ideal and that it lacks a veneer of professional production values. But I think we need to tread very carefully with what we choose to accentuate about the campaign. Determined, united front? Or potential fissures and negative perception seed planting?

Just a thought. I'm not shooting down the idea or anything. I just wonder if it might be a case of "Better the devil you know..." and not rocking the boat.

I think you may be reading too much into this, to be honest. Sony’s here to stay, since the funding goals have been met. Die hard Shenmue fans, who, make no mistake, are the ones primarily responsible for that $$$ amount, aren’t going anywhere either.

Right now AJ only has a picture logo at the bottom of the project. YS doesn’t need to advertise any change other than quietly replacing that logo with that of another company. Any proven company, really. Hell they could even thank AJ in the updates section for all of their hard work, which was a planned precursor for Shenmue KS 2.0. Many ways to spin this if need be.

I wouldn’t be worried about any bad press (nor would I expect any really). AJ is ill-equipped to handle Shenmue, plain and simple; with that said, it still isn’t too late for a positive change, especially with almost 3 weeks left to go.
Realistically, the only way from here is up.

PS- At the same time...I will admit that I am in utter disbelief: Shenmue still has to deal with shitty marketing campaigns, even after 15 years. "Let's get sweaty" should be replaced by "let's get pragmatic". For fuck's sake.