Robfozz wrote: If I'm being 100% honest, and I hate to be a negative nancy, but I really have 0 faith in Shenmue 3 being any good at all. I want it to be amazing, hell I backed at the $250 level, but I just can't lie to myself.
All the odds are completely against this game, the relatively low budget, the small dev team, everything they show doesn't look quite right or sometimes even just flat out bad. Everything screams this game just wont be very great. I'll be shocked if its even "just okay"
One additional point I wanted to touch on is concerning the budget/team size.
Aside from what I'd mentioned previously about the game footage being far too early into development to draw a successful conclusion, it is also worth noting that we know nothing concrete regarding the budget and team size. At the recent Deep Silver conference we were shown a figure of 45 of staff members for YSNet. This however does not provide the full development story as games are increasingly reliant on outsourced production and this is true perhaps nowhere more so than in Japan.
For example, Nier Automata which was developed by Platinum Games was comprised of 50 core staff. What isn't mentioned however is that nearly 30 outsourced teams contributed to the development of this game including Lakshya Digital.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/playstati ... ta/credits. All we know for certain at this point is that there are 45 members at YSNet and 20-25 at Lakshya Digital, bringing the total number of staff to 65-70.
Secondly, we are all aware of the current money pledged through Kickstarter (less fees). However we don't what Shibuya Productions has raised through their venture capital structure (they are after all located in Monaco where nearly 1 in 3 are millionaires.) Next, we have no idea what Deep Silver's financial commitment is, though it is certainly more than $3 million as Yu had mentioned that with their investment he was now able to achieve the full open world experience that he envisioned (which he previously stated would cost $10 million). We also don't know how much the publisher for the local Japanese market is putting up or who they even are yet. Nor do we know if Sony or Sega is contributing anything, and should the game eventually come to the Xbox, perhaps Microsoft's investment?
Finally, team size does not make a game. Both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were developed by Sony’s internal ‘Team Ico’ which was comprised of just 45 staff. That number tripled for The Last Guardian, yet the game was inferior to its predecessors. Or take as example game Bioware's recent Mass Effect Andromeda which was comprised of 300-400 strong - the game was a disaster.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/m ... da/credits