Playstation Experience - December 2016

[Peter]

I feel sorry for the people in here having a go at Rome, when he was a very upstanding member since 2004

[ShenSun]

[Himuro]

Damage control in over time in this thread. Let's defend incompetence!

Just to confirm, you are trying to create negativity and tension here? You think there is damage control, and you want to keep this absurd fire of travesty fully burning? Just so I am clear...

I am not trying to create negativity and tension. I am articulating how I feel on this not only as a Shenmue fan but also as a Kickstarter backer. I find the fact that people who have paid 10k dollars are the only people who have been able to see the Monaco walkthrough without crappy cam footage after almost a year to be complete and utter bullshit. The fact that they have this footage and refuse to use it, as a backer, makes me angry, and the lack of media is driving me crazy. The only reason we (as in, not you, a person who paid to attend) got to see footage from Monaco was cam footage. We still haven't managed to see Bailu village footage in direct feed crystal clear HD even when they clearly have it. Zero communication on how the game is going, with vapid update after update. I'm sorry but the PSX no show was the straw that broke the Chai's back for me and I will be far more critical going forward.

[Let's Get Sweaty]

Just to clarify, the footage shown in Monaco was for all attendees, and entrance was free.

Also, while those videos have not been published online in full, short clips were later included within a separate montage.

[Himuro]

Just to clarify, the footage shown in Monaco was for all attendees, and entrance was free.

Also, while those videos have not been published online in full, short clips were later included within a separate montage.

Where can I see this montage?

This makes the lack of Monaco video on the KS page even more damning if it was available to all Monaco attendees for free.

... we're definitely had updates on how the game is doing more recently than nearly two years ago. The last update I would consider to be pertaining to how the game is going was definitely too long ago, though. (And one of them wasn't even shown to backers, but at a different event we had to learn about here or on other dedicated sites until later.)

... there has been footage, but I don't think we're likely to see more than that until there's something substantial to show. Many games go for more than two years with zero footage and only screenshots. It's not at all uncommon. And that's with massive AAA budgets. Lets try to maintain some perspective here.

I understand that. My problem is that they HAVE footage and are refusing to show it to the backers. WHERE IS THE MONACO WALKTHROUGH? You mention other games but Shenmue III is not other games. It is a Kickstarter. They have certain obligations to show how the game is doing. The least they could is release the Monaco video to the public if they didn't want to dedicate resources to making something more substantial.

... and what are we supposed to do about that? It's not as if we can force them to change their approach, overcome language or cultural (by that I mean development culture, mind you) barriers, magically produce footage that doesn't exist yet, or stop other people from perceiving this the way they perceive it. All of those things are beyond our control. Only Ys and company can change those things, and it's quite possible they're either unable to, or unwilling to until they feel they have something strong to show. As I said, I get the frustration. I even share it to some degree... but this is unproductive IMO.

We can't change it so let's not talk about it? I'm calling bullshit.

How would you prefer me to think? Panic? Start loudly making demands? Threaten to pull my money (not possible at this juncture anyway)? Demand refunds? (Also probably not possible at this juncture.)

I don't want to do any of this. I'm going to be telling staff I find the lack of updates to be utterly unacceptable for a publicly funded project of this size.

[Jibby]

I know it's very disappointing we didn't get anything new at PSX but without wishing to sound patronising, please let's all just stay calm for the minute and put it into context. Hopefully we'll get some sort of update soon!

Best wishes, as always, MJ

[Yama]

Time for some Shenmue music to put everyone at ease.

phpBB [video]

[b_ren]

FYI in case anyone doesn't know, dojo member Sappharad noticed it was the SSL certificate that has expired on the paypal donation page. This can be easy done and has probably been missed /forgotten by who over administrates the website. Hopefully they notice and fix first thing on Monday!

[sand4fish]

Before anything else, this is a Kickstarter project. Disappointment on delivery of updates on game development and the delay of the final product is almost 100% to happen. Here's a link for an article to show you the statistics (though a bit old, it still applies today). I think I can consider myself a veteran Kickstarter backer (for what's worth) and I've backed many high profile game projects like Torment Tides of Numenera (backed since 2013) and Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, Kickstarters older than Shenmue 3 that still were not released. Speaking of Bloodstained, which dates just months prior to Shenmue 3's crowdfunding and appears to have some serious big time investors behind the project, has a window release for Q1 2018 so it'll be no surprise to see Shenmue 3 being pushed way beyond December 2017. Another title that I backed, Divinity Original Sin, had only a partial Kickstarter campaign to extend game features and it still was delayed for almost a entire year from their original projection (and very sparse on updates as well). That's simply just the nature and historical track of crowdfunding projects.

The comparison of Shenmue 3 to Mighty Number 9 is fair, given both were unexpected successful campaigns and were received with great hype. But Yu Suzuki is not Keiji Inafune. Inafune's most acclaimed feat to date is to have worked on character designing for the Megaman series (sorry if this offends Megaman fans), and later producing or creating series like Onimusha and Dead Rising. But he is no director and game designer. Foremost, the man is a beyond ambitious businessman trying to spawn an entire MN9 universe (with animes and side games simultaneously) before proving his initial product. Meanwhile Shenmue 3 has most of its key original staff and Yu Suzuki at the helm as director and designer. So the worst that can happen to Shenmue 3 is to be a generic looking game (graphically) and to have a disappointing small world to explore compared to contemporary peers. Because gameplay and vision wise, the game has its concept locked down since the first game's inception more than a decade ago. It's pretty much a safe bet for a Kickstarter project for people to invest their money on, specially if they are fans of the previous games.

On even a brighter side, given that Yu was handed total freedom to do whatever he wants with the series (without any need for approval from Sega) this might turn out to be the most ambitious and fleshed out Shenmue we have yet to experience. I'm saying this because some of the best games (pushing their genres forward) I played these past few years were Kickstarter games: the aforementioned Divinity: Original Sin (one of the best RPGs I played and I don't particularly like the genre) and Planetary Annihilation (RTS with battles with a scope that can go from a determined planet to beyond even a solar system).

Well, what trying to say in the end is that everything will eventually be sorted out, updates will come and the game will be fine to say the least.

[Anonymous81]

We can't change it so let's not talk about it? I'm calling bullshit.

I said what everyone else does and says is their prerogative. I said feel free to disagree.

K. I'm going to bed. Have a great day.

[iyapol]

Before anything else, this is a Kickstarter project. Disappointment on delivery of updates on game development and the delay of the final product is almost 100% to happen. Here's a link for an article to show you the statistics (though a bit old, it still applies today). I think I can consider myself a veteran Kickstarter backer (for what's worth) and I've backed many high profile game projects like Torment Tides of Numenera (backed since 2013) and Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, Kickstarters older than Shenmue 3 that still were not released. Speaking of Bloodstained, which dates just months prior to Shenmue 3's crowdfunding and appears to have some serious big time investors behind the project, has a window release for Q1 2018 so it'll be no surprise to see Shenmue 3 being pushed way beyond December 2017. Another title that I backed, Divinity Original Sin, had only a partial Kickstarter campaign to extend game features and it still was delayed for almost a entire year from their original projection (and very sparse on updates as well). That's simply just the nature and historical track of crowdfunding projects.

The comparison of Shenmue 3 to Mighty Number 9 is fair, given both were unexpected successful campaigns and were received with great hype. But Yu Suzuki is not Keiji Inafune. Inafune's most acclaimed feat to date is to have worked on character designing for the Megaman series (sorry if this offends Megaman fans), and later producing or creating series like Onimusha and Dead Rising. But he is no director and game designer. Foremost, the man is a beyond ambitious businessman trying to spawn an entire MN9 universe (with animes and side games simultaneously) before proving his initial product. Meanwhile Shenmue 3 has most of its key original staff and Yu Suzuki at the helm as director and designer. So the worst that can happen to Shenmue 3 is to be a generic looking game (graphically) and to have a disappointing small world to explore compared to contemporary peers. Because gameplay and vision wise, the game has its concept locked down since the first game's inception more than a decade ago. It's pretty much a safe bet for a Kickstarter project for people to invest their money on, specially if they are fans of the previous games.

On even a brighter side, given that Yu was handed total freedom to do whatever he wants with the series (without any need for approval from Sega) this might turn out to be the most ambitious and fleshed out Shenmue we have yet to experience. I'm saying this because some of the best games (pushing their genres forward) I played these past few years were Kickstarter games: the aforementioned Divinity: Original Sin (one of the best RPGs I played and I don't particularly like the genre) and Planetary Annihilation (RTS with battles with a scope that can go from a determined planet to beyond even a solar system).

Well, what trying to say in the end is that everything will eventually be sorted out, updates will come and the game will be fine to say the least.

Superb post - really puts things into context.

[Himuro]

Before anything else, this is a Kickstarter project. Disappointment on delivery of updates on game development and the delay of the final product is almost 100% to happen. Here's a link for an article to show you the statistics (though a bit old, it still applies today). I think I can consider myself a veteran Kickstarter backer (for what's worth) and I've backed many high profile game projects like Torment Tides of Numenera (backed since 2013) and Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, Kickstarters older than Shenmue 3 that still were not released. Speaking of Bloodstained, which dates just months prior to Shenmue 3's crowdfunding and appears to have some serious big time investors behind the project, has a window release for Q1 2018 so it'll be no surprise to see Shenmue 3 being pushed way beyond December 2017. Another title that I backed, Divinity Original Sin, had only a partial Kickstarter campaign to extend game features and it still was delayed for almost a entire year from their original projection (and very sparse on updates as well). That's simply just the nature and historical track of crowdfunding projects.

The comparison of Shenmue 3 to Mighty Number 9 is fair, given both were unexpected successful campaigns and were received with great hype. But Yu Suzuki is not Keiji Inafune. Inafune's most acclaimed feat to date is to have worked on character designing for the Megaman series (sorry if this offends Megaman fans), and later producing or creating series like Onimusha and Dead Rising. But he is no director and game designer. Foremost, the man is a beyond ambitious businessman trying to spawn an entire MN9 universe (with animes and side games simultaneously) before proving his initial product. Meanwhile Shenmue 3 has most of its key original staff and Yu Suzuki at the helm as director and designer. So the worst that can happen to Shenmue 3 is to be a generic looking game (graphically) and to have a disappointing small world to explore compared to contemporary peers. Because gameplay and vision wise, the game has its concept locked down since the first game's inception more than a decade ago. It's pretty much a safe bet for a Kickstarter project for people to invest their money on, specially if they are fans of the previous games.

On even a brighter side, given that Yu was handed total freedom to do whatever he wants with the series (without any need for approval from Sega) this might turn out to be the most ambitious and fleshed out Shenmue we have yet to experience. I'm saying this because some of the best games (pushing their genres forward) I played these past few years were Kickstarter games: the aforementioned Divinity: Original Sin (one of the best RPGs I played and I don't particularly like the genre) and Planetary Annihilation (RTS with battles with a scope that can go from a determined planet to beyond even a solar system).

Well, what trying to say in the end is that everything will eventually be sorted out, updates will come and the game will be fine to say the least.

Thanks for putting this into perspective.

[Let's Get Sweaty]

Just to clarify, the footage shown in Monaco was for all attendees, and entrance was free.

Also, while those videos have not been published online in full, short clips were later included within a separate montage.

Where can I see this montage?

This makes the lack of Monaco video on the KS page even more damning if it was available to all Monaco attendees for free.

Since you kept making a point of people paying £10,000 to see it, I assumed that was relevant to your objection.

phpBB [video]

Skip to around 1:12 for the footage, though it holds no surprises for you.

[punkmanced]

I think most if not all of our concerns would be alleviated with a proper PR team at the helm.
It’s Shenmue’s bane.

[sand4fish]

Superb post - really puts things into context.

Thanks for putting this into perspective.

Thank you and you are welcome! It's just like many here, I've put a lot of money into Shenmue 3 (way more than any project I've backed so far) and the waiting time is killing me. But I just wanted to put into perspective that this is another Kickstarter project, and this simple fact changes many things concerning the creation of the game. All I wanted is to avoid feeding bad press by some game journalists because for some reason Shenmue really draws the slightest negative reaction of fans as a sign to publicize an article to badmouth the project. Anyway we can always direct our unhappiness on how things are going to Awesome Japan or Ysnet with an e-mail. I really have had many experiences with Kickstarter campaigns, and Shenmue 3 is easily one of the safest bets mainly because of how many eyes are on it, either to see it succeed or fail miserably. This is just too big for Yu to run away, so he has no choice other than to impress the world and even deliver more than what was promised, as his name and career are on the line.