PAYPAL SUPPORT FOR SHENMUE 3! PRE-ORDER FOR PS4/PC!

[Yokosuka]

I'm currently writing a long Q&A to spread everywhere on the net and make the process easier for everyone.

Sweet, I will try to use that at least then when I can. If my health were better, I'd have the energy I did last time. But after that last kidney stone, it's just been one thing after another lol.

So far looks like 22K or so raised in threedays or so. At that rate, we could conceivably hit 7 million at least.

Oh thanks for your effort.

[Englishhedgehog]

Welp, we're definitely not hitting more than one extra stretch goal

[Gen]

What I would like to know is the reason for the delayed paypal. At first I thought that YsNet, Sony and Sega perhaps were working on finalizing a deal to make Shenmue HD and to coincide the announcement with the paypal support, perhaps even as part of the rewards. The fact that paypal was going to be announced at the 17th and that Yu Suzuki, Cedric and Shibuya were going to TGS made me think it was possible that HD ports would be announced there. Now that TGS is over we know that's not the case.
Another possibility I though of was that they were simply preparing attractive new rewards with a variety of reward tiers and that was the reason for the delay. Now we can see that's not really the case either, the reward tiers are basically the same as in the kickstarter campaign, at least for now. Anyone who has a reasonable theory for the delay?

[Anonymous81]

What I would like to know is the reason for the delayed paypal. At first I thought that YsNet, Sony and Sega perhaps were working on finalizing a deal to make Shenmue HD and to coincide the announcement with the paypal support, perhaps even as part of the rewards. The fact that paypal was going to be announced at the 17th and that Yu Suzuki, Cedric and Shibuya were going to TGS made me think it was possible that HD ports would be announced there. Now that TGS is over we know that's not the case.
Another possibility I though of was that they were simply preparing attractive new rewards with a variety of reward tiers and that was the reason for the delay. Now we can see that's not really the case either, the reward tiers are basically the same as in the kickstarter campaign, at least for now. Anyone who has a reasonable theory for the delay?

The best theory I've heard - and the one I find most reasonable personally, although I still don't know the specifics at all - though we'll likely never know for certain, is that there are different legal realities in different regions and countries when it comes to how PayPal functions. Not from a user standpoint obviously, but from a legal standpoint in terms of accepting donations for an unfinished product versus simply transferring funds or buying an existing product.

That, and the fact that in the past PayPal has frozen donated funds for crowdfunded projects because they felt there was not sufficient guarantee of product delivery to their customers. Straightening all of that out, at least to a degree YsNet would find safe and secure so they could rely on any donated funds without such unknowns, may have taken longer to figure out in an authoritative way than we might imagine.

We also know from responses by Awesome Japan that there were things going on they weren't privy to necessarily, which means we weren't either, contributing to the delay. So I think getting all of the i's and t's dotted and crossed legally and in other ways is a good theory as to the reasons. But even failing that, clearly something was going on that we lack any insight into which demanded considerable time and effort to straighten out. What that could be specifically? Your guess is as good as mine.

We will probably never know with any certainty. I'm just glad it's finally functional. It would have been great to have it immediately after the KS and I do feel we lost momentum (understatement,) but what's done is done. Must move forward.

[Gen]

Well, that sounds reasonable I guess.

[Ziming]

phpBB [video]

[killthesagabeforeitkillsu]

They need to put some promo videos out there or this will go down everyone's radar.

[Amir]

Hello Everyone,

We are currently experiencing a technical malfunction with the Kickstarter messaging service. We cannot confirm if our replies are getting back to you, and we are also not receiving your messages.

We can still be reached at [email protected]

If you have sent us a message within the last 24 hours and you have not received a response, we would kindly ask you resend your message to the email address above.

For inquiries about the Shenmue 3 Slacker Backer PayPal page, please also contact us at [email protected]

Once the Kickstarter messaging service is operational again, we will post an update here and on Twitter.

Thank you for your patience everyone!

the Shenmue 3 Team

[Kiske]

Ok. The Paypal donation is now alive and we all agree it's kind of a quiet start.
The reason for that has already been mentioned here. The Kickstarter momentum is gone.

I would like to make a few observations regarding what range of funding we can expect for Shenmue 3 with additional Paypal funds and what is in my opinion, absolutely necessary if we want our hopes of a full experience to become true for Shenmue 3.

First of all, if we look at the numbers, the average pledge per backer is more than 91$. It's huge!
We probably pretty much reached the pike of "operational" hardcore fans.
After 14 years of wait, it's not surprising. What Shenmue 3 really needs are new backers, not necessarily familiar with the franchise.

In order to reach those gamers, the only viable solution IS a re-release of Shenmue 1 and 2 on new systems, possibly in HD. I think we all agree about this.

Now, since the Paypal campaign is going to last until december 31st of this year, an annoucement about HD collection (call it how you like) has to come before the end of the year in order to significantly push the number of new backers.

We also know that the Shenmue IP is in SEGA's hands. There are two ways for them to deal with the franchise:
- Let it rot for who knows how many more years like they did in the last 14 years (with the exception of letting Yu use the IP for Shenmue 3).
- Release an HD Collection and annouce it as quick as possible but at least at the Playstation Experience 2015 next december (from a Shenmue's 3 development goals perpective of course).

There could be a third way to handle the franchise, especially if the don't want to take the chance of investments loss:
- Allow the IP to a third party publisher for the remaster, idealy Ys Net or Shibuya Prod and launch a new Kickstarter campaign for funds raising. If the goal was set to say, 2M$ (and again, Sony support for advertising and publishing expenses), it would most likely be reached thanks to hardcore fans but also thanks to a good share of newcomers to the serie

In all honesty, I don't see a future for the Shenmue franchise without a remaster of the two first games. Yu Suzuki and Shibuya Productions can't ignore that and I'm sure they try their best to make the Shenmue HD collection happen.

I Wonder what we could do as fans to help the cause, beside spreadind the word every 3rd of the month with the ShenmueHD campaign?


Do you think a new miracle is possible?

[DOS]

I think the stretch goals are just there as motivators at this point.
Yu mean to be telling me no investors came on board after the record breaking success of Kickstarter?!

[Kiske]

I think the stretch goals are just there as motivators at this point.
Yu mean to be telling me no investors came on board after the record breaking success of Kickstarter?!

I think we are beyond the investors question right now.

We know for a fact that Shenmue 3 won't end the saga and we all want it to get to an end eventually.
It means that we need a new birth for the Serie... we desperately need new gamers.

Ask yourself who, beside the true fans, would like to invest a penny into the sequel/sequels of a game they hardly heard about in the last 15 years? If it wasn't for Shenmue 3... I would not back a project like this without having the possibility to play the original games.

[elmatto]

Kiske is right.

Resting on our laurels will get us nothing for the future. If we want this series to be the best it can be it's on us.

[Yokosuka]

Kiske is right.

Resting on our laurels will get us nothing for the future. If we want this series to be the best it can be it's on us.

The fate of Shenmue 3 has always been "in our hands" anyway.

Well there are two ways to help this series : our own money and spread the world. And the last is usually the most efficient.

There are some sites you can write articles and got the chance to be published. It's a good occasion to make people interested to the saga and clear the disinformation.

I wrote a long Q&A but my article has been refused because I was too rude against the journalists and it sounded horribly like a YSnet press release but I defo feel an opportunity here.

[Switch]

I don't know if it could be useful for someone but here a resume of my Q&A :


What is Shenmue ?
- very fast explanation with good links of articles and videos

Why do they ask for money since Sony fund the game ?
- Explanation of the real role of Sony

Why do Sony not want to fund Shenmue 3 themselves ?
- Shenmue is not a Sony IP
- Yu Suzuki got the rights of the game from Sega
- Shenmue 3 is officialy an indie game

Isn't shameful that Sony use crowdfunding to earn money ?
- explain that Sony can't make profit of this game since his role is just to help

If I give some money, I will have to pay again to get the game at its release, right ?
- nope

Shenmue 3 has earned 6 million, why did they announce a Paypal ?
- need of more developers to get the remaining features, the targeted open world and the full experience of Shenmue 3
- people ask for it

If Shenmue 1 has cost 47 million, how 11 million can be enough ?
- explanation of dreamcast budget
- mention of cheap unreal engine 4
- mention of re-used assets

11 million are still not enough to make a real open world....
- explanation of differences between gta like and yakuza-like
- mention of kingdom come and vanishing of ethan carter as good examples of cheap open world
- mention of the privates funds unlocked and safed by YSnet

If the 11 million are not reached, which game can we expect ?
- Yu Suzuki is still happy as he got his favorites features
- the development is already planned according the budget and has moved on.
- a 4 months room has been left to put the remaining concepts. Still need help from players to fulfill the full potential of the game


Why does no big company want to fund the game ?
- Too few people played Shenmue 2 and the fanbase could not extend enough
- Yu Suzuki wants independancy and make Shenmue 5
- Sega still owns the IP

Why does Yu Suzuki not want to conclude the story with Shenmmue 3 ?
- Explanation that Shenmue is a saga where original story is important

Will Shenmue 4 use crowdfunding ?
- quote of Cedric Biscay

Why so few people bought Shenmue in the past ?
- Explanation of Shenmue 1 success (top 5 of Dreamcast games with 1 million games sold)
- Explanation of Shenmue 2 flop : Sega stopped the Dreamcast production 9 months before so a lot of sellers no longer had dreamcast products in their stores + other reasons


The Shenmue 3 doesn't look really well driven
- Yu Suzuki gives a lot of interviews currently
- Yu Suzuki pushed strongly to make Shenmue 3 alive since several years and prepared himself
- Suzuki imagined six different models of Shenmue 3 according the budget type before the Kickstarter
- best sources to follow Shenmue 3 to avoid disinformation

Who develop Shenmue 3 ?
- the team
- Biscay is a true Shenmue fan and expecting to earn not so much money despite being the main investor

Is Shenmue 3 going to be an outdated game ?
- Shenmue 2 brought already new features at its time
- explanation of the new features of Shenmue 3

I want to (re)play Shenmue 1 & 2, why do they not remaster them ?
- Rights of 1&2 do not belong to Yu.
- tweet corsi


my original French article with all the sources : http://www.gamekyo.com/blog_article372327.html

[Kiske]

Was thinking about ideas for PayPal rewards and I tweeted Cedric and Suzuki about contacting John Sweeney to see if they could get some Shenmue art prints from him. If Suzuki signed them I'm sure there are fans (including myself) who would pay 2-3x as much for them, so Sweeney would still get paid and the PayPal would get a decent contribution:

"@CedricBiscay @Shenmue_3 You contacted J. Sweeney about having his print as PayPal reward? Signed by @yu_suzuki_jp? http://bit.ly/1PnbpCd "

https://twitter.com/resnate/status/646256839236190208