Here is a rapid translation of the latest interview from Cedric Biscay on the French TV channel "NoLife" :
http://noco.tv/emission/25671/nolife/101-pur-100/cedric-biscay-producteur-de-shenmue-iii Shenmue 3 part
Stream will go down on 02/18/2016
starts at : 6:50
Davy Mourier (presenter) : You have another project that you are working on right now, it is Shenmue 3. It is a Sega game so how did you get the license for that ?
Cedric Biscay : I’m a great fan of Shenmue since the beginning, I played 1 and 2 and like all the other fans, I asked why don’t we get a third installement ?
DM : You asked that question for quite a long time right ? (laughs)
CB : I always wondered why nobody was doing it… It sounded like the issue was ecenomical as the Dreamcast failed to sell well enough.
Knowing Yu Suzuki via my professional network in Japan, we discussed it and Sega wouldn’t let the licence go to whoever asked for it.
But they let it go after Shibuya Production made a serious offer to them. We succeed where a lots of major actors of the industry failed.
Those actors wanted it not only for business but mainly for the aura, the image that it represents, it is a very anticipated game and ever since we’ve announced it, it remains as one of the 100 most anticipated game.
GUEST : There was a kickstarter on it ?
DM : Kickstarter gather 6 millions
GUEST : Did you launched it ?
CB : Yes, with Japanese staff and we broke 2 world records with it…
GUEST : Wich records ?
CB : Fastest kickstarted game, we had the first million in 45 minutes and 8 hours for the second.
GUEST : Damn, wait for me, I have something to do (laughs)
CB : We also broke Kickstarter for a moment, We got a twitter notification to say the campaign was too popular and flooded the platform.
DM : You broke records, it is a huge amount of money… You launched another kickstarter on paypal this time, why ?
CB : No, it was not a second kickstarter, it is another crowdfunding operation asked by the japan staff. They got a lots of people asking to maintain the donation availability as Shenmue fans would like to continue donating to Shenmue 3.
This is another concept, the community is extremly active and want to keep the donation… I think you know this kind of thing with donation right ? (adress to GUEST)
GUEST : I was here to ask this question and I apologize in advance but this is not a kickstarter right, it is not as serious and strict as a kickstarter campaign so you can maybe understand that some people are not confident on this move, this has not the same guarantee…
CB : I can understand that people are not welcoming this second donation campaign but as far as it is a community request, we are pretty confident in it.
Fans want to participate more so we provide them with a way to do it, we are not in the press debates or anything…
GUEST : I can understand that but, the real question is and I do not wish that to happen at all : if Shemue 3 would not be made in the end, Kickstarter money will go back to the backers…
GUEST : You think that the money will go back to the backers ?
GUEST : Yes, this is a Kickstarter rules…
*Kickstarter bullshit debate…*
CB : No, I think that no one can have his money back if the goal is reached on KS. The only way is if the project didn’t met his goal.
Everyone know that on KS, there is not much of a guarantee about seeing the project be launched than on any other crowdfunding platform.
DM : People get a copy of the game ? or their name in the credits ?
CB : It depends on what you pay for, lots of people wanted the game in early acces…
DM : They pay for a game that ship in 4 years ?
CB : No i twill ship on Christmas of 2017 and we will keep the deadline. People backed for a lots of different things like name in the credits, having its own NPC ingame…
DM : We can be in the background of Shenmue 3 ??
CB : Yes
DM : OK
CB : And as a player, It would really got my interest ! (laughs)
DM : In 2013, you organize the Monaco Anime game show with the staff of the toulouse game show and since a year, you continue solo on the Monaco Anime Game International Conference (Magic)
*Joke on Davy that forgot the « Game » in MAGIC*
DM : So What is the Magic ?
CB : We wanted a free and very qualitative event on the exchange between authors of Video games and Animes.
DM : Free ? at Monaco ?? Didn’t they tried to kill you ?
GUEST : You have the 15€ Sandwich (laughs)
CB : That’s not true, we have good agreement and it is cheaper than most of the time… Even autographs are free…
DM : Americans are accepting that ??
CB : Yes yes, I think americans would accept lots of thing if their interest are met…
DM : Who are the guests ?
CB : Terasawa Buichi, Cobra creator… Yu Suzuki, Shenmue creator.
Pardon my english again and enjoy