It's obvious the bad press has injured the Kickstarter. Accusations of greed on the part of Sony and YSNet, a lack of transparency, etc. etc. is really hurting the campaign. Not that I think the transparency is warranted - since what other game ever told the public their finances? That Shenmue III got singled out for that is black kettling.
We really need more positive articles and media. The masses and unintiated are never going to spend the time researching these things, they'll just take the first thing they read as the truth and think themselves well researched.
I'm not ready to let Shenmue III slip away yet though. I'm going to keep reaching out to journalists and YouTubers to make a difference and swing this campaign back around. With the surge at the end we'll probably make at least $5 Million, but making 6 or 7 would be great. 6 or 7 might be enough, I think, to attract more investors for Yu. And PayPal post-donations.
We need to get more positive media: That, for me, and not the Kickstarter page, is the most severe weakness of the campaign at this point. The net is full of articles barely edited after a copy and paste job from other clickbait sites. Kuchera's a complete sack of clueless, talentless shit and always was.
I wish Cedric or Yu would do another interview to give them a new definitive quote to pass around. One which asserted the importance of the campaign, being thankful of Sony's support but not overemphasizing with it whilst also affirming Sony's support being public from the beginning but misconstrued by bad journalism. It might blunt the negativity going around. Would also enjoy some articles on the topic of bad and poorly reserached journalism in general, and how it's poisonous for creators and the industry alike. Though that may wake the GamerGate dragon.