Playstation Experience - December 2016

[Peter]

I am gonna keep my mouth shut in the future. Probably bow out of here a bit and focus on the Twitch. Believe me, when I say, on so many levels, I am quietly pissed off and frustrated. This game is officialy one year from release, is still being crowd funded, and there needs to be major sales to get a Shenmue 4 into production (confirmed to be needed).

It's not an over reaction either, when you have spent time with the development team and givenjoy so much of your life to this. So many levels of frustrated right now.

[FlagshipFighter]

All they had to do was make a teaser showing environments. If the locations are as far along as Peter and LanDC say all they had to do was make a one minute trailer of the environments like the Monaco vid of Shenhua's house. Show the Chinese countryside, show the wind blowing in the Shenmue tree, show Bailu village, and details of the interior buildings, show one of the big buildings of Baisha and don't show a single character, all while beautiful music is playing. Until the end when the camera pans and we see Ryo and Shenhua. Fade out. Shenmue III, coming 2017.

That's all they had to do and we already know they have the capability of doing this when every video so far is literally something like this.

There really is no excuse for showing jack shit for well over a year and I do not blame a single person for rescinding their pledge.

I agree they should do this, but I don't think it would have been showable in the PSX keynote of today, where all other trailers were much more advanced and mature than that.

But it could be a monthly Kickstarter update or something like that...

[FlagshipFighter]

I am gonna keep my mouth shut in the future. Probably bow out of here a bit and focus on the Twitch. Believe me, when I say, on so many levels, I am quietly pissed off and frustrated. This game is officialy one year from release, is still being crowd funded, and there needs to be major sales to get a Shenmue 4 into production (confirmed to be needed).

It's not an over reaction either, when you have spent time with the development team and givenjoy so much of your life to this. So many levels of frustrated right now.

Nobody should be blaming you Peter. You were giving info as you thought best and the hype storm for us fans has been high ever since the 2015 announcement. Don't leave the dojo because of other's having too high of expectations and lashing out in the wrong direction.

[Himuro]

All they had to do was make a teaser showing environments. If the locations are as far along as Peter and LanDC say all they had to do was make a one minute trailer of the environments like the Monaco vid of Shenhua's house. Show the Chinese countryside, show the wind blowing in the Shenmue tree, show Bailu village, and details of the interior buildings, show one of the big buildings of Baisha and don't show a single character, all while beautiful music is playing. Until the end when the camera pans and we see Ryo and Shenhua. Fade out. Shenmue III, coming 2017.

That's all they had to do and we already know they have the capability of doing this when every video so far is literally something like this.

There really is no excuse for showing jack shit for well over a year and I do not blame a single person for rescinding their pledge.

I agree they should do this, but I don't think it would have been showable in the PSX keynote of today, where all other trailers were much more advanced and mature than that.

But it could be a monthly Kickstarter update or something like that...

The fact they have not done something like this even now is frustrating as fuck and I'm not buying the "Yu is a perfectionist" rhetoric. This the most basic kind of trailer you can do. I am now blaming this on sheer incompetence at this point.

[mjq jazz bar]

There was this promise in the beginning that backers would have an unprecedented level of involvement with the development of the game, and they've done such a lousy job fulfilling it. All we get are these nothing updates once a month. They need to do a state of development update, reassure backers the game is still coming to the PC, etc. They might be making amazing progress behind the scenes, but they're really letting all of us down as far as the Kickstarter involvement is concerned.

[ys]

As I wrote earlier, I also think that they should update us more on what is going on. Some real work and concrete results. The interviews are nice but it would be interesting to see real progress once in a while. They shouldn't forget that they went through Kickstarter after all.

About Torment which was mentioned. I've visited their forums before and the developers actually interact with the backers. Showing pieces of new artwork, parts of new environments they have been working on, asking people what they think of different decisions, etc. I don't want spoilers but it would be nice as a backer to maybe see the camera move through a small part of an environment.

Elaine Benes

I'm pretty sure they'll release a trailer before the game comes out.

With the way the marketing has been at times, I'm pretty sure they'll release a trailer after the game comes out.

[O Rei do Frango Assado]

There was this promise in the beginning that backers would have an unprecedented level of involvement with the development of the game, and they've done such a lousy job fulfilling it.

Thank God for that. I was never too keen on that idea. I don't want backers interfering on the game's development. I'm not paying to have a game made by us, but by Yu Suzuki and his team.

Personally, as a backer myself (who spent almost €200 on this project), the only thing I think Yu and co. owe me is a great game which lives up to the Shenmue name. In fact, I quite dislike something that is very common in the videogame industry and that is the fact that games are announced way before their release dates. I understand that they need to hype them, for marketing reasons, but, as a gamer, I just want the game and I want it to be good, not to spend 2 or 3 years getting screenshots and videos. Obviously, since this was a Kickstarter project, it had to be announced at a very early stage, so, as someone else mentioned already, it is only natural that it seems to be taking longer than usual for them to come up with something substantial to show to the public. Fine by me. After all, I'm a Shenmue fan. I know how to be patient. And I assume everyone else here knows too (or should know). And I'm fine with these Kickstarter "non-updates" we've been having too. Just let them focus on making the game. All I'm interested in is the final product.

And if this means that, when they finally do show some video which is more representative of what the actual game will look like, they're going to show us a proper trailer, with gameplay, cutscenes bits, different characters and whatnot, then great.
Because fuck teasers videos! They just... well, tease. Either show us something proper, or nothing at all. So I'd rather have nothing now and later have a proper trailer which will blow me away and give me an actual idea of what the game will be like, than having a teaser that shows nothing and just teases.

Anyway, this game won't come out for a very long time (we'll be lucky if we get it in 2018), so there's plenty of time to hype it and market it. No need to worry (yet) about the possibility of development being a mess which will result in a shitty game. It simply wasn't shown at PSX. Big deal. No one said it would.

[FlagshipFighter]

All they had to do was make a teaser showing environments. If the locations are as far along as Peter and LanDC say all they had to do was make a one minute trailer of the environments like the Monaco vid of Shenhua's house. Show the Chinese countryside, show the wind blowing in the Shenmue tree, show Bailu village, and details of the interior buildings, show one of the big buildings of Baisha and don't show a single character, all while beautiful music is playing. Until the end when the camera pans and we see Ryo and Shenhua. Fade out. Shenmue III, coming 2017.

That's all they had to do and we already know they have the capability of doing this when every video so far is literally something like this.

There really is no excuse for showing jack shit for well over a year and I do not blame a single person for rescinding their pledge.

I agree they should do this, but I don't think it would have been showable in the PSX keynote of today, where all other trailers were much more advanced and mature than that.

But it could be a monthly Kickstarter update or something like that...

Disagree that it's not enough to show. Yakuza trailers were nothing but a bunch of cutscenes and then YAKUZA IS COMING, IN THE SAME CITY, WITH THE SAME MAIN CHARACTER, WITH THE SAME SHIT YOUVE ALWAYS DONE IN A YAKUZA GAME THE PAST TEN YEARSSssszzzz with like one or two battle shots of Kiryu doing a heat attack.

[FlagshipFighter]

*climbs on box*

I gotta talk more. This is an unacceptable event for all of us as fans. We were *led* to believe something would be shown and nothing happened and NOT by Peter, by the very people HE placed HIS trust and money in.

THREE events(TGS I forgot) have now gone by and nothing has been shown. "Oh, it maybe couldn't stand up to the big guns on the main stage."

Horseshit; It did it already and has a Kickstarter record to prove it can. It debuted behind FFVIIR for God's sake, don't give me that.

People lamented that Mighty No. 9 didn't look as good on reveal. At least they saw it, saw how it was most likely going to play. We have *nothing*. No battle system footage, no dialogue footage, no new models, no story, nothing at all.

The negativity is justified. The concern is justified. It is our money and a legacy on the line. The silence on their front, both in regards to less than tangible updates and this lack of show, will only make it worse.

It's like when Tiger Woods got caught with his pants down. He hid, stayed silent, it blew up into a huge mess in the end. David Letterman, same situation--came out, said "Yeah, I did it. I regret it. It is what it is, let's move on." and nothing much happened.

Why do I make that analogy? If there's an issue, development isn't going well, need more time, more money..come out and speak. Talk to your fans. Don't stay silent.

It'll get you one of those tarnished reputations of Kickstarters who left fans hanging for years with nothing to show but "don't worry were still working on it." It'll get you the negative press we all fought like Hell to counter *during* this Kickstarter..except this time, we will not have any leg to stand on to counter.

"We trust in Yu. Everyone calm down."

Me too, I'm still hopeful, but people trusted Keiji Inafune too and look at that train wreck.

[Himuro]

I am gonna keep my mouth shut in the future. Probably bow out of here a bit and focus on the Twitch. Believe me, when I say, on so many levels, I am quietly pissed off and frustrated. This game is officialy one year from release, is still being crowd funded, and there needs to be major sales to get a Shenmue 4 into production (confirmed to be needed).

It's not an over reaction either, when you have spent time with the development team and givenjoy so much of your life to this. So many levels of frustrated right now.

Don't worry about it mate. You went off what you knew. Anyone with sense now realizes all of this is on YS Net and their inability to keep the fanbase informed this entire bloody year. When they haven't released direct feed footage of Monaco walk through no one else IS to blame except Ys Net. If they go this month without releasing a new video that will be absolutely unacceptable. It will have been no official video release to the public for over a year. That is not acceptable and that is not your fault.

[SMDzero]

I think we all need to face facts.

While Shenmue 3 may ultimately be a great game, the game is still probably 2.5 years away from release.

We'll ultimately get the game in 2019 and next years PSX Experience will be exciting because we'll finally get the first Shenmue 3 teaser trailer. It won't be much.... probably little more than the old Monaco environmental footage but at least it will be something.

This was a hell of a thing for YsNet to do to us... we were all counting on this big December update to tide us over through the second half of the development phase. Now we are left stranded and have a year to wait at best and more likely 2.5 years since the game will obviously be delayed into 2019. We'll basically have to wait through most of the Trump Presidency to get Shenmue 3.

This is nearly 2005 all over again.... hey let's be happy that we WILL get Shenmue 3.. but it's many years off still.

Let's all simply forget about Shenmue for the foreseeable future... it ain't happening anytime soon. And we will NEVER get Shenmue HD that I'm certain.

[Valascaziel]

Here is the conspiracy theorist in me rearing up:

Peter and Co. were shown unseen footage from an earlier build, not a recent build. If the project is in trouble, as many now probably believe(and with good reason)

How do we know that footage was not cobbled together long ago, or maybe last minute, solely because they donated big money?

I'm grasping again..

[b_ren]

Has anyone noticed that you can't donate to the Shenmue Paypal anymore?

[Himuro]

Furthermore, if it was old footage why has it not been released to the public? They've shown videos of Ryo doing a qte in the wire mode if the game, but can't show actual footage of the game to people who haven't paid 10k dollars? It's fishy as fuck.

[Yokosuka]

Disagree that it's not enough to show. Yakuza trailers were nothing but a bunch of cutscenes and then YAKUZA IS COMING, IN THE SAME CITY, WITH THE SAME MAIN CHARACTER, WITH THE SAME SHIT YOUVE ALWAYS DONE IN A YAKUZA GAME THE PAST TEN YEARSSssszzzz with like one or two battle shots of Kiryu doing a heat attack.

It's sad but no one cares of Yakuza in the West. The concept trailer you depicted would have been perfect for the fans or a Dreamcast Magazine CD but for a wider audience who has mostly no idea of what Shenmue is, I've much more doubts.
Sony put forward Shenmue III as the same level of FFVII and Last Guardian in 2015. They need to make the world understand why Shenmue is special.

To respond your quote about inaction, I would send you a reference to the Tortoise and the Hare.