Playstation Experience - December 2016

[Peter]

Wow I did it know that about Cedric. I dont know much about anything really, so please, tell me more! By the way, where has listening to the guy "in the know" got you? Has it had a positive effect on your wait for Shenmue 3?

[Valascaziel]

I've had a night to reflect and think on this event, thus I arise a bit more optimistic.

I thought to myself "What if a trailer was ready, but also included a delay, which is widely suspected given the scale of the game?"

Perhaps they thought a trailer with a delay would have more negative than positive reaction, so they will release it on their own time direct to backers.

Sega gas been more prominently acknowledging Shenmues existence. A surprise, mid-week announcements of the HD Remasters along with the trailer would be a great year-end present, as it is a slow news time for gaming.

We are quick(as I was) to assume the Slacker Backer is over. It is not unreasonable to assume that, perhaps, the site is being redone to incorporate the PC version, as well as revamp the site if a trailer is imminent to draw more attention.

All we can do now is wait.

[Spaghetti]

It should have been apparent to us that a "Producer" halfway across the world that doesn't even speak the same language as the developer would not be the most reliable source of information, but whatever.

This is all we have to go on now:

Hello, for your information I am not in charge of the PSX program. Stay tuned for the next update from the dev team.

So let's buckle up and wait for Christmas. We've got the weekly Dojo streams to take us through the end of the year at least.

[Stocke]

I didn't see anything that would suggest that shenmue 3 would be at PSX so i'm not shocked nothing was shown.

You must have not been paying attention, then...


I'm not a fan of this "We set ourselves for disappointment! It's our fault!!" rhetoric. The fans are not to blame, it's 100% on Ysnet and Shibuya Productions.

First, if we are to believe Peter, Ysnet "Strongly suggested" than what they've shown will be showcased at PSX, that's what Kickstarted our hype.

Then, a few days ago, Cedric Biscay himself says he recommends Shenmue fans to watch the PSX livestream...
I mean, how can you blame the fans for getting upset after this?

As i've said i havn't been coming here. So no i wouldn't have seen what peter had said. And you're right, I havn't seen Cedric mention anything on twitter either.
I do believe its your fault if you're upset after overhyping yourself.

[Shendream]

Wow I did it know that about Cedric. I dont know much about anything really, so please, tell me more! By the way, where has listening to the guy "in the know" got you? Has it had a positive effect on your wait for Shenmue 3?

Evidently not, but I find it silly that you tell people to disregard his statements, considering he's in such a high position.

Anyway, him being wrong with PSX wasn't the issue.. After all, it could be something out of their control... Like Sony refusing them the time slot. To assume Cedric was clueless and was bullshitting you with that PSX tweet is some serious disrespect towards the guy.

The issue was he didn't notify the fans of it's absence after teasing it's presence on Twitter... He had no obligation to, of course. But we could have avoided the all the drama if were notified before hand... It would have still been disappointing, but the blow would've been softer, at least.

It should have been apparent to us that a "Producer" halfway across the world that doesn't even speak the same language as the developer would not be the most reliable source of information, but whatever.

Really, living in another country isn't an issue in this day and age. People stay connected thanks to modern technology. It's such a non-issue... Hundreds of Japanese developers have Producers/Publishers who are based abroad, this has never been a problem.

Also, I'm 80% sure Cedric speaks Japanese, even if he didn't. Language isn't a problem... His company is Japan focused, he won't have any issue connecting with Ysnet.

[Himuro]

I never expected anything, to be frank, so I wasn't disappointed. I was more worried about people's reactions here and elsewhere, than about what we'd see.

As I've said before, as much as we all want to believe otherwise, I seriously doubt we will see anything before E3 2017, and maybe not even until TGS 2017. I also will not be at all surprised to see the game delayed, possibly by as much as a year or more. This is just something fairly common with Kickstarted games (and games in general these days, the more ambitious, the more likely the delay... and this is SHENMUE 3.)

And yes, I agree with others that the gaming press will eventually rip the campaign to shreds (again) because of this if it happens.

But I also fully expect that once the game is out, we will all end up with a fun game that is spiritually aligned with the Shenmue we remember, with a detailed, rich world, but with some contemporary (read: more accessible) gameplay mechanics. I expect many here and in the rest of the Shenmue community to be angry about some of that... the lack of footage before E3 or TGS, the possible delay, the press reaction to it, and even the contemporary gameplay elements added, because people want a true hardcore Shenmue experience... but, while I could always be wrong, I really do strongly suspect this is the future of Shenmue 3.

And I'm not one bit upset about any of that.

While frustration is only natural, I think we need to just remain steadfast, as we always have, and wait. It's not like Yu Suzuki of all people is going to deliver a terrible game, or cancel the game. It's going to come out. It's going to at least be fun (though I think, given my experience with other Kickstarted games, we should prepare for it to be merely "good" rather than "amazing" just given budget constraints... and we should also prepare for the gaming press to review it very poorly, or at best, as sort of average to good, high 7s basically) and we're all probably going to enjoy it.

I see no reason to doubt that. At all. As I've stated since the start of the KS campaign and its conclusion... yes, communication has been horrible. From the livestream quality during the KS, to things like saying we should tune into events and then nothing happening (likely internal conflicting information, or Sony not feeling the game was ready to show either, imho - remember, Sony is handling distribution for PS4 and like it or not, their brand is linked with Shenmue 3 and its image.) But it's not like people are going out of their way to deceive us. And it's not like the game isn't going to get made. They're not stringing us along because they want to frustrate us. It just is what it is.

I think the worst thing they could do for the game right now, is show us alpha footage or some such, or another insubstantial "test" that will only provide ammunition to the game's critics. They made a huge splash with the KS. It died down (along with all the negative press!) The worst thing they could do right now is revive all that hate, by showing something so easy to criticize. I firmly believe they will show us the game when it is finally in a state that is much harder to assail, and one that actually excites and intrigues, rather than confuses or worries.

I hate to always be the weird juxtaposition between realism and unbridled optimism but... somebody has to be. So that's my two cents. Come on guys, it's not the end of the world. Happy Holidays!

My concerns have nothing to do with an eventual delay. Anyone who thinks this is making December 2017 release date is batshit.

My concern is the absolute lack of communication on the games progress PERIOD. A delay is natural. But ZERO communication about how the game is doing in nearly two years besides a few measly screenshots is pathetic and the media and people who are non-fans who backed it will have all the reason in the world to absolutely destroy this game for the inept job. I don't care if someone is a 10k backer. It's really, really nice you've seen something. Everyone and their mom however has had to settle for cam footage and jack shit.

You haven't properly thought about this. Who cares about a game delay if they probably won't have a game video ready for show until two years after the KS ended? Can you imagine if they don't honor what Cedric said about no pics or video before December 2016 and we end up not having a single pic or video until mid 2017? Oh, but it's not worth worrying about? This game will be slaughtered and deservedly so if this happens, and that has absolutely nothing about an eventual game delay and everything to do with poor communication, "perfectionism", and ignorance of the unwritten rules of a publicly funded title really means.

[Shendream]

I'm one of the 10k backers, and I did get to see some content that's not been released publicly. What I've seen has personally reassured myself about the project, and I believe that's the same sentiment everyone else who went to the dinners felt. Unfortunately we've been asked not to disclose them outside so can't force you to feel the same, that's just something you'll have to trust us on.

I'm only speculating here but I guess either the project has hit some difficulties recently such that a video wasn't possible, or it was deemed not good enough by Suzuki-San.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed as well, but I ask of people to have a bit more patience, and try not to spread this negativity into something the media can make up as newsworthy. We managed to wait more than a decade didn't we?

This.

Coming from someone who's seen the development first hand, I think it's enough to take a fellow Dojo member on their word. Then you have mega fans like Peter who's slack jaw photo speaks a thousand words without saying anything. He is truly gobsmacked at what he saw. Read into reactions of the people in the know more.

For Ys Net, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. They were damned for showing a relatively crappy cut and paste job for the Kickstarter video and damned for showing other updates with crappy fingers and immature Ryo models. They just can't win even if they are trying to satisfy the fans and the press.

With this in mind they probably feel its better not to feed the trolls, because it's damning either way.

What you can do is look at the updates especially this last one with Yu Suzuki reflecting on a lot on the game and music. He seems relaxed and so did the interviewer.

Rome wasn't built in one day, nor Shenmue 3 built in one year. So relax, they are working on it and I reckon they are further ahead than they have showed so far and when a proper Shenmue 3 trailer is revealed, it will be right up there and can sit along side of The Last of Us 2 rather than just be a side show reskin of UE4 that it has been in the past.

Read between the lines, see what is unseen, but spoken and your concerns will dissipate.

I don't care about Rome.

Who cares about Rome?

Why haven't they released a direct feed video of the Monaco walkthrough publicly on their Kickstart page? Incompetence.

They had footage ready to go as early as E3 2016. Not a single hint nor a single clip. Incompetence.

All they had to do this year was make an RDR style environment trailer that's 1 minute long, showing off the environments the 10k Japan backers got to see. But nope. Nada. Incompetence.

You can blame this on whatever forces. Rome wasn't built in a day or whatever. But it's a fact that this team has absolutely and utterly failed to capitalize on basic stuff. Again. Why no updated models shown? How come only 10k backers get to see the Monaco footage? The Monaco footage is the biggest tell sign to me that the team right now only values people who gave this project loads of money. The fact they haven't released the Shenhua house clip in direct feed blows my goddamn mind and you can say "Rome wasn't built in a day" but the only thing I can point to in this case is absolute incompetence.

Instead what have we had? A guy in scrubs telling us some guy is working on QTE's.

Don't be listening to Cedric Biscay on Twitter. He isn't PR for YSNET and he shouldn't be blamed for anything you were expecting to happen, not happening.

Cedric is the CEO of Shibuya Productions, the company that is publishing and (partially) funding Shenmue 3.
He has plenty of say in where the game will be showcased, just as any publisher would.

Cedric himself is a producer on Shenmue 3, he would know about plans for a PSX showcase... He isn't just some guy in France that helped Shenmue 3 happen. He is hands-on with the logistics and financial aspects of the project, as the job of a producer dictates.

He is in the "know", and almost certainly in contact with Suzuki on a regular bases. So when he says the game will be featured in PSX, anyone would believe him. There is no reason to suggest that he is clueless to the workings of Ysnet.

Cedric's stuff is what makes this even worse. It makes it obvious to me that there's poor communication between teams and no one has any idea what's going on. People blamed Awesome Japan for the poor KS but I'm starting to think it's everyone involved with the game, including Ys Net and Shibuya.

It screams amateur hour through the entire project unfortunately. I really wouldn't be shocked if this turns out to be another MN9. The fact that the producer of this game, who has put very much real financial stake into it, doesn't know about when we'll see anything about this game tells literally all I know I need to know about its development status.

Wow I did it know that about Cedric. I dont know much about anything really, so please, tell me more! By the way, where has listening to the guy "in the know" got you? Has it had a positive effect on your wait for Shenmue 3?

Evidently not, but I find it silly that you tell people to disregard his statements, considering he's in such a high position.

Anyway, him being wrong with PSX wasn't the issue.. After all, it could be something out of their control... Like Sony refusing them the time slot. To assume Cedric was clueless and was bullshitting you with that PSX tweet is some serious disrespect towards the guy.

The issue was he didn't notify the fans of it's absence after teasing it's presence on Twitter... He had no obligation to, of course. But we could have avoided the all the drama if were notified before hand... It would have still been disappointing, but the blow would've been softer, at least.

It should have been apparent to us that a "Producer" halfway across the world that doesn't even speak the same language as the developer would not be the most reliable source of information, but whatever.

Really, living in another country isn't an issue in this day and age. People stay connected thanks to modern technology. It's such a non-issue... Hundreds of Japanese developers have Producers/Publishers who are based abroad, this has never been a problem.

Also, I'm 80% sure Cedric speaks Japanese, even if he didn't. Language isn't a problem... His company is Japan focused, he won't have any issue connecting with Ysnet.

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

[Peter]

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...

[shredingskin]

Really guys, you are talking as we haven't had any kind of update at all, we've had a couple of images, a couple of videos, and various videos/documentaries.

Most KS just show some concept art or an image every 5 months or so, specially for a big tittle like shenmue that there's a lot at stake it's quite a bit.

There was some missinformation and the hype did the rest, but whatever, people are just talking like if YS is laughing while in an island in bahamas. It has entered production less than a year, if he doesn't think that the trailer will represent the quality of the final game we should trust (specially that people are very sceptic about KS games, and first impressions can be what builds or breaks the marketing for a game).

[iyapol]

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...

To be fair, I'm finding it very difficult to disagree with anything he's said.

[Peter]

Defence of logical debate is one thing, but the promotion of a pitch fork conspiracy theory attitude is not called for in terms of the bigger picture. As I've said, it's all well and good to have a kneejerk moan about it all, but considering this is a game that's been asked for for 14 years... we finally had what we have dreamed for and people still moan. Children still whinge. Get over yourselves honestly, and THINK ABOUT THE BIGGER PICTURE ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Enough is enough. The criticisms may be warrented but you haveall had a moan. I have too, but move on. These guys are busting their asses day and night on a budget for us, and TRUST ME, I've seen it and it's so fucking glorious it surpasses the dreams I've had for 14 years, as someone who has the damn thing tattooed on his arm. Just let it go. It's coming. Try.... just try and be patient. Please.

I won't apologise for what I have seen, nor what I was told, but I didn't give that money for the privelidge of seeing some extra content early. I gave it to something I love, in good faith that it would help all of us be rewarded in the long run, and you know what?? We will!

[Yama]

Simple solution? Lock the thread once PlayStation Experience has finished.

[Jibby]

Yeah come on guys, let's give it a rest. What happened was disappointing but we're just going to make ourselves feel so much worse if we convince ourselves that it's all doom and gloom from here. Yes, it's worrying that we've not been shown anything substantial for a while but that's always been the way Yu's done things from the very beginning of the campaign. I don't think he quite understands the importance of marketing and believes instead that we'll have faith and 'trust in Yu'. I'm not defending that point of view, marketing is very important and the idea that we should just have faith completely neglects the idea of any potential newcomers to the series.

What I'm trying to say is yes, we have the right to be disappointed. This will probably have ramifications and it feels awful. But let's suck it up. There's noting we can do about it now and if we keep coming up with all these stupid theories that production has stopped or that the game is going to be awful, we're just going to make things so much worse for ourselves. It's like rubbing salt in your own wounds. Let's not do that.

And Peter, thank you so much for the stream! Apart from the no-show I really enjoyed your commentary and the community spirit I felt there was top-notch. It really helped soften the blow too, haha.

[Suzuki Yu]

i think we were all upset last night, i myself was still angry when i woke up this morning.
but we need to calm down now and have more faith for our own good.

Enough is enough. The criticisms may be warrented but you haveall had a moan. I have too, but move on. These guys are busting their asses day and night on a budget for us, and TRUST ME, I've seen it and it's so fucking glorious it surpasses the dreams I've had for 14 years, as someone who has the damn thing tattooed on his arm. Just let it go. It's coming. Try.... just try and be patient. Please.

I won't apologise for what I have seen, nor what I was told, but I didn't give that money for the privelidge of seeing some extra content early. I gave it to something I love, in good faith that it would help all of us be rewarded in the long run, and you know what?? We will!

Thank You Peter for last night stream, it was well prepared and i enjoyed it regardless of the letdown at the end.

i am actually curious about something if you may..
i believe you were saying you saw Bailu, Choubo and Baisha. how does it compare to what we already saw back form the Monaco event? is there any real upgrade in presentation & overall feel?

[Anonymous81]

My concern is the absolute lack of communication on the games progress PERIOD. A delay is natural. But ZERO communication about how the game is doing in nearly two years

... 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.)

... besides a few measly screenshots

... 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.

the media and people who are non-fans who backed it will have all the reason in the world to absolutely destroy this game for the inept job.

... 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.

You haven't properly thought about this.

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.)

That's neither my nature nor my choice.I have to accept the things I cannot change, and deal with what is, not what I wish was so. What everyone else does is their prerogative, but that's where I stand. That, and I truly do believe it's better to show something strong than to show something that is guaranteed to provoke scorn. Granted, as you say, silence could do the same... but so far, S3 has slipped off the gaming press's radar. Perhaps best to keep it that way until there's something to show. Again, feel free to disagree, but that's my position and it isn't changing until I see concrete reasons for greater concern.

1 year and 6 months ago, we all still thought there might never be a Shenmue 3. Some may have forgotten the (to me, literal) miracle that this game being developed at all, haphazard PR and all, is. I haven't, though. I'm not at all faded or jaded about it. Not one bit. I'm still the excited, hopeful, amazed fan that still can scarcely believe this is happening, and who doesn't let bumps in the road deter him. People can call that naive or blind optimism if they like. Or get angry or demand refunds or... whatever they want to do, frankly. It's everyone's individual call. But since I can't change it... I choose to remain hopeful and patient. There's literally nothing else I can do... besides get upset, producing nothing other than my own upset-ness.

But to each their own. Carry on.