It appears a “mistake” has been made by some outlets when they were reporting on Shenmue 3’s funding sources. Controversy follows, you know the routine by now.
Listen, we make mistakes here at DSOGaming, I’m sure of it, we’re human. We didn’t this time though. In a recent issue of Famitsu Yu Suzuki was asked about funding for Shenmue III, an issue of some controversy due to some in the press either intentionally misconstruing Sony’s contribution or, preferably, failing to report accurately on the situation due to a more acceptable reason.
In the interview, when asked about funding sources Yu Suzuki said he could not divulge all funding details but that he expects the Kickstarter campaign to provide most of the games development cost. Furthermore, the outside, third party contributions are based on its success on Kickstarter. Sony is not funding the game in its entirety and the game is actually reliant on crowd funding. Where ever you read Sony was funding the game in its entirety or providing most of the funding for the game, they’re wrong.
In the interest of disclosure, I haven’t yet backed the game but I intend to.
Spencer joined us in early 2015, previously a console centric gamer he switched to PC a few years ago. He later helped push for an increase in Japanese content on PC with the #SEGAPCPorts campaign. Previously he ran a SEGA fansite as well as co-hosted a gaming podcast. He thinks Duke Nukem 3D is the best FPS of all time, his text message alert on his phone is literally Duke Nukem saying “Let God sort ’em out.”
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Good luck with that. Not happening. They will get 5-6 mln from Kickstarter, if they are lucky. And they need, I think, minimum around 30-40 million.
This story could use some more sources:
A little more from Dan Shoe (Senior Partner Alliance Manager at PlayStation):
https://twitter.com/DanShoeHsu/status/612461118326345728
https://twitter.com/DanShoeHsu/status/612687243589742592
The Twitter account of someone who works for Shibuya Productions, the outfit tasked with handling the PC version of Shenmue III:
https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/612352032851259392
Kinda sad to see Shenmue shoved in this whole console war BS. People just seem to ignore that the game is getting released on PC. If Sony were to fund the project it would be first party.
I’d rather have a fully realized open-world version of Shenmue 3 exclusive on PS4 than a misleading Kickstarter that only raises enough to make a half-hearted multi-platform game.
Here is when exclusives can be a very good thing because without Sony majorly funding the game as rumored (which is false according to DSOG) we won’t ever get a Shenmue 3 that lives up to the major expectations of fans and the creator, himself.
I haven’t backed Shenmue 3 and don’t plan to because it isn’t my thing and secondly they have run a very misleading Kickstarter and refuse to answer questions honestly about the scope and funding of the game.
Do whatever you want with your money but they have already said countless times Sony will only fund the PS4 port and do the marketing work. While the money that will go directly into game development will come from the kickstarter.
Still, never let facts get in the way of a good story and you get all these “Shenmue III is a Sony scam” stories.
Before E3 Shenmue was a dead IP. Even if the third game doesn’t live up to the expectations, at least the fans will have something to play instead of 14 years of nothing.
The kickstarter has never been misleading, it’s only that you have made hugely ignorant assumptions and are sticking too them.
sounds like damage control. either that or the game is being made with a VERY LOW budget.
i am just happy that this game is coming to PC too.
This news make my heart hurt a lot man cause Shenmue is my favorite japanese game ….Anyways, So the game will be small and wont live up to the hype to Shenmue legacy. Not very surprising honestly, just further confirms how f’ing shady it was to put this on E3.
I believe Sony is just probing to check if Shenmue is still a valuable franchise
From what I understand. They are marketing it and handling PS4 port of the game.
Yeah, but if Shenmue gets good reviews and scores sufficient money, Sony will probably make it a new franchise
Game “journalists” hurting good stuff as usual. What else is new? I’ll be pretty sad if the game never reaches its stretch goal to allow them to make it open world… They should start their own campaign after this one on their site or may be with early access they’ll be able to secure extra funds…
It’s too late, way too many people think sony is going to fund this thing. This issue will not be reported in the same way the sensationalism/outrage headlines before it.
I wonder if the VA is going to stay terrible and lifeless.