What are we really getting at what cost?
Shenmue 3‘s existence is pretty neat. Its presence on a major publisher’s stage show to hock a Kickstarter is less neat, to me. Obviously the $2 million goal (and $3.5 million raised at time of writing) would not be enough forShenmue 3, so there’s word thatSony’s pitching in, but also:
“Currently we are planning development only for PC (Windows) and PS4. Other platforms have not been decided yet. If other platform versions were added as rewards, an announcement would be made on the update page.”
Then there’s Yu Suzuki’sReddit threadwherein he writes, “I will say this: if we reach the $5 mil mark, one of the things I really want to do withShenmue 3will become a reality,” followed by “At $10 million, it will truly have the features of an open world.” So what is being funded by what money?
Suzuki told Polygon, “For right now, all I can tell you is that YS Net has been looking at other sources of funding and we’re preparing other sources of funding, so for theShenmue 3project it will be what we can source from outside plus the Kickstarter.”
This doesn’t feel like skullduggery, just a lack of the transparency Kickstarter usually affords — because they are usually small projects made by individuals without involvement of huge companies like Sony. At least they were untilDouble Fine Adventureet al turned the platform into a mid-tier publisher and weird venture capital abetting set up. And that just means more money for Kickstarter, as success likeBloodstained‘s $5 plus million are some of the highest funded projects on the platform (thus, higher cuts to Kickstarter).
Sure, after years of absence and in today’s climate,Shenmue 3does feel like an underdog, but when you’re up on Sony’s stage at E3, you’re able to only cling so close to that status.
Shenmue 3 needs $10 million to “truly have the features of an open world”[Polygon]
