Poll: 82% Would Not Contribute $500+ to Shenmue III Kickstarter

With all the hype surrounding a speech Shenmue series creator Yu Suzuki gave at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference–mostly fueled by hope the third installment would be announced there–we wanted to see how badly fans wanted the storied series to see its proper conclusion.

[Abriael]

And in other new, the sky is blue.

[Snookies12]

Yeah, I'm sorry I probably wouldn't contribute more than $500 dollars for any game...

[SilentNegotiator]

Frankly, I'm shocked that 18% would spend $500+

[hkgamer]

$500 = £300.

Hmmm... I think I will, but with a few conditions.

1. If it definitely comes out.

2. Not done by Kickstarter (don't want them taking a percentage)

3. Permanently exclusive content (yes i am an ass)

[Thisisjuju]

I would give them £300 pounds but only as an investment, not a donation.

[higgins78]

This. Seriously, $500!? The Shenmue III hype is getting out of hand now. The handful of people (such as myself) who actually bought said franchise on its initial release can testify that yes, it was a (sort of) revolutionary enough game but with flaws, oh so many flaws. Releasing Shenmue III - whatever the entails - done not guarantee a masterpiece, perhaps in the hands on Nintendo's first party developers but nothing less.

[rainslacker]

My problem with a Kickstarter campaign for this is that Sega doesn't need it. They own the IP. Sega has money to develop and publish the game. The publishing people at Sega aren't hacks, and they obviously don't see a return on investment by making a 3rd game.

I know it's highly lauded, and it would likely sell well, but the game itself was niche to begin with, on a niche system, and there have been games that do what it did much better since it's last release.

[MrSwankSinatra]

They should just release the third part as a book and call it day. I'd rather have that, than nothing at all. I mean it's pretty obvious we will never get it in game form so why not use an alternative method?

[DanielGearSolid]

Book? I wanna fight you for saying that lol

Atleast an anime movie

[DanielGearSolid]

So they didn't poll for any other price points?

[admiralvic]

Correct. It seems like this is one of those confirmation bias / market research questions that was asked with the sole intent of making an article (the poll was done on the site and is community base). If a lot of people said yes, then we would have an article saying that an overwhelming number of people would contribute to the game. Since a lot of people said no, we instead got an article acting like this is shocking news. Especially since I don't think there are many gamers out there with $500+ to just throw at a Kickstarter campaign in the first place.

[Sly-Lupin]

The big, successfully, multimillion dollar kick starter games all made their money through thousands of low-value contributions. I think the average donation amount is around $25 USD.

[Derekvinyard13]

That's a little steep maybe 100

[jhoward585]

This is a waste of time. Just put Shenmue on kick starter and see how it tuns out. For years die hard Shenmue fans have been waiting/hoping for Sega to make the next Shenmue game. Beside Shenmue is not just a game, its a story that need to be told.

[Nerdmaster]

I'm afraid that Shenmue fans are fewer than people think. If so many people loved the series, it wouldn't have sold so terribly as it did. If they put Shenmue on Kickstarter, I bet that it wouldn't even make half of what Mighty No. 9 did.

[Concertoine]

To be fair the first game sold well over a million on a small install base and the second almost half a million combined despite a small release. They sold okay, considering the circumstances. And word of mouth has spread the series to a lot of people too.
I doubt theyd ask much, and mighty no. 9 is a lot more accessible than something weird like shenmue.

[jhoward585]

@Nerdmaster

Concertoine(comment above) took the words right out of my mouth.He right Shenmue sold well on a small install base. Shenmue are one of those title that many people didn't get a chance to play. I love Shenmue and I hope they make the third one. Can you imagine how incredible Shenmue 3 would look on the next gen console. Dreamcast had only 16 MB main RAM (SDRAM) so it would be interesting to see how it would look/play on the PS4/x1. With 4gigs of RAM.

[rainslacker]

I would say make a Shenmue HD remake first. Upgrade the first two games which is much cheaper than a full game, throw it out there, and see how it sells. If it does well, go ahead with the third.

Sega just seems to have a thing against making a third game. Possibly it's their pride, because despite selling decently when it first released, it was terribly expensive to produce. It was the most expensive game ever made at the time, and it's budget rivals what some games get made for today.

Sega doesn't need a Kickstarter. It's a joke to think a Shenmue kickstarter would even go anywhere if Sega wasn't doing it.

[Nerdmaster]

Don't get me wrong, I loved Shenmue and I really want them to release 3 (and 2 in any other console than european Dreamcast or Xbox so I can finally play it instead of only watching gameplay videos).

But let's face it: Yakuza is what Shenmue aspired to be. And Yakuza doesn't even sell well enough to make SEGA release it outside of Japan anymore. Shenmue/Yakuza gameplay, setting and whatnot is too niche. People want Shenmue 3 for its story, but the only ones waiting for it are those who already played the previous games, and those people are very few.

New gamers may be intrigued by its reputation, but they would surely want to play Shenmue 1 and 2 before they support Shenmue 3. And let's be honest: they were fantastic at their time, but they didn't age well. I'm confident that if new gamers played Shenmue today, even with a "HD remaster treatment", they would be disappointed after so much praise from its fans.

[jhoward585]

I agree new gamers are going to want to play Shenmue 1-2 before they support Shenmue 3.
But I got say 18% of gamers who are willing to pay 500 buck to support Shenmue is remarkable.

But I'm not surprised the poll results did well because I think at the time when Shenmue was released here it didn't fit our taste. It wasn't the typical Japanese game we were use to playing.That said, I think we were immuned to Japanese game such as final fantasy.But Things have changed now and I think Shenmue would be a hit.

My question is, why do you think an HD remaster of Shenmue wouldn't do well today?

[Nerdmaster]

Because an HD remaster is just a resolution upgrade and minor graphical enhancements. All the things that make the game feel like it didn't age well, like poor pacing, stiff controls, bad voice acting, would still be there. These are things that made people 15 years ago complain about the game, and time only made those problems feel even worse. Even QTEs were kind of a new thing at the time, and nowadays just saying QTE makes gamers cringe.

And about the 18% of people who said they would give $500, it's the old "if you had 10 shirts..." situation.

"If you had 10 houses, would you give me one?"
"Yes, I would."
"If you had 10 cars, would you give me one?"
"Yes, I would."
"If you had 10 shirts, would you give me one?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I have 10 shirts."

I'm sure 18% of them said they would give $500 because the Shenmue Kickstarter campaign isn't real. If it was, I bet that only a fraction of them would really give $500.

[jhoward585]

I agree, QTE, bad voice acting, stiff controls wouldn't be something most gamer would except today.

But honestly though, I think they shouldn't make an HD version of Shenmue 1-2. If they're smart, they should make Shenmue 3 with 2 two options. Option one has extra Video content in Shenmue 3, which contains part of Shenmue's part 1&2 storyline for those who didn't get a chance to play it.

Option 2 is the opposite of option 1. It doesn't contain the extra video footage.

what do you think?

[KonsoruMasuta]

I would contribute more than that just to see this game made!

[S2Killinit]

500!! You dont say. What do they expect? People dont spend 500 on starving children in Africa either.

[hkgamer]

Sadly, I'd rather splash $500 on a game for myself then give to charity where I won't know where the money goes to and how much the charity foundation itself would pocket to pay wages for their staff.

[WeAreLegion]

That's why you find a good non-profit organization that you can trust. I sponsor a kid in Ghana. I highly recommend doing something like that.

[Elda]

Oh well.

[Ittoryu]

How many people contribute 500$ or more to any damn game on kickstarter now that is a more important question. Second the point of sites like kickstarter is lots of people make small donations not a 1,000 people funding the whole damn thing. Stupid article.

[hkgamer]

Agreed. If Shenmue were to do a crowdfunding project then it would be better to just start one themselves.

[Baka-akaB]

I refuse to kickstar Shenmue 3 as long as Sega holds the right to it .

To further explain i refuse to kickstart project for big corporations that can strike the fund on the own , crisis or no crisis . Sega had the money to buy out Atlus and the index corp ... no way they can't fund any games they want

What's next funding Warcraft 4 and getting stupid freebies as a reward ?

[KonsoruMasuta]

Sega didn't actually buy Atlus, their parent company did.

[Ittoryu]

actually sega lost the shemue copy right months ago the article was even on here.

[rainslacker]

They lost the trademark, not the copyright. Trademark is just for the name, copyright is for the actual content.

Sega still owns publishing rights to the Shenmue story and characters. It's possible someone else could use the Shenmue name on their game however, but it probably wouldn't go over so well, and only a stupid man would use the characters and story from the games.

[blib]

So 18% of people who want to see Shenmue 3 would contribute $500.00. I think thats pretty impressive!

[hkgamer]

its a poll on a unknown website where only 486 people voted.

Also its a poll where peopple can just click on anything.

Riht at this moment, I would definitely pay $500, I mean I was thinking that £800 was my max. But when they actually start a crowdfund project, I probably back out due to money can go elsewhere and I can easily wait until the game is out and then pay retail.

[BillytheBarbarian]

500 isn't hard to come up with . Just throw it on a credit card or work a couple weeks at McDonalds.

[Sly-Lupin]

People who have to work fast food generally have so many other expenses(like food and housing) that they often need a second job just to make ends me.

The minimum wage is the USA is far below the minimal level for living expenses, which is why people have been trying to get it raised (a lot) for so long. Far from providing 500 USD pocket money, a job like that would be lucky to earn enough just to get $50 for a retail game purchase.

[WeAreLegion]

I worked at McDonald's for four years. Unless you just happen to have a full-time job and don't go to school ON TOP of working 30 hours a week at McDonald's, you won't have $500 in a couple weeks.

[BillytheBarbarian]

The point was to make some money on the side to help your passion come to light. I guess it's what matters to you when you look in the mirror. I'd gladly drop 500-1000 if it was to know I'd be playing Shenmue 3, Kotor 3, or a new turn based Phantasy Star. I dropped 800 for PWX wrestling. It's a spiritual successor to Wwf No mercy.

[TitanUp]

i would never spend 500$ on one game no matter what it is including legend of dragoon 2.

[WeAreLegion]

I don't think I would either...

...but then again, a full featured 3D Pokemon open world game might persuade me. (I'm talking like Skyrim-level intricacies.)

[kevinsheeks]

That would be cool lol you walk into a cave a bunch of raticages attack you and you kill them or whatever

just to get back into the cave and find a charizard

[rainslacker]

I would if it would retain that value for resale. But I'm a collector, so in that case it becomes more of an investment, or a way to feed my collector's ego by bolstering my collection.

Shenmue 3 would likely never be worth $500 as newer games are produced in much higher quantity, and come on long lasting mediums.

[Beavers]

WTF!?!

Do you think that 89% of Broken Age or Mighty n.9 backers gave 500$?

Really?
ROTFL.

Stupid poll ----> stupid article.

[rayzorn]

they make that sound bad.

they did a kickstarter to make a sequal to planescape torment. alot of people call it one of the best rpgs ever for pc. and i loved it also. it made almost 4.2 million dollars had almost 75,000 backers and only roughly 250 people spent more then 500.

so 18% is pretty damn good. not that i believe half the people that voted would spend that much. it is still a game much wanted and needed.

[Moncole]

Sega can fun Shenmue without a KS. KS is for indie devs who need funding.

[DangerousDAN]

This is a disgusting poll. Seeing as how that's the only price mentioned, this is just a blatant attempt to screw with the fans and tell them in a snarky tone, "Oh, looks like you don't want Shenmue 3 that badly enough. Some fan you are! hyuck!"

Of course no one's going to pay $500. An average month's rent for something that won't be a guarantee and could run into problems during development? No way, man.

I love Shenmue and really want Shenmue 3, but don't hang it over my head and try to test my loyalty to it by asking me to give my month's rent and food money because that's all this poll does.

[Dicimania]

so 18% would donate 500+usd?? Thats ALOT, no other games would have reach that... for me I would donate like 200 - 250 usd

[cfc78]

Feels like getting shenmue back is like ice skating up hill i really want it back but not that much, 500 is asking a bit to much of most people.

[XtraTrstrL]

Dumb ass article and dumb ass poll. Yeah, the majority of regular folks aren't gonna donate $500 for any game. That's a hell of an idiotic way to check if there's any support for a game.

If Shenmue gets kickstarted, it'll most likely get funded, as long as the KS is advertised enough that people know it exist.

[metalgod88]

Lol dumbest poll ever and practically pointless. Who has $500 to just give away like that?

People love the Shenmu series no doubt, and would love to see a third iteration, but dishing out $500 to see it happen just isn't possible for most.

[Angainor7]

Is this poll a joke or what? I'm sure that the majority of Shenmue fans is not included in the results. LOL!